by Savana Jade
“I’m the bad guy here Gabe. The question is, do you forgive me?” I bite my bottom lip as he thinks about it.
“We still need to talk.”
“I know we do. Do you want to go now?” I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make him happy. He shakes his head and looks around the pool.
“No, let’s enjoy our time with the family. We can talk tonight.”
“Okay.” I reach up and press my lips against his. “I love you Gabriel.”
He smirks down at me. “I love you too, but…” He lifts me up and runs full force toward the pool. I let out a scream just before we hit the water.
“You’re right.” I push him under the water. “I hate you.” He laughs and pulls me down with him. When we come to the surface again I can hear Danika laughing. We begin our swim toward her and Matt.
“Nenna wet.” She say as she splashes the water at us.
“Did Uncle Gabe get me wet?” Her giggle is contagious. Gabe takes her in his arms.
“Gae wet.” She pats his head and he kisses her cheek.
“Does Dani want to get wet too?” He moves around the shallow end tossing her in his arms. She laughs every time he catches her.
“He’s gonna be a good daddy.” Matt says. I turn to look at him and smile. “Of course, he’s got a great teacher.” He shrugs arrogantly.
“I can’t argue with you there, on both counts.” I smile leaning my head on his shoulder. We watch Gabe and Dani play in the water.
“You two okay?” Concern fills his voice. At that exact moment, Gabe turns to look at me. He smiles sweetly and winks just before getting splashed in the face with water. I can’t help but giggle.
“Yeah, we still have a lot of stuff to work through, but we’re good.” I reassure him. I know we have a lot to talk about and I have to learn to rely on him more than I do Drew, without making Drew feel left out. I’m sure I will find a happy medium between the two. Brennan was right, as much as this band is my family, Gabe and I will be taking a step beyond that, and when all is said and done, it will be just the both of us in the end.
Vegas
Gabe
“Matty, thank you so much for making my favorite meal.” Jenna rubs her stomach with satisfaction on her face.
She, once again, has stunned me. Not only did she eat everything on her plate, she had seconds and then went for thirds before passing her plate to me when she was finally full. This is by far the most I’ve seen her eat in a long time. And by the look on Drew’s face earlier, he was quite pleased wtching her scoop a third helping of Matt’s famous chicken encheladas onto her plate.
“Anything to see that smile on your face, Jems.” Matt smiles with pride. He’s gotten nothing but praise since the first bite. “Even Danika liked it…. Didn’t you baby?”
Danika rubs her eyes groggily. Playing in the water most of the day has made her too tired to concentrate on her dinner. Patty stands and takes Dani out of her highchair.
“It’s been a long day for my little princess.” She carries her to Matt. “Give daddy a kiss before bath time.” Dani leans in with her mouth open for kisses. She is carried around the table giving everyone her own version of kisses.
“Daddy will be up when you’re done to put you to bed.” He waves at his daughter as she rests her head on her grandmother’s shoulder. “I’ll be surprised if she makes it past the bath.” He laughs. “She’s beat.”
“I know the feeling.” Jenna lays her head against my shoulder. “Who would have thought relaxing for the day could be so tiresome?”
“Is that your cue for me to take you to bed, Angel?” Kissing the top of her head. She yawns and nods at the same time. Standing, I offer her my hand, she smiles and takes it. “If you guys don’t mind, I think I’m going to take my fiancé to bed.” Brennan stands and makes his way to us. He gives her a good night hug before shaking my hand.
“Have a good night guys.” He turns to Ashley. “What do you say we go for some ice cream?” He turns to Drew and Matt. “You guys want to go get ice cream?”
Drew looks at his parents. “Drew, go. Have fun. Don’t worry about us. We’re going to head to our room and watch a movie.” Mrs. Johnson implies.
“I guess ice cream sounds good.” Drew stands and Brennan pulls out Ashley’s chair.
“I’m gonna stay here and put Dani to bed. I’m not sure how many more times I’ll be able to do that once we get her back home.” Matt’s face is fills with sorrow. “But you can bring something back home for me, please? I love rocky road.”
Jenna and I head out but stop when Brennan says something we never thought would happen.
