Page 7

SEVEN

Gabriel

“My parents are thrilled to be taking you to a restaurant they love. They’re confident you’re going to—and I quote— adore it,” I say as I turn onto my parents’ street.

“Yeah? And if I don’t love it, I just go like ‘Oooh, ohhhh, it’s sooo good, Mrs . Mabel.’”

“Why the fuck were you moaning any of that ? Especially the Mrs. part!”

“I don’t know, Gabriel. I’m being forced to act normal and like I care about people to the extreme that I’m starting to shut down. I’m… I’m… not long for this world.”

“You’re dramatic is more like it.”

I pull into the driveway and put the car in park before turning in my seat to look at Liam. He’s just beaming up a storm, loving every moment of this exchange. “Remind me again why we have to all ride together with your parents? Why couldn’t we have met at the restaurant? Like… do your parents want to breathe the same air as me that badly? Feel the caress of my thigh as we’re all crammed in the back seat together?”

My eyebrow won’t stop rising as I listen to his theories. “Ah yes, my father wants to feel your thigh caresses. That’s definitely why they wanted to ride together. Do you ever question the shit you say out loud?”

“I question everything until it comes to you. And then I am prepared to do anything to never lose you. Even if that means caressing your father’s thigh with my own.”

“You are so strange. We won’t be that close. Thank you for coming. I know this isn’t your forte.”

“Of course. I don’t mind a lot .”

We get out of the car and Liam looks over at me and smiles. He really is such a handsome man. Maybe all those worries that have haunted me were senseless. Maybe everything is perfect with him by my side.

I kiss his cheek before heading to the door, knowing that we can’t linger outside for too long or my mom will be questioning why we aren’t coming, and are instead making out in the front yard. When we step inside, I find that it’s not my mom at the door but my sister Layla.

“Don’t think I didn’t see that PDA,” she says, like we’re teenagers again.

“Funny. Layla, this is Liam. Liam, this is my pest of a sister. She’s the second-favorite sibling.”

She gasps. “Pest? Don’t you mean the best sister in the whole damn world? And that’s so mean! Our parents only have two kids! Liam, don’t believe anything Gabriel has told you.”

“He told me you were kind, caring, selfless, and the greatest sister he could ever ask for. But if you’d like me to not believe any of it, I’d do it for you,” he says.

Layla’s all smiles, already tricked into thinking that Liam is nice and funny. “Ha, cute. Funny. Gabriel, you or your boyfriend are lying now. I know it. I’m going to go grab Mom and Dad and get ready to go.”

“Got it,” I respond as I notice Liam looking at something in the living room.

“That dog has some expensive tastes,” he says, and I feel rather confused by this until I see that the dog is lying on the blanket he gifted my parents. I remember that Liam’s not used to having a pet and probably doesn’t realize that once an item enters the house, the pet inside will decide it’s the new best thing.

“He loves blankets.”

Liam just shrugs, not seeming to care in the slightest, but what he said is still hovering around in my brain like a pesky gnat.

“What do you mean ‘he has expensive tastes’?” I ask.

Liam looks over at me. “Oh, just… I don’t know. I guess stuff from Tiffany’s is fancy or some shit. I don’t know. Matthew told me it was. If he’s lying, I can make him suffer. I’m going to be honest, I really hope he’s lying so I can make him suffer.”

“I’m sorry… the little glass… thing that you got my parents…” I look around, terrified about where the hell it might be and not seeing it. “Like… Tiffany and Co as in… jewelry and glass Tiffany’s?”

“Is there another? I really don’t know. Ask me a nice place to buy a knife and which duct tape is best,” he says. “Spoiler alert, it’s the cheetah pattern one.”

“Did you really buy my parents a blanket that costs… what exactly? I don’t even know! If it was more than fifty bucks, it was too expensive!”

Liam stares at me for a long moment then gives me that charming smile of his. “It was only forty-five dollars, hon.”

Quickly, I whip out my phone and search for a blanket from their website.

“If you spent more than that?—”

He suddenly seems to realize there’s an issue here. “Nah. Let’s not look at that right now.”

“What’s Gabriel looking at?” Layla asks.

Liam cuts in before I can say anything. “Porn. I told him it was a bit weird doing that in the home he was raised in,” he says as he tries to force the phone out of my hand. He’s now trying to physically push me to the door, but I’m working this phone as fast as it’ll go and nearly drop it when I see that he paid over a thousand dollars for it.

“Oh my god, Liam ,” I hiss as I show him the exact blanket that is currently sitting on my parents’ couch.

