Lily looked up at her brother, and I could see the love reflected there. She nodded and said, “Yes, Gabe, yes,” loud enough for me to hear this time. Then she looked at me and waved. I waved back but felt that wasn’t enough, so I leaned down and gave her a quick hug.
“It was great to meet you, Lils. I’ll come back for another salsa lesson soon.”
Gabe placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. He then bent down and gave his sister a tight hug and a kiss on the top of her head. “Love you, Lils. See you.”
We walked with the nurse out of the common room. “Thank you for coming,” she said to us.
“Thank you for taking great care of my sister. I know she’s in good hands here.”
“She is,” the nurse said. “I promise. And I meant itearlier, you both should come give lessons. Terrible dancers, but nice to look at,” she said with a wink and a hearty laugh.
“We’ll think about it, Julie,” Gabe said, laughing with her. “See you next time.”
“Bye, boys.” She waved and walked over to the nurses’ station as we continued on, leaving the nursing home.
Outside was when I asked, “A wolf?”
“Probably just one of us going for a run,” Gabe answered, not seeming too concerned by it. “Like she said, there’s always sightings here.” He unlocked his car and walked over to the passenger side, opening the door for me.
“Wonder why?” I asked as I slid into Gabe’s car. The pine-scented air freshener filled the space with a fresh scent, but interestingly enough, I could still smell Gabe underneath it. He got into the driver’s seat. I reached across the center console and placed a hand on Gabe’s leg, squeezed. “Thank you for letting me meet your sister today. I think she liked me.”
“Oh, she loved you. She doesn’t give those smiles and claps away easily.”
“Think it was my dancing?”
“I think it was just you being you.”
I looked out the window as Gabe pulled out of the parking spot. I didn’t like feeling like we were leaving her behind, which made me wonder just how painful it must have been for Gabe.
“I liked seeing this softer side of Mr. Sager,” he said.
I internally braced myself.Softwas something of a trigger word for me. “Really?”
“Absolutely. You were so warm and caring, and you played along when I didn’t even give you a heads-up. Thank you.” Gabe must have sensed something because helooked over at me as he rolled to a stop at a red light. “I didn’t think it was possible to fall even harder for you, but there you go, proving me wrong.”
I chuckled at that.
“What’s funny?” Gabe asked.
“Just how life works. How before I met you, being ‘soft’ was literally a turnoff to my ex. He’d use those exact words. It made me feel like shit every fucking time.”
Gabe’s grip tightened around the steering wheel. His knuckles went paper-white. “That’s infuriating. And it’s the complete opposite of a turnoff. I love your soft side. I think that’s something that needs to be protected, nurtured. This world teaches us men to silence the softness. That there’s no power in it. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Look at how you completely turned my sister’s mood around, as if you cast a spell on her just by being kind, by being soft.That’sattractive and admirable. Not sitting there like an emotionless rock, too scared of showing even the smallest bit of compassion because you think it’s wrong or feminine or gay. It’s fucked. And I’m so fucking glad that my mate isn’t one of those red-pilled moron dickheads who have the emotional bandwidth of a flea biting my ass.”
My heart could have grown a pair of feathery wings and flown right out of my chest. I’d been so conditioned to think that side of me was somehow wrong and shameful. That I needed to always act like a “man” in order to please one.
How wrong I’d been.
“Thanks,” I said, that one simple word encompassing all the gratitude and happiness I felt in that moment. “Also, I don’t want anyone biting your ass but me.”
He laughed at that. The sound was rich like velvet,wrapping around me. “You can do so much more to my ass than just bite it.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Mhmm.”
“Then maybe let’s skip getting dinner and just go straight home.” I gave him a devilish grin. “This soft boy is going to show you his hard side.”
“Woof,” Gabe said, and he pressed on the gas.