“Um, Dad, do you want to go for ice cream?” Jenna’s hand squeezes mine so tightly, I’m sure I’m losing circulation in it.
Robert stands. “Thank you for the offer son, but I think I’m going to call it a night as well.” His gaze shifts from us back to Brennan. His face is filled with both happiness and sorrow. Jenna has gone out of her way to pretend that he isn’t even in the room. But Brennan has at least tried to include him in small talk throughout the day. He did tell me that he was going to have to talk to Jenna about her attitude, but I immediately shut him down. She is in no way ready to forgive him.
“Yeah, well, goodnight.” Brennan turns and takes Ashley’s hand before walking out toward the front door. Drew follows.
“Goodnight son.” Robert answers. He looks back at Jenna and I. “Goodnight.” He says to her. She glares at him before releasing my hand, turning and walking away. His eyes meet mine. “I’m sorry. I’m trying.”
“I know you are Robert, but put yourself in her shoes.” He looks down and nods. “Give her time. She’s hardheaded as hell.” His mouth turns into a small smile. “Good night.” Turning to find my girl, I hear him mumble his goodnight to me.
I find Jenna is sitting in the middle of the bed. She sits cross-legged with some sort of book between her legs. Her face looks deep in thought, and I’m worried to find out what she’s thinking about.
“This is a journal.” She whispers, not looking my way, because she know I’m here. “Drew bought it for me after we left your parent’s house.” I push myself off the threshold of the bedroom door and slowly make my way to the end of the bed. She’s sharing with me and I don’t want to disturb her. “After I had my first nightmare.”
I remain quiet and kneel on the edge of the bed. My hands cup under my chin as I watch her carefully. A tear falls from her face, but she continues. “Brennan was the one who used to always get nightmares. He’s the one with all the memories. Not me.” Her blue eyes meet mine. “You remember his nightmares, don’t you?”
“Yes.” I cough to clear my throat. “Yes, I remember them well.” I answer as she nods.
“I always knew what he was dreaming about. Either he would mention it in his sleep or he would tell Will. One time I overheard what it was, which ending up confirming my original guess.” She gently wipes the moisture from her eyes.
“Jenna, look.” I say reaching my hands out to hers. Gently, I caress her knuckles with my thumbs. “You don’t have to talk about this now. It’s been a long day.”
“No.” She shakes her head quickly. “We need to talk. We agreed to talk.” Her eyes remain on mine. “I… I just don’t know where to start.”
Being this close to her and not comforting her is killing me. I crawl onto the bed, push the journal to the side and pull her onto my lap. She rests her head on my chest. No words are spoken while I hold her in my arms. Her body relaxes after a few minutes.
“Baby, look at you. You’re so tense.” I try to control my voice as much as possible. “I’ll tell you what. Let’s start from the beginning.” She cranes her head up to me.
“The beginning?” she asks with confusion on her face. “Like how far?” She is so fucking adorable, I can’t help but chuckle down at her. I gently kiss her nose and she smiles back up at me. “What’s so funny?”
“You are, like always Angel.” I tease. “I’
m not meaning all the way back to birth.” She begins to giggle. “God I love that sound.”
“Well, I love you.” She lifts her hand up to my face, I bend and kiss her swiftly on the lips.
“I love you more.” The look of happiness in her eyes fills my chest with complete joy. “I think that you should start from wherever you feel like you need to, okay?”
“What if you don’t like what you hear?” She questions.
“Hmmm.” I think about how I want to word my answer. “Well, I’ve known you for a while now, and you know that you’re my best friend…”
“And fiancé.” She interrupts while her fingers pay with my hair.
“And my fiancé.” I smile down at her. “You know that whatever it is, we will work through it together. Because for the rest of our lives, it’s all about us. Right?” She nods and shifts on my lap so she’s straddling me.
“This is harder than I thought it was going to be, but it’s been bothering me ever since it’s happened. I want you to know that I hate myself for what happened.” Her fingers continue stroking my hair. I’m not sure if this is for her nerves or for mine, but whatever it is that’s bothering her needs to come out now. She takes a deep breath before she begins.
