by Laura Brown
“Then, you should be fine and can handle this later.” She turned, a swish of blond hair, and he grabbed her arm. He didn’t have all the answers, but he did know his feelings for Gaby were more than a passing fancy.
“Yes.”
Monica grinned. “Yes, what?”
His back molars were going to be sawdust. “Yes. I love her.”
The atmosphere in the room changed, and without looking, he knew they had an audience. But he kept his gaze on Monica as his heart swelled. He had nothing solved, nothing figured out, but the words didn’t elicit fear. The words felt right, a calming solution to his soul.
Monica woke up his phone and tapped on it. She brought it to her ear, and if he wasn’t relieved at her help, he’d be grateful she heard enough to talk on the phone. Then her lips moved, and he could barely follow and realized she could be throwing him under the bus and demolishing his heart at the same time.
He turned around and found Manny. “What’s she saying?”
Humor danced in Manny’s eyes. “Well, she’s being clear that this sister should really think twice about letting you date Gaby.”
Levi scowled.
“But also being clear that you two are over. Her words were, ‘she doesn’t need a man and if she did, she’d choose someone better than you.’”
He couldn’t blame her on that one. They weren’t a match.
Monica sauntered back to him, phone outstretched. “You’re welcome. We’re done now.”
God, he hoped so. He checked his phone.
Isabel: Okay, I believe you. So why haven’t you texted my sister?
Because he’d been standing here, taking care of Monica and Isabel and everyone else instead of figuring out what Gaby needed. Did his father still have the punching bag in the basement?
Levi: It’s a bit complicated.
Isabel: No. It’s not. You either love my sister, as Monica claims, or you don’t. And I have a few opinions on what your answer should be. Also, remember, I’m not deaf, and my bedroom is next to Gaby’s.
Levi tugged at his collar. He couldn’t remember a time he’d been embarrassed in front of his family, and they’d enjoyed teasing each other whenever possible.
Levi: I’m not sure we should be having this conversation.
Isabel: I really don’t care. My sister is hurting. She’s been through a lot of hurt, and it’s affected her self-worth. Blame Dad’s death or Tom or just life in general, I don’t know. All I know is that she won’t believe what’s right in front of her unless you make her.
Levi’s heart ached. He knew Gaby didn’t see all her beauty and all her worth, but having Isabel confirm it slicked through him. Regardless of anything, he needed to help her. Sure, he needed not to end up hurting her afterward, but her switch was right there.
Gaby needed to be on a pedestal. She needed a chance to shine and needed to see herself shining. And he knew once he got her up there, he wasn’t letting her down. He’d pick her up to a healthy level and keep her there.
She also needed to realize that change could be good. And Levi would do his damnedest to show her that adding him to her life could be a good thing.
He waited for the realization to take hold, anticipating her switch flipping his off. It didn’t, not even a slight budge. His full heart swelled further, content in the knowledge that he’d flipped his last romantic switch. That he’d been waiting to flip hers. She really was what he wanted.
Levi: I will do what I can. Any suggestions?
…
Gaby woke with a slight wine headache, not quite a hangover, but proof of too many cookies, too much wine, and not enough water or food or anything resembling an actual dinner. She groaned into the morning light, wishing the daylight would just go away and leave her alone.
She reached for her phone, finding her message folder had been busy while she fought with sleep, halting at one of the senders.
Levi.
Her finger poised over their thread, and the temptation to delete the messages unseen weighed heavily in her thumb. She resisted, and the combination meant she’d opened the thread, with Levi’s words staring at her. What the hell, she thought, might as well read them as long as I’m here, and then she scrolled up to the start.
Levi: I know things didn’t end on the best of terms between us, and I’m sorry for that, but now I’m in the awkward position of needing your help.
Levi: Things are officially ended with Monica, but in the process, I had to reveal where I’d been for Passover, and you came up.
Levi: Not in a cheating way or anything like that. It’s come out that Monica and I have been done for a while, but now my family is demanding to see the person who’s captured my heart.
Levi: So please, be my fake date again. Show up for a few hours. It’s the least you can do after I helped with yours.
Gaby scowled at her phone, ready to point out how little he helped, but didn’t. Because even though things ended in a dumpster fire, she had gotten to a better place with her mother, an understanding that wouldn’t have happened if Levi hadn’t been there.
She switched threads.
Izzy: What’cha doing today?
Gaby narrowed her eyes.
Gaby: Why?
Izzy: Because you’re my big sister and Passover proved how little we see each other. Let’s grab coffee and donuts because I am not keeping Passover with on-campus food, yuck.
Gaby smelled something fishy but had no clue what Izzy would want.
Gaby: I’m awfully popular today. You want coffee, and my former fake boyfriend wants me to be his fake date again.
And that grated. Gaby wanted him to prove things to her, perhaps on bended knee or with a large sign. Or skywriting, that could work. Instead, she’d be a prop for his issue with his family.
Gaby: You know what, let’s do the coffee.
Izzy: Levi contacted you?
Gaby: Scroll up, yes.
Maybe she should turn off her phone and go back to sleep.
