“I’m not sure. We’ve been living together for the last few months. Both of us still travel a lot but I know she’s there.”
“Is it convenience?” Gabi asked. “I feel like that with Kingsley, because I’m living at his place to be a nanny to Conner. Like maybe just living there is making me see us as something we aren’t.”
She dumped the ice into the blender and added the tequila but didn’t turn it on.
“I see the way he looks at you, Gabs. Whatever he feels for you is intense. I’d say it was love, but I don’t know him well enough,” Alejandro said. “I know Dad warned him not to hurt you, but I don’t think that was necessary.”
She agreed. Kingsley would never intentionally hurt her. But he would do whatever he thought was necessary to keep her safe. And if that meant going after revenge or cutting her from his life, she knew he would do it.
She turned on the blender and moments later Ali poured the frozen margaritas into the pitcher.
“I’m glad you have Eva. Maybe I can come over for dinner one night and get to know her without Mom being all nosy.”
“Ha. You’ll report back to Mom.”
“Of course I will. But it would still be nice.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Alejandro said.
They rejoined everyone on the patio, where Conner was “reading” to her mom and dad from his iPad.
Watching her parents interact with Conner made her realize that they probably wanted grandchildren. Yet they never pressured her or Ali to have kids. It was as if they knew that families couldn’t be forced.
Of course they knew that.
“Margarita refills?” Gabi asked.
Kingsley turned and smiled at her and all the doubts that invaded her thoughts when they weren’t together disappeared. Seeing him made her happy. Made her believe that whatever else was happening in the world couldn’t affect them or hurt them.
“I’m driving, so no more for me,” Kingsley said.
“I’m not, so, yes, please,” Eva said.
“Me, too,” Gabi’s mom said.
After she refilled the glasses she sat back down next to Kingsley.
“You were gone awhile. Everything okay with your brother?”
“Yes. Just talking about how spectacular Eva is.”
“I am, aren’t I?” Eva said with a laugh.
“Yes, you are,” Alejandro said.
“You’re not so bad yourself,” Eva said.
“To my brother!” Gabi said, lifting her glass.
Everyone lifted their glasses.
“What are you doing?” Conner asked.
“It’s called toasting,” Kingsley explained. “It’s a way of saying good job to someone.”
“To my daddy!” Conner said, lifting his sippy cup.
Everyone again lifted their glasses.
Conner then went around the table and toasted everyone who was there, including her parents’ dachshunds, Gia and Marlow.
She glanced over at Kingsley as she heard him laugh. He had so much affection for his son. She thought again about the way the county commissioners hadn’t wanted Kingsley’s involvement with the playground and decided she was going to fight them. Because he was a good man. She saw that not only when he was with his son but with everyone.
He could have taken offense to her father’s warning, but he hadn’t.
Kingsley glanced over at her and she didn’t look away. She saw the man he was with all his flaws and strengths. She wanted to accept him as he was.
“You’re staring at me,” he said.
“I like looking at you.”
“I like it, too,” he said. Lifting his hand, he twined their fingers together and she felt as though they were on the same page. They wanted the same things from life, and together they would make that happen.
* * *
O’Hannigans was a California institution. Nestled on one of the curves of the Pacific Coast Highway, it afforded great views of endless blue sky and sun-drenched ocean. Gabi parked her car in one of the spots around back and pushed her sunglasses up on top of her head as she got out and walked into the restaurant.
It had been two weeks since they’d had brunch at her parents’ house and she and Kingsley had grown closer—sort of. They were as close as two people who had white-hot sex every night and went their separate ways during the day could be.
He’d had to go to the East Coast for a client for three days, and when he was home, he and Hunter were locked in his office trying to piece together what had happened the night Stacia had died.