Liam tries to cover my eyes, like that’ll shield me from the atrocious amount of money he spent on a fucking blanket that the dog is over there fluffing up! “Yes, my sweets?”

I rush over and push the dog off before looking at the blanket decorated in dog hair.

“Do you want one? Is that the issue? Are you jealous?” he asks, like that is my problem with this.

“The issue is you bought my parents a thousand-dollar blanket ,” I hiss.

“I was trying to impress them.”

“They have no fucking idea what this cost! You’d have impressed them with a ten-dollar blanket! They’re like… literally the easiest people to impress! You could have made them a card from a fast-food receipt that said ‘Nice to meet you,’ and they’d have been over the moon!”

“Yeah, but I really impressed their dog.”

With the blanket clutched in my arms, I hurry off. I don’t even know where I’m going or what I’m doing. But as I slip into the kitchen, Layla follows me.

“Did… Did I just hear that he bought that blanket from Tiffany’s? ” she asks.

“What’s that, honey?” Mom asks.

Layla shakes her head. “Oh, nothing. Just that Liam’s boyfriend is rich as hell and bought you a blanket from Tiffany’s and you’ve been letting your dog drool on it .”

Mom stills as she stares at me like I’ve somehow betrayed her. “And you didn’t think to tell me it was from Tiffany’s ?”

“How was I supposed to know?” I hiss.

“I’d love to see what he bought Gabriel if he bought you this,” Layla says.

Fucking hell, I can’t tell them he tried buying me a house. “J-Just some… normal stuff.”

Layla’s eyes lock on to mine, ready for the details. “Normal, my ass. What’d he buy you?”

“That glass dish… that wouldn’t… also be from there, right?” Mom asks.

“What are you doing with the dish?”

“I’ve been storing my keys in it.”

“Oh my god, Mom . You don’t toss your metal keys into a Tiffany dish!” Layla says.

“I didn’t know! I was going to take him to this little place for dinner, but now I’m like… what if it looks like a shithole?” Mom asks.

“He doesn’t care. I promise he doesn’t care,” I say as I peek back into the living room to find him talking to the dog.

“I bet you wipe your ass with golden toilet paper as well, dontcha?” Liam asks Buddy who is quite pleased by this and shows it by rolling onto his back and exposing it all in the hope that Liam will pet his stomach.

Mom grabs the blanket from me and rushes out. “I just love this blanket. Clark and I fight over it every night, don’t we?”

Dad, who’s just come in from the garage, looks confused. “Uh, yeah! We do. Fantastic blanket. Top notch. Where’d you get it? I’d love to get another one.”

“I can get you a second one so you don’t have to fight over it,” Liam offers.

“NO!” Mom says, quite loudly too. “Oh honey, nooooo. This one is… way more than enough. I’m going to… put it… up here, so we can all gaze at it from a safe distance.” She hangs it over the TV like they’re planning on spending their nights staring at it instead of watching TV because they love it so much.

“Really? I’m so glad you like it. I wanted to get you one of those cheaper blankets where you have a picture printed on it, but Gabriel told me it wasn’t enough. I… I didn’t want to disappoint my future parents. Gabriel said you’d only like the best… and I was afraid that even this wasn’t good enough after the talk he had with me.”

I stare at Liam and decide that I was a fool for even fretting over any of this. “You’re sitting in the car while we eat dinner.”

He beams at me before taking the blanket and laying it over the dog, who seems quite pleased by it. “Let’s go. I’m starving. Gabriel didn’t give me time to pack my lunch and then wouldn’t let me force the man who owes me his life to get me food, so I nearly starved.”

“I got you a burger,” I remind him.

Liam just smiles at me and then winks.

We head out to the car where Liam immediately slides into the middle seat in the back, but much to his sadness, my father doesn’t climb in next to him, Layla does.

“Liam, honey, please don’t spend so much money on gifts for us in the future,” Mom says.

“It’s the only way I can make sure Gabriel keeps me around and loves me,” he tells her.

“Do not listen to him. He’s lying,” I say before turning in my seat to look at him. He’s so smug.

“You better straighten up,” I whisper.

His grin makes me want to kiss him, but I don’t think it’d be overly appropriate at this moment. “Or?”

“Or I’ll make you get another cat.”

“Please don’t.”

“You’re going to love this place,” Mom assures Liam. “Absolutely love it.”

“I’m excited to try it out.”

We pull up and Mom comes around to meet Liam as he gets out of the back seat, like she’s going to guide him right inside. She even takes his arm. Liam doesn’t seem to know what to do with that, but when he realizes that I look amused, he’s given no choice but to let her lead him in.