“When we left your parent’s house, I was still high. The drugs were out of my system for the most part, but the effect was still in me. When I woke up, I saw Drew sitting against your door. His face was, stern.” She grimaces at her memory. “I wish it was you that I woke up to, but I was so mad at you Gabriel.” She shakes her head and huffs. “So God damned mad at you. I honestly don’t think that I’ve ever been that upset with you before. Drew had the alcohol next to his chair and he had the rest of the drugs in his hand. And for no good reason, I wanted to erase myself again. I didn’t want to deal with anything that was downstairs. He yelled at me so loudly, it scared the shit out of me.”
“He knew I was high. He fought me tooth and nail, and before I knew it, he had me in the ice cold water trying to sober me up. I’m sure you remember that.” I nod, resting my hands on her hips. She rests her head on mine. “Gabe, when we left your house, he took me to a hotel just outside your town. Of course I wanted to come back, but I also wanted to get further away from you.”
“I wanted to get you.” I say. She rests her finger on my lips shushing me.
“Let me get this out, please. It’s too hard as it is.” I nod my apology. “I was weak. I stayed in bed or laid at the base of the toilet. The withdrawals were horrible Gabe.” She begins to cry. “The entire time, I thought of you. You pulled me through everything.” A small smile forms on her face. “I think after the accident, the coma helped me with the withdrawals the first time.”
Shaking my head. “Your body shook. And you were sweating so badly. I thought you were sick.”
“No, that would have been the drugs.” She reassures me. “But the hardest part was after that. I had sweat and vomit all over me. At the time, I couldn’t even move so he left me in the same clothes. Once I got enough energy to move, I tried to take a shower.” She drops her face. Oh shit. She’s afraid I’m going to get angry at her. Do I tell her I already know this, or do I keep quiet. I bring my hands up and cup her face. Lifting it so she has to look at me.
“Whatever it is, it’s okay. I promise.” I reassure her, wiping a few tears away from her eyes.
“I almost passed out a few times. Drew had to come in and help me. But I swear he wasn’t looking Gabe. I swear he wasn’t. I kept my body hidden as much as possible.”
“Jenna.” I pull her into my arms. “Shhh, I promised it would be okay. And it is.” Her body shakes as she cries. “God angel. As much as I could get upset at him, or you, I can’t. What would have happened if he wasn’t there?” She shrugs. “Things could have been a whole lot worse don’t you think?” She continues to cry. “Would it make you feel better if I wanted to beat the shit out of him?” She chuckles through her cry and shakes her head. “I didn’t think so. I wanted to be there to help you, but I couldn’t. No one wanted me near you. I fought and fought to be in that room when you woke up, but they held me down. All I wanted to do was hold you in my arms and explain to you what happened.”
“I know.” She hiccups. “Well, I know that now anyways. When he was helping me dry and get dressed, all I thought of was you. And because he didn’t trust me to be left alone, he made me stay in the bathroom while he showered. But I promise I turned away every time.”
She slides her hands down my chest. “I realized once I had some time away from us, that I loved you more than I hated you. Of course, Drew was still pissed at you.” I chuckle remembering him cussing me out until I heard Brennan explain to him what was going on. “I’ve felt guilty about it. And then today when you said you spoke to him, I was worried that he would tell you.” My face goes grim. “He did tell you, didn’t he?” She observes my face. I promised I would never lie to her so with a heavy sigh, I nod. “And?” The nervousness in her voice makes my chest hurt.
“And, I don’t care Jenna.” Her eyes widen in shock. “Okay, I do care, but not like that.” She relaxes immediately. “Let me try to explain something.” I shift to the headrest on the bed and pull her to my side. I take her hand bearing my ring and begin playing with it. “So much has happened in the past year, don’t you agree?” She nods. “The accident, Will, your parents. But what shocked me the most was when I found out that Matt was your first kiss.”
“No.” She sits up and stares down at me. I nod aggravated at the thought. “Seriously?”
