“No.” I raise my head and lean up on my elbow to kiss him. “You shouldn’t be insulted because when I’m with him, all I can think about is you.”
He gives me a sad smile and threads his fingers with mine. “I know that too.”
“Well, I guess you think you know everything, right?”
“No.” He brings my hand to his lips and kisses my knuckles. “I don’t know what happens now.”
“Now we shower and get dressed before Axl finds us.”
“And after that?”
“After that, we take our kid to play in the snow and give him the best damn day of his life. And then we sort out how to make this work, because it’s obvious we’re so co-dependent we can’t function without each other.”
He shakes his head and laughs. “Have we ever really functioned without one another?”
“I guess not.”
“I don’t wanna leave here,” he whispers. “I don’t ever want to stop kissing you, and I’m not ready for our friends to weigh in on this when we go back to LA. How do we make this work?”
My fingers trace his tattoos as I think about his question. “Well, I guess the first step is for me to have a conversation with my boyfriend, and get fired ... again.”
“I’m sorry.” He brushes my bangs back from my forehead and kisses the tip of my nose.
“Liar.”
We both chuckle at that, and though I don’t relish hurting Arturo, I’m not sorry for what happened here either. How can I be?
Gabe lazily strokes my arm. “What will you do?”
“I’ve been thinking about going back to school.”
“Yeah?”
I shrug. “Maybe, yeah. I mean, I could wait tables my whole life, but I kind of miss being a nerd. Maybe one day I can open my own accountancy firm.” I shake my head. “It’s a long way off yet, but I am good with numbers.”
“You’re good with your hands too. Maybe we should just offer happy endings out the back of the tattoo shop?”
“Oh my god, you’re sick.”
“You’re fucking extraordinary.” He squeezes me closer, and I rest my head on a heavily muscled and inked pectoral.
“Whatever you want, Lo. Whatever you want to do, I’ll support you. You wanna go back to school? Go. You want to move across the planet to Australia and save the platypuses, I’ll do it.”
I laugh. “Just so long as we don’t visit Mace, right?”
“Even then. I’ll be your biggest cheerleader, I’ll do anything you want, just as long as you keep me forever.”
“I love you, husband.”
He grins and rolls on top of me, already hard again as he settles between my legs and shoves inside. “Yeah, you fucking do, wifey.”
I narrow my eyes and pout, but this is Gabe, and if I’m honest, we both knew that all along.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR
Lo
The second we pull up in front of the house, my heart begins racing. I’m not excited to break Arturo’s heart. In fact, I’d give anything to not have this conversation with him.Anything but my love for Gabe, that is. Which is why I have to tell him the truth.