Chapter 30: Gabriel
“You’re acting dumb,” Rhiannon says.
“Am I, though?”
She nods her head, setting down the spoon she was using to help feed my squirmy niece before wiping her messy face with practiced efficiency that can only come from being an experienced mom. Then she lifts Piper out of her chair and passes her off to me.
“Uncle Gabe,” Piper says with a big grin. She still has pasta in her teeth but she’s adorable. Looks just like Rhiannon did when she was a little girl.
“Yes, cutie?”
“Will you buy me a horsey?”
“I’ll buy you anything you want.”
Rhiannon laughs as she washes the dishes and her bib at the sink.
I press a soft kiss to her forehead then she squirms out of my grip and takes off, running into the living room toplay with her toys.
“It’s crazy how fast they grow. I feel like she was just a baby.”
“I know.” She moves to the table. Wiping the mess that was left behind and then throwing the trash away before coming back to my side. “Abel’s due any day now. I have no idea how I’m going to manage two under two.”
“We’re all here to help you. Plus, you’re a great mom. Between you and Cain, these kids are lucky.”
She smiles at me then sits back down, tucking her feet up onto the stool, watching me. “And you were an incredible dad to Eden.”
Before Cain, Rhiannon was like me—all work, no breathing room, running herself ragged just to check off every box and pay the never-ending pile of bills we had while keeping the family thrift store afloat, leaving zero space to take care of herself.
Then Cain came crashing into her life one wild night at Bryant Park. Disappeared. Came back again, this time suing her. And then again.Until one day, they both figured out that maybe fate wasn’t being subtle in pushing them together. And the rest was history.
Marriage, two babies, a house next door to the one that Eden and I still live in. And Rhiannon now the happiest, most settled I’ve ever seen her. Cain too, from what I hear from his sister. Two people who met at exactly the right time in exactly the right place and found healing in their love.
And then there’s me.Finally doing something for myself with my business, youngest sister almost off on her own, feeling like I’m getting the chance to start over. And the first woman that I want to do that with, rejects me.
“I think you’re dumb for not just telling her, ‘Hey! Don’t go on this date with my contractor. Don’t date anyone else. Love me. See me. Choose me.’Or whatever that line is from Grey’s Anatomy.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
She laughs.
I exhale slowly. “I did.Sort of. I guess I didn’t explicitly say all that, butI told her I liked her. And then Roman’s words hit me. About me being just the rebound. The first guy she fell into bed with after her divorce. How she needed to put herself out there more. Date around. See that other guys aren’t me and hopefully… I don’t know… Eventually come back to me.” I sigh heavily. “Fuck it sounds so bad when I say it out loud. I swear it sounded better when he said it.”
Rhiannon scoffs. “Since when has Roman’s advice ever been great? The guy’s lived in Miami most of his adult life. He doesn’t get how dating is in the Northeast. It’s way more ruthless here. Plus, as soon as women find out Roman has money, he’s no longer in an honest relationship. He has no idea what it’s like to be divorced and hurt deeply yet want to start over.”
“That’s fair. But still…” I drag a hand over the back of my neck. “She told me no. Just got out of my bed and said she didn’t want to do this.”
I swallow hard.
“I was an idiot. I know that now.”
I glance over at Rhiannon. She’s leaning forward, elbows on her knees, listening like every word matters. We’ve always talked to each other like this. Honest. No bullshit. But this is the first time I’ve admitted to caring about a woman since my divorce ten years ago. And yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s catching her off guard. Hell, it caught me off guard.
“I think I saw a future with her,” I admit quietly. And I leave it there.
I look at Piper playing in the other room with her toys. I think about how it felt the first time I held her in my arms after Rhiannon had given birth. It made me think of Eden—how I was just ten years old when our mom placed her in my arms for the first time when they got back from the hospital. She was sotiny and sweet. And then she started crying, and I promptly decided I wanted nothing to do with babies.
Fast forward a decade later, and I was raising her myself. Taking a little snot-nosed ten-year-old girl who’d lost both of her parents and helping her become the incredible woman she is today. I wish I could take all the credit, but I can’t. Rhiannon and I became her parents and we both learned a lot about ourselves, and our patience, along the way.