Izzy: See him.
Gaby gaped at her phone.
Gaby: Are you out of your mind? You’re the one who brought up Monica in the first place!
Izzy: Yeah, because I was worried for my sister. But he never looked at her the way he’s looked at you.
Gaby rubbed her eyes.
Gaby: Something you could have mentioned, oh, I don’t know, yesterday! I thought we were anti-Levi?
Izzy: I’d like to see him try and prove he likes Monica more than you.
Gaby: Why the sudden change of heart?
Izzy: Let’s just say I’ve got some insider intel, and I’m starting to believe him. Give him a chance to explain his side.
Gaby groaned. The whole situation was a mess. But a part of her wanted to hear, at least, what he had to say. Or type, as the case might be. But why couldn’t he do that via text?
Gaby: He wants me to go to Maine.
Izzy: So go.
Gaby: Maine!
Izzy: New place, new people. Too much change, sis?
Gaby scowled at her phone.
Gaby: Not helping.
Izzy: You know what you have to do. Prove to yourself that this isn’t about change.
Gaby’s heart clenched, and her stomach debated sending the dozen cookies back up.
Gaby: Whose side are you on?
Izzy: The side that doesn’t get my ASL grades hurt.
Gaby: Low blow.
Izzy: Yup! Go!!!
Gaby shook her head but tossed the covers to the side, switching threads back to Levi’s.
Gaby: Not that you deserve it, but when and where?
Chapter Twenty-Two
Levi paced the living room, eyes trained on the outside, waiting for Gaby’s ancient Camry to arrive and fearing that it wouldn’t. He’d never been this guy,
nervous over a woman. He felt every second, every doubt, and worried this plan would bite him in the ass.
The thought scared him. He didn’t want to lose her. He wanted an honest chance to find out what they could become together.
First, he needed her to show up.
Kayla appeared beside him in full-on older-sister stance, arms crossed, back against the wall. He crossed his arms, too, and leaned his shoulder against the side of the window, copying her stance but still with the driveway in focus.
“You sure about this?”
He glanced at a car driving past the house, not responding at first.
“Last week, I thought you were happily engaged, and now you’re in love with someone else?” Kayla signed.
“Last week I wasn’t engaged; you just thought I was.”
“And you knew this new woman then?”
Technically they had met a week ago. “Not really.”
“So you’re jumping from one serious relationship to another, when prior to this you barely contemplated serious.”
That got his gaze off the road. He straightened. “How is inviting my girlfriend here suddenly serious?”
“And the last girlfriend you brought home before Monica was…?”
Shit. She had him there. He wisely signed nothing.
A smile grew on Kayla’s face. “So, why’s she coming?”
He focused on the outside. Regardless of the strong emotions swirling around, he and Gaby needed time to see where their relationship went. And if he didn’t do this, if this didn’t work, they’d never have that time.
“If she’s important enough to meet us, then she’s important enough to come back.”
He rubbed his neck. “Do you have a point?”
Her grin turned smug. “Yes. Before this woman arrives, I want you to be clear and not playing games with her heart. You ended things how long ago with Monica and look how that exploded. If you are serious about the future, then we should meet her. If not, you are sending her the wrong message.”
“I thought you all caught Monica’s question earlier?”
Kayla nodded. “We did. Loving someone and committing to them are two different things.”
He ground his back teeth as a car pulled over the side, parking in front of his. The tension tightening his shoulders eased, and his upside-down world righted. He hadn’t planned for this, hadn’t anticipated it. He always knew the right person could change things. Gaby was the right person. “I’m serious,” he signed, not taking his eyes off the car, brake lights still on.
Kayla peered out the window then back at him. “I guess you are.”
He brushed her off and headed outside, not even thinking of his actions. He just needed to get to Gaby, needed to be back in her space. As though they’d been apart for longer than they’d known each other.
Yeah, he was in deep, way deep. Enough so that the thought of a future with her, wedding bells, children, picket fences, the whole nine yards, didn’t scare him at all. Coming back here to visit his family with her felt right.
Now he needed to convince her this was real.
…
Gaby wondered if it was too late to turn around and go back home. She didn’t owe Levi anything, not really, and wouldn’t leaving him in the lurch after everything be due justice?
She rubbed at the ache in her chest, knowing the truth. A part of her wanted to be here, if for no other reason than to see this farce through to the end, and hopefully allow her to put this behind her once and for all.
But, goodness, she was so far out of her comfort zone, so far removed from her normal Sunday rituals. Nothing felt comfortable, and even though she knew that to be part of the point, it only added to her nerves.
A knock on her door had her jumping and clutching at her racing heart, the seat belt holding her in place like some bad crash-test demonstration. She glanced through her window, where Levi had bent to look into her car.
“You scared me!” she said, because she didn’t know the sign, and wasn’t about to finger-spell what had to be obvious with her jerking motions.
He gestured for her to get out of the car, and she crossed her arms, not up for this after already embarrassing herself. This day had gone to hell before she’d even woken up, and at this point, she was going to need a personal day come Monday.
Levi took out his phone and sent her a message.
