“I used to watch with my dad.” The memories were wonderful ones. “He turned the spare bedroom into his den, and the two of us would sit on this old, comfy couch, yelling at the television until my mom poked her head inside and told us to remember we were humans, not gorillas. Then she’d bring us more chips, a beer for my dad.”
Old pain had her rubbing a fisted hand over her heart. “I couldn’t watch for a long time after he died.” It had been too quiet without his ongoing commentary about the players’ moves, too sad without her mom’s affectionate head-shaking. “But then it became a way to remember him, remember them both.”
Gabriel took her hand, placed it on his thigh. “Was it an accident? With your dad?”
Feeling him so strong and warm under her touch somehow made it easier to talk about it. “No, he died in his sleep.” Peacefully and with a smile on his face, a smile Charlotte hadn’t seen since her mom passed away. “My mom and dad were so in love, like newlyweds their whole life together.” Charlotte had dreamed of the same kind of love before everything went wrong. “I knew my dad wouldn’t last long after my mom, but I didn’t expect to lose him four days after her.”
Gabriel put his hand over hers. “Ah, baby, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Turning her hand so she could lace her fingers with his, she found she could tell him the rest. “We came home from my mom’s funeral and he said he had to lie down. I hugged him and told him I loved him, and he said the same. That was the last time I saw him alive.” She blinked rapidly. “I’ve always been grateful for that—that I got to tell both of them how much I loved them before they were gone.”
“They would’ve known anyway, Charlotte.” He brushed his thumb over the back of her hand. “My brothers and I are firmly convinced parents know everything and have eyes in the back of their head. Sailor and Jake swear their back-of-the-head eyes started growing the instant they became dads.”
She laughed wetly. “When we were about sixteen, Molly and I decided to read an erotic romance we’d found in the library. When we left the room to grab snacks, my mom sat us down and said, ‘Girls, if you’re going to read erotic, don’t read that trash. Read this.’” Charlotte laughed at the memory of their mortification. “We were still gaping at her when she gave us three more books!”
Gabriel grinned. “I bet you were horrified.”
“You have no idea.” The two of them had scuttled back into the bedroom, red as beets. “Molly was still pretty bruised up inside with everything that had happened over the previous twelve months”—the details of which were now public knowledge—“but that day, we started giggling once we were in my room and couldn’t stop.”
It had been worth the mortification to see her friend laugh after the hell that had been Molly’s fifteenth year of life. “What about your mom and dad?” When he moved his hand to shift gears as they hit an incline, she turned hers palm-down again. “Any good stories?”
“A suitcase full of them.” His thigh flexed under her touch; Charlotte didn’t remove her hand because, blush or not, she liked touching him, liked feeling all that power so close.
“Staying on the erotic theme,” he said, “one time, Sailor and I decided to sneak out of bed after our parents and younger brothers were asleep so we could watch porn. We’d figured out the password to get past the child lock on the TV, and we were teenagers by then anyway.”
Charlotte turned in her seat to face him. “What happened?”
19
THE UNFORGETTABLE NIGHT OF PORN
“SO THE TWO OF us are staring goggle-eyed at the screen when we hear ‘Boys, real women do not look like plastic’ from behind us.” He shuddered. “As the oldest, I stood up, ready to take responsibility, but instead of telling us off, my mother came over and kissed me on the cheek. She told me to make sure we went to bed after the movie was over and to remember what she’d said.”
Charlotte gasped. “Your mom let you watch porn?”
“I think she knew it was pretty tame stuff,” Gabriel said. “But it was the smartest thing she could’ve done with two hormone-ridden teenage boys. As soon as we had permission, we didn’t really want to do it that much. Watching lots of grunting and ‘oh baby, oh baby’ while balloon-sized tits stand out stiffly into space gets old after a while.”
Charlotte clapped her free hand over her mouth, knowing her skin was going red again.
Shifting her hand higher up his thigh with a grin that told her he was about to say something scandalous, Gabriel said, “I have a feeling you’ve never watched a dirty movie.”
Charlotte shook her head, her fingers spreading possessively over the primal heat of him.
“Hmm, I think I have a suggestion for our next date.” A wicked, wicked look. “I’ll do some research, find one that has a tiny, hot blonde with a big guy. Might give us some ideas.”
She didn’t think he needed any help in the sexual ideas department.
Thankfully, they’d arrived at their destination so she didn’t have to respond to his teasing. Getting out of the SUV after Gabriel squeezed it into the already bursting-at-the-seams drive and yard that fronted a lovely wooden villa, she joined him as he walked up to the porch where everyone seemed to be gathering.
When he took her hand, she didn’t protest. There were, she thought, a lot of people in the Bishop-Esera clan. Including two tiny ones who made a beeline for Gabriel, yelling, “Uncle Gabe!”