I can’t fight my smirk.
She is every bit the badass that I’ve seen her to be, even when it’s just with the people she considers family. They all know what she’s built of and what she stands for, and even though she doesn’t always see it, they accept her for who and what she is.
Just like I do.
Gabe leans in conspiratorially. “If you need to get out of here tonight, just tell me a code word and I can make an excuse to send you to go check on something.”
I recoil slightly. “Jesus, you’re the second person who has warned me. Is it really that bad?”
He chuckles. “It’s really that bad. I don’t envy what you’ll be facing tonight.”
Hell…
Skye and Storm appear from the kitchen carrying trays of food. “Time to eat.”
Their call carries out across the room like a dinner bell, and they cross the hallway into what must be the dining room as everyone else starts to trickle that way.
Caroline appears behind them with a beer in hand. “Perfect timing.” She hands it off to me and then narrows her eyes on Gabe. “You haven’t been scaring him, have you?”
He scoffs. “What? Me? No.” But as soon as she walks away, he leans in. “So…safeword?”
I take a swallow of my beer, but it doesn’t help the unease starting to fill my stomach and coil around my spine. “Red.”
What have I gotten myself into tonight?
BISHOP
Nana’s sharp gaze stays locked on Gage and me, just as it has since the moment she was introduced to him—as our new employee—and we sat at the table.
Even as the food is passed around and everyone digs in, enjoying all the regular dishes and the easily flowing wine, she sits at the head of the table, only taking a few bites here and there, watching us as if she’s waiting for something.
Maybe for me to run away screaming…
I squirm in my seat and avert my gaze to my plate, cutting another piece of lasagna and popping it into my mouth. At least when I’m eating, I can distract myself from the growing dread that the questions are coming.
After almost thirty years of Hawke family Sunday dinners, I’ve witnessed enough cross-examinations to know what’s coming. It’s only a matter of time before someone pipes up, and if it’s Atlas with his slick comments about how “close” Gage and I are getting, I swear, I won’t wait until we’re in the ring next time to take him down.
Beside me to my left, Gage helps himself to a second portion of baked ziti with a grin on his face like a kid in a damn candy store. “I know I’ve said it once already, but this is incredible, Mrs. Hawke.”
Nana beams at the compliment. “Thank you so much, dear. It’s an old family recipe. And please, call me Nana. Everyone does.”
He nods, shoveling another mouthful in and chewing. “Did you grow up here? In New Orleans?”
She bobs her head, offering him a kind smile. “Not too far from here, actually.”
“How did you meet Sam?”
Everyone at the table exchanges glances, and I reach over and squeeze his leg under the table, trying to get him to stop asking questions.
All it’s going to do is open it up for her to do the same with ones we might not want to answer.
Nana looks wistful as she takes a sip of her wine. “We grew up on the same block.”
I release a relieved breath that’s all she said, but as soon as I take another bite, I know that door that he cracked has actually been flung wide open when Nana speaks again.
“And what about you, dear?” Her voice is deceptively friendly. “I know you’re relatively new to town. Do you plan on staying permanently now that you’re sleeping with my granddaughter?”
Gage chokes on whatever’s in his mouth, coughing and reaching for his water as I try to slink down in my chair and disappear under the table.