Levi: Thank you for coming. Come on. We’ve got drinks and food. Passover friendly, but some of it isn’t bad.
Gaby: Remind me again why I thought you weren’t Jewish?
His lips curved when he read, and even though it made her traitorous body want a taste, or two, she pulled on boxing gloves to fight her anger.
Time to get this over with, before her internal war raged too far.
Gaby exited the car, but Levi hadn’t moved back, and she ended up crowded into his personal space, and the internal war between attraction and anger raged higher. He ran his thumb over her cheek, with a look in his eyes she didn’t dare trust, and she pulled back.
Gaby: No one can see us out here. Let’s get this over with.
His face fell while he read, but he led the way to the house, opening the door to let her in. The next ten minutes were spent in a mix of talking and signing and messaging from Levi, introducing her to names and faces she hadn’t a clue about. Until now, all she knew was that he had two siblings, not that both his parents lived or that his siblings were married with children. Or that his family was large enough to have a big gathering well beyond the first night of Passover. Her poor head couldn’t handle anything and began lumping everyone under the Miller heading.
Levi pointed to an older woman with salt-and-pepper hair. “My mother.” She’d thought that to the be the sign for father, positioned on the chin like a beard, but she’d already met his father, and the person in front of her was very feminine, from the necklace around her neck, to the dangling earrings, to the subtle-but-classy makeup job. And Gaby had thrown on some mascara and let her hair frizz.
Mental note: no amount of rushing is worth it to get a man out of your hair.
“You must be Gaby. I’m so happy to meet you.” The woman’s hands moved as she talked, and when she finished, she held one out to shake.
“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Miller.” She’d given up attempting any signs; her maybe twenty-word vocabulary didn’t do squat in this situation. But Levi stuck to her side, as though he followed everything. And perhaps, with the signs his family threw in, he had enough to follow.
“Oh, call me Jen. You know that besides Monica, you’re the first woman Levi’s ever brought home?”
Gaby forced a smile, darting her gaze to Levi, wondering yet again why the hell she was needed if his normal MO involved not bringing dates home.
Levi signed something next to her, and she stood there like an idiot. Her family she could fool, but his actually knew ASL, and it only took her two minutes to prove her inadequacies with the language.
“Yes, that is why I liked you with Monica. You’re not getting any younger, and I wanted to see you happy,” Jen said.
Levi responded, a crease wrinkling his brow, one his mother paid no attention to.
“If Monica was a fluke, then why is she here?”
He hesitated, and Gaby went hands on hips, wanting to echo Jen’s words. As far as she could see, no problems with Monica existed. In fact, the woman stood across the room, talking with an older gentleman, not paying Gaby any attention. No one questioned her, or Levi, about their arrangement, and no one seemed to feel her arrival was unexpected.
She couldn’t handle this. Being this close to Levi, knowing it had been riddled with lies, cut deep through her. She wanted to lean into his shoulder, feel the warmth of him next to her. She refused to. He hadn’t explained or even attempted to. She had to wait out this show for his family and se
e if he offered anything, or if her presence here was nothing more than a prop.
She tried to plaster on a smile, her cheeks probably cracking like her insides did. She should leave, not notice how warm and inviting Levi’s family home was, how easy it could be to fall into this new environment, especially with Levi next to her, supporting her, comforting her…
All lies. And her ability to keep it all began to fall apart. “Excuse me,” she said, backing away, heading down a hall, wanting to find a bathroom, if only she could figure out which door to choose. Hell of a time to be playing “door number one or door number two” when her eyes threatened to spill and her legs had grown shaky.
A hand closed around her arm, and in a déjà vu moment, she found herself pulled into a room. At least the selection process had been made for her. Only this time, it wasn’t a bathroom, and it wasn’t Levi.
Monica closed the door. “Look, sorry for the dramatics, but I needed to talk with you away from them, ok?” Her hands didn’t even move, and if it wasn’t for the slight nasal quality for her voice, Gaby would have never known she had a hearing loss.
“I didn’t realize you spoke.” Gaby mentally slapped her forehead. Way to smooth over the waters with the woman engaged to her man. Wait, no…not her man, her fake man.
“I’m hard of hearing. My parents spent a lot of time with me in speech therapy. I don’t recommend it.”
Gaby nodded, unsure how to even respond to that.
“I wanted to apologize for everything with Levi. We’ve been friends for a long time, and I should have realized we weren’t meant to be anything more. I didn’t mean to make things so complicated for him and string him along. The romance ended a long time ago, but I thought he was my only shot at getting what I needed. Turned out he was the one to help, but not in the way I had anticipated.”
“So, you’re really not engaged?”
Monica scoffed. “No. We were not compatible at all. Nails on a chalkboard, drove each other up the walls. He’s a good guy, just not my good guy.”
“So why am I even here? Because we aren’t real.” It hurt Gaby to say it, but she was so over this day, this month even. She wanted to go back to her regularly scheduled life. The one where’d she’d finally removed Tom’s presence. She wanted her usual order, things that were familiar to her and didn’t involve randomly driving to Maine on a Sunday.
