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I had to agree with him. Even though we were closer to everything now, we used every opportunity to drive the new car around as much as we could. Even Travis liked trading in the Jeep for the smaller more economical car some of the time. The only thing Liam splurged on was the fact that it was a hybrid. We joked that not only were we here to save the residents of Salem, we were also going to save the environment while we were at it.

When you thought about it, Jax was just like pollution. Everything he touched, he damaged. It might not show right away, but it was there. Inside him, there was a demon like a living cancer. He thought the demon gave him powers, and I guessed it did, but it was nothing like the effect it was taking on him personally. Once he got everything he wanted, he’d never be the same again.

Most of us realized that. Jax still didn’t. Or he didn’t care.

Which was much, much worse.

It turned out, we could’ve walked to the restaurant too. But in a life where there was so much to worry about, why not splurge now and then?

We were seated right away. As I eyed the old-world charm in the place, Gabe eyed the menu. When the waitress came with our drink orders, I had to ask for another few minutes with the menu since I hadn’t even looked at it yet.

Gabe sipped his water and then stared as I read. After making my decision, I put the menu back down. He held his hand out to me. “I thoroughly enjoyed doing this with you today. It was great to get a break from soccer and just come spend time with you without staring at the other mopey faces in the room.”

Gabe looked away, his jaw clenching. He wasn’t the type that enjoyed all the sad bitterness going around. Travis was back to his usual moody self. I couldn’t blame him. He’d done something he thought was right, and the Order wasn’t going to let him forget that it was wrong.

Gabe ran his finger over my bare wrist. “You better make yourself a bracelet soon, Norah. I don’t like thinking that you’re unprotected.”

I stared down at the blue all-seeing-eye bracelet I’d made for him. Making the all-seeing-eye bracelet wasn’t the problem. It was figuring out what stones to use for mine. I wanted to get stones that represented all my guys. Somehow, I thought it would tie us even more together, and Lord knew we needed that more than ever right about now. “I will,” I told him.

“Maybe we can take a look at a couple of shops before we head back,” he offered.

Was it wrong that a shopping trip sounded like a good idea? And it wasn’t just because I wanted to get the all-seeing-eye bracelet made for myself. A lot of it was wanting to run from everything that was going on too. I didn’t want to run away from my guys, but just everything around us. All the stress we found us under.

Gabe’s phone buzzed on the table. He tilted the screen up to look at it and then put it down again. I lifted myself off the seat to see it. It was still ringing, vibrating on the table in quick bursts. The name Liam ran across the screen. “You going to get that?” I asked.

“Do I have to?”

“No,” I told him honestly. It sounded mean, but it wasn’t meant to be. We weren’t trying to ignore the others, we were just trying to find that little bit of normal. “But you better,” I told him.

He was already reaching for it on the table. I knew he would. “Hey, mate. What’s up?”

Gabe nodded into the phone. Behind him, a man stood from a table near the front of the room and threw his napkin back down onto it. The woman and two kids he was with stared up at him and the littlest one started crying.

His voice rose. Even from here, I could hear his harsh words as he raged about how difficult it was to even go out to eat with all of them. I bit my lip, unsure of what to do.

I heard Gabe say, “Yeah, we won’t be gone too long. See you soon.” He hung up the phone and then twisted around to see the commotion that had started.

The guy was red in the face now, his fists clenched at his sides. The woman reached out and squeezed his forearm and he stopped midsentence, staring at her with a lost look. Afterward, I watched as he took a few cooling breaths and then sat back down.

“Wow. He was pretty upset,” Gabe said. He turned around but kept shooting glances back at the table.

I watched as they continued with their meal, the father acting as if nothing had happened. It was like the top had blown off and then he was able to piece everything back together inside, so he could go back to normal.

I understood that sentiment. Not that it was fair for those around him, even us, interrupting our nice, quiet meals with his blow up, but we didn’t know what kind of life he led. Maybe he was the CEO of a company with a lot of stress. Maybe he owned a company that was just about to go under. Maybe with the two kids on top of all that, he hadn’t been able to get a full night sleep in a year.

I would definitely break under all that stress. I turned back to Gabe. “We need to have a talk with everyone.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Yeah?”

I could tell already he thought I was insane. He turned around in his seat looking for the waitress. I covered his hand, bringing his attention back to me. “No, I mean it. We just need to get everything out there, so we can go back to normal.”

“Normal?” His lips slid into a grin as if he thought my last sentence was absolutely insane.

I shrugged. “You know what I mean. Normal for us. For Christ’s sakes, Liam just called and part of me didn’t even want you to answer it because I didn’t want to get pulled out of this moment. Who does that? I love Liam.”

“Things are just a bit off right now, Love.” Gabe covered my hand with his other. “It’s not your fault. You’re allowed some carefree moments like this.”

“But it is my fault,” I said. “Not what’s happening but letting it get as far as it has. That’s all our faults. We’re living in the headquarters like we’re just roommates, moping around from one thing to the next.”