I point at her with a piece of toast. “And that is why I love you.”
“Because I encourage your stupidity?”
“Because yougetme.”
She nods over the rim of her coffee cup. “No one will ever understand you quite like me, Dash, and don’t you forget it.”
A grin stretches across my face, and I have this insane urge to sweep everything off the table and take her here, but she only broke things off with Mace three weeks ago, and I know she’s not over him yet. I’ve told her how I feel, and I’m not going to push this because I can’t afford to lose her. So, as much as it might kill me, I’ll wait. I’ll wait for Lo because she’s worth waiting for.
She frowns as she sets her coffee cup down, studying my expression. My thoughts are probably written all over my damn face. “Quit staring at me and eat your food. It’s getting cold.”
I take a bite, grimacing as I chew as if she just poisoned me. She leans across the table and smacks my forehead with her fork. But the taste of baked spicy sausage, eggs, paprika, peppers, and beans rolls over my tongue, and I moan.
After another helping and a second round of coffee, I lean back in my seat and rub my belly. Lo clears away the dishes and begins rinsing them off. I come up behind her and wrap my arms around her shoulders, pulling her against my front in a bear hug. She freezes, but a beat later she leans back into my embrace.
“I wanna do Disney.”
Her whole body shakes with laughter as she turns to face me. “What?”
I shrug. “I know. I’m old as fuck now, but what could be better than the happiest place on earth with my favorite girl?”
“Disney?” she asks skeptically, as if she’s unsure she heard me correctly.
“Why the hell not?”
“I don’t know, I just figured since it’s your thirtieth birthday, it’s almost midday, and it’s a dry park—”
“California Adventure isn’t.”
“That’s true, but are you sure you wouldn’t rather give your staff the day off so we can do a fridge crawl?”
The fridge crawl was a tradition that Mace started. Apparently, it’s a small-town Australian thing where you visit one person’s house and are required to drink all the liquor in the fridge until moving onto the next. Sometimes I miss that ornery Aussie bastard, and then I think about seeing him with his tongue jammed down Lo’s throat, or with his hands all over her body, and I wanna fuckin’ kill him for touching my girl.
“Hell no. They’d all just whine about having to work first thing in the morning anyway. Come on, Lo. Help me commiserate my begotten youth by taking me to Disneyland.”
“Okay. Whatever you want, birthday boy, but there better be alcohol involved if we have to share the park with screaming kids all day.”
“I promise we’ll go between the main park and California Adventure every time we feel a little thirsty.”
“Okay. Just let me make a phone call.”
“Alright. I should probably get dressed anyway.”
“It might be for the best. Don’t wanna scare Minnie Mouse.”
“You’re right, that bitch is so used to Mickey’s tiny little mouse dick she definitely won’t know what to do with a cock of my brilliance and stature.”
Lo busts out laughing and flings the dish towel at me. “For the last time, Gabe. I’m not taking you to Disneyland so you can fuck Minnie Mouse.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Lo
As Gabe gets dressed, I call Clementine to postpone the fridge crawl until later tonight. She tells me that everyone already started drinking at our apartment and I worry Gabe is going to be pissed that the shop is closed all day, but I chalk it up to bad luck and hang up, knowing I have to keep him at the park until at least nine p.m., when his staff have had time to sober up. Downstairs, we hop in Gabe’s Charger and I plug my phone to his audio jack and cue our driving playlist. Within seconds, our shared Spotify playlist blasts from his shitty crackling speakers and we pull onto South Venice Boulevard.
An hour and a half later—thanks LA traffic—we find a spot at the park and head for the ticket booth. I try to pay, but Gabe stops me by telling the woman behind the counter that it’s my birthday and when I try to refute it, she just chuckles and hands us our tickets.
Our first stop is Town Hall where we both grab birthday buttons and pin them to one another’s clothing. Then we visit the downtown gift shop where we each pick out the most ridiculous ears we can find and take several photos at the fountain on Main Street. Afterward, we head for Space Mountain and Splash Mountain. After countless Mickey-shaped Beignets in New Orleans Square, we sit through a Frozen live show because Gabe wanted to relax. I gave him shit about being old, but he thought I didn’t notice when he mouthed the words to Elsa’s solo in the middle of the show.