“Yep.” Her face turns from shock to amusement and she cuddles back to my side. “I was angry when you were in Justin’s arms that night at the club. But you knew this already.” I kiss the top of her head. “And when I heard about what happened in the shower, I can’t say I wasn’t surprised, because I was. But on the other hand, I felt grateful. Of course, I don’t like the fact that he’s seen what belongs to me, but do you remember that day you came out to the pool in practically nothing?” She giggles. “I don’t think I find it very funny Ms. Munson.” Her giggles transforms to laughter. I push her down and begin tickling her. “If you insist on laughing, I will make you laugh.”
“No, Gabe. Stop!” She cries in laughter. “Please stop!” I stop and lay alongside her. “I only did that to make you angry.”
“Did you now?” She bites her bottom lip. “You sneaky woman. That’s the day I wanted to beat the shit out of Drew. He couldn’t take his eyes off you.”
“I know.” She giggles. “But he knew I was doing it to make you mad. He said it wasn’t good to get you all riled up like that.” I roll over her and rest my hands below her, cradling her head.
“Remind me to burn that bikini when we get home.” She laughs harder. “What?” I ask laughing with her.
“I was planning on wearing it tomorrow.”
“Like hell you are.” I push myself off her and begin going through her drawers. “Where the hell is it?” I demand.
“Are you serious?” Her eyes bulge out when she sees the look on my face. But she can’t help keep her laughter down.
“Dead serious. I swear Jenna, so help me.” She climbs off the bed and makes her way to my dresser.
“It’s right here.” She pulls my drawer out and lifts it to show me. “I was hoping you would see it and it would turn you on.” Carefully, I stride my way to her and lift her over my shoulder. She squeals. “Gabe!” I smack her ass.
“I’ll show you what turns me on Angel.” I carry her out to the patio where our own private hot tub sits in the corner. I turned it on earlier in the day to get it warmed up. Standing just before the step, I slide her body down mine and she lands on the first step.
“The hot tub turns you on?” The amusement in her voice causes me to chuckle.
“No baby, not the hot tub.” I begin tracing the hem of her tank top that rests just above her hips. “Not this either.” I pull it over her head. She stands before me, biting her bottom lip with her flower b
ikini top and matching board shorts. I pull the draw string of her shorts open to loosen them and let them slide down her body. “No, those do nothing for me.”
“Gabe.” She pants, resting her hands on my shoulders. Her eyes are dark with lust. I reach around her neck and loosen the bikini strap that’s tied around it.
“We need to get rid of this too.” Tugging on the straps, causing her to lean onto my chest. I slide my hands up and loosen the last tie that’s holding the top on around her chest. Taking a step back, the top lands on the floor with her shorts. “Now this.” I can’t keep the grin off my face. “This is what turns me on, Angel.” She reaches up and wraps her hands around my neck, pulling me back into her. “Knowing this beautiful body is mine.”
“So, you’re not upset with me?” Her beautiful blue eyes meet mine.
“No baby, I’m not.” I lift her up into my arms and carefully climb up the steps and step into the water. “I promised not to lie to you, and I won’t. I admit, I’m not too pleased at the idea that he has seen you. But then again, he doesn’t get to have you like I do.”
She settles herself on me, resting her arms on my shoulders. “No, nobody gets to have me like you do. I’m all yours Gabriel. And don’t forget, you’re mine, or will be once you say ‘I Do’.”
“Baby, it doesn’t take a piece of paper to know that I’m yours. I’ve been yours since the day we met. How many times do I have to tell you that?”
“Oh, I know, but it would be really nice to know that I’m legally obligated to keep you by my side.” She leans in and kisses me swiftly.
“Jenna, are you reconsidering waiting things out?” I raise an eyebrow at her. She smiles at me and shrugs. “What are you saying?”
“I don’t know.” She answers. “All I know is that, now that I’ve finally opened my heart up to you, even though you know it’s been yours all along, I don’t see why we should wait so long for the inevitable.” My heart feels like it’s going to pound right out of my chest. “Watching you walk away from me today was the hardest thing I’ve had to deal with in a long time. Even worse than when I left you. It scared me trying to imagine a life without you. I… I don’t want that. Ever. Maybe sooner is better than later.”
