“Ready.”
“Hair and makeup in the car?” Chloe asked, eyeing me warily.
She’d never go out looking the way I did, let alone to someplace as public as the airport.
“Yes, dear,” I replied sarcastically, but couldn’t pull it off, my face betraying my excitement.
“Then let’s get on the road.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine ~ Gabe
“He’s really a wonderful boy,” my father said fondly as we watched Chris and Reardon shooting hoops in my parents’ backyard. We’d arrived yesterday, and I’d opted to spend last night at their house, wanting to let them got to know Chris better. Tonight, I’d be taking him to mine. I figured I’d let him pick out a bedroom, then we could go to Best Buy and get him all set up with some video games or something.
So far, Chris was doing just great. Thriving even, with the outpouring of love and acceptance that my family was showering on him.
It was as if he’d always been a member of our family, and it made me feel a contentment that I’d never achieved before.
“Yeah, Chloe did a great job with him.”
“I’m not going to lie, son, it’s going to be strange having her here, knowing what she kept from all of us for the last twelve years … The opportunity to have that boy in our lives, but I’ve talked to your mother and she promised to be on her best behavior.”
“Thanks, Dad,” I replied with an easy smile. We had discussed Chloe and her decisions since I found out that Chris was my son and I’d broken the news to my parents.
At first they’d been furious, my mom wanting to hop on a plane and go give Chloe a piece of her mind, but after relaying the conversations I’d had with her, and her reasons for keeping quiet, they’d calmed down quite a bit.
Meeting Christopher though, and seeing what they’d missed out on in the flesh, had gotten my mother a little riled up again. But if anyone could calm her down and make her see reason, it was my father.
“Look what the cat dragged in,” Dillon called as he walked out of the house, his cousin trailing behind him.
“Rena,” my father called in greeting as he unfolded from his chair. “Come here, my talented girl.”
Serena crossed and went immediately into my dad’s open arms.
“Uncle Zeke, I’ve missed you,” Serena said, offering me a smile. “Hey, Gabe.”
“Hey, Rena,” I replied, reaching out to tug on her long brown locks, causing her to stick her tongue out at me.
“Don’t tease your cousin,” my father warned me, for probably the billionth time in my life.
“She’s not my only package,” Dillon said, then pointed to the house. “I found them outside of the airport trying to find a cab.”
I followed his finger to the big bay window where I could see Zoey, Chloe, and Jasmine inside talking with my mother.
My heart jump-started and the tension I hadn’t realized I’d been holding inside unraveled at the sight of her.
Here. In my childhood home. Talking to my mother.
“Shit, I’d better get in there.” The fact that my mother was in there hit home. Jasmine wouldn’t be any sort of buffer, if Annabeth Lewis thought her only son had been wronged.
I could hear my father and Dillon chuckling as I hurried into the house and Serena’s call of, “Good luck.”
Too happy, excited, and relieved when I saw her to do anything but hold her, I ignored everyone else in the family room and went to Zoey. Her eyes hit mine just as I reached her and gathered her against me. Zoey’s arms came around my neck and her head hit my chest, then we just held on.
“You came,” I muttered into her hair, my hands caressing her back.
Zoey leaned back and I looked down into her upturned face. There was a tightening in my chest that threatened to choke me as her hands came to rest on my cheeks and she righted my world. “I love you.”
I could breathe again as happy laughter fled me and I lifted her to spin us around.