Gabe emerged from the fortress of her forearms and leaned back in her chair. “Love isn’t a disease that needs curing.”
Woody stopped pouring her coffee and raised her eyebrows. “So it’s officially love? How the hell did you let that happen?”
Gabe shook her head slowly. “I have no idea… Maybe it isn’t love, but whatever it is, it doesn’t feel good right now.” She took a long slug of coffee and glanced at her watch. “Do you think she’ll be there to let me see Max?”
Shay shrugged. “I think someone will be there, but I wouldn’t count on it being Lori. She was angry in a way that takes a while to settle down.”
Gabe motioned to Shay’s phone on the table. “Still no word from Rosie?”
“No,” Shay said. And there probably wouldn’t be since she hadn’t texted her like Gabe had asked her to. Gabe had told Shay about Rosie’s “threat” with regard to not hurting Lori when they’d visited the garage together a couple of weeks ago; there was noway she’d be interested in hearing about how bad Gabe felt right now. More like she was already creating a voodoo likeness for Lori to torture.
Gabe reached for her own phone, and Shay pushed it out of the way. “Don’t do it. You’ve sent one text. Don’t be the asshole that doesn’t give a woman the space to process her feelings.”
“For someone without them, you sure know a lot about feelings,” Woody said.
She sat in a chair opposite them and stared at Gabe with the kind of bemused and bereft expression reserved for children discovering their parents weren’t superhuman after all.
“That’s what looking after five brothers’ll do for you.” Shay gripped Gabe’s shoulder. “Okay, it’s time to move. You stink of sweat and regret, and you’ll blow Max’s nose away. Take a shower and get ready to go see him.”
Gabe pushed away from the table and got up. “You think she’s still going to let me see him?”
“You’ve got one way to find out,” Shay said and waved her out of the kitchen just as RB got to the doorway.
“Morning, fam.” RB sidestepped Gabe, who grumbled something inaudible before heading upstairs. She thumbed in Gabe’s direction. “Is this about last night?”
“Of course it is.” Shay stood up and began to gather the ingredients for a smoothie bowl.
“First Solo and now Gabe.” RB rubbed at the back of her head. “It makes me glad I’m a confirmed bachelor.”
Shay glanced over her shoulder. “That’s not what you are. You just haven’t found anyone reckless enough to take you on yet.”
“What about you? Are you next? You and Rosie seemed awful cozy last night. Until, you know, everything went to hell.” RB nudged Woody as she sat beside her. “We thought you were about to go at it right there at the table.”
Shay scoffed. “We’re just fuck buddies. And I don’t have time to fall in love, even if I wanted to. Which I don’t.”
Woody cocked her head. “On that note, have you heard any more from your pops about the menacing knock on his car?”
“No.”
“So did he want something else from you?” Woody asked.
Shay ran through the conversation quickly before switching on the smoothie machine.
“I don’t get it,” RB said. “If there was nothing wrong with the car, and he didn’t need help with anything else, what did he really want?”
Shay poured the smoothie mix into the bowl alongside the granola then carefully laid pineapple pieces between the two. “I wish I knew. It’s like he just wanted to remind me how much I disappoint him. He doesn’t approve of my career, my lifestyle, the way I dress. This time, he even accused me of acting like a boy.”
Woody clamped her hand over her mouth, and her shoulders shook with the obvious effort not to dissolve into laughter.
RB shoved Woody so hard, she had to stop herself falling off the chair. “What would he make of us then?” RB asked.
“We’ll probably never find out. I invited him to the auction, but I’m pretty sure he won’t be coming.”
“Why not?”
“He’ll be too busy playing dominoes and talking trash with his best friends at the rec center. I swear he’s spent most of his life with his work buddies.”
“Are any of your brothers coming?” Woody asked.