“Isn’t this just the cutest place?” she asks.

“Is it?” he questions as we head over to a table.

“They have the best specials too. Tonight looks like fish. Ooh, I do love fish.”

Liam flips through the menu before looking over and seeing that I’m watching him. He winks at me.

“I know it’s not super fancy,” Mom says. “You’re probably used to like… high-dollar places.”

“I’m not. As long as the food is edible, I’m happy.”

“It’s not a very big place but always quite busy.”

“I see that.”

“I think they should rearrange the tables a bit to fit more people in,” Dad says. “Wasting far too much space.”

“Oh, and the previous chef was quite a bit better, but the current one still does a great job,” Mom assures Liam.

“That’s good. What are you getting, Gabriel?”

“Maybe this BLT chicken sandwich? That sounds good. What about you?”

“I think I’ll do that too,” he says. “I heard the owner of this place is atrocious.”

Mom, who loves gossip, leans in. “Oh yeah?”

“Definitely. It’s why the chef quit. He couldn’t stand the owner.”

I stare at Liam as it slowly dawns on me what he’s saying. “Was the chef the owner ?” I ask as I realize that my parents’ favorite place to eat is Liam’s diner that he’s completely neglected.

Liam just smiles as the server comes up and stares at us for a long moment.

“Am I fired?” she asks. “Did you show up because you heard about the pancake incident?”

“Do you want to be fired?” Liam replies.

“I’m just glad you didn’t burn it down like you threatened to.”

“You were going to burn down the diner?” I ask.

The server nods as she leans forward like she’s getting ready to tell a grand story. “It was weirdly romantic. He was going to burn the diner down because the person he was in love with didn’t love him back. I told him that maybe chocolates and flowers were a better way to express his love than arson. I wish I could find a man who loved me enough to burn down his diner for me.”

“If you’d like to keep your job, you could be a whole lot less chatty,” Liam grumbles.

“Soooo, this really is the infamous diner,” I say with a grin.

“Care to catch me up?” Layla asks.

“Liam owns the diner,” I explain. “Which you’d think he’d have mentioned when we walked up. But that would be the normal thing to do, and we all know Liam’s difficult.”

“I like to pretend I don’t own it,” Liam says. “I do my best to forget it exists.”

“We’ve noticed,” the server says. “I miss you harassing the customers.”

“You own it?” Mom asks, looking hesitant, probably running through the recent conversation to see if she said anything wrong. “I thought you were in homicide?”

“I am. I quit for a year to open a diner. Hated it and went back. I just… do you know how much work goes into selling a diner? It’s easier to just forget it exists. And thank you. I know I was a better chef than the current one.”

“You’re so modest,” I say sarcastically.

Liam shrugs. “I didn’t say it to his face!”

“Don’t worry, Norm knows,” the server says. “Now what can I get you all to drink?”

We give our orders and after she leaves, I stare at Liam who is busy fiddling with his silverware. It must not be wrapped perfectly because he’s busy rewrapping it.

“What made you buy a diner, then?” Mom asks.

Liam glances up at her. “It was my father’s passion. I knew a bit about the whole restaurant thing because of him and thought I’d give it a try.”

“Did he have diners as well?”

“No. It was a steak and seafood restaurant called Riven.”

Mom points at him. “No kidding? Clark, that’s that fancy restaurant your boss would take us to for Christmas. Remember? It was so good. We could never afford to go there ourselves, so we loved the Christmas party. We were so sad when it closed.”

“Oh shit, you’re right,” Dad says. “Didn’t the owner…” He trails off as his eyes dart away from Liam like he’s said something wrong.

“Didn’t the owner, what?” Layla asks.

“Nothing. It was just a really good restaurant,” Dad says as he nervously glances at Mom who is just nodding as quickly as she can, like that’s not suspicious in the slightest.

I realize that what happened to Liam’s parents was probably a hot topic for a while if the original restaurant was in the area. The idea that three people would break into a multimillionaire’s home and kill him and his wife would definitely have spread around. I was so young at the time that I never would’ve picked up on it or related it in any way to Liam or his father’s restaurant.

“Thanks. My dad was quite proud of it.”

“Do your parents still own restaurants?” Layla asks. Mom and Dad are giving her “abort” eyes.

“They passed away,” Liam says.

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Thanks. It’s been a while now.”

“Will you be joining us for Thanksgiving?” Mom asks, quickly shifting the topic. “It’ll be at my house.”

Liam looks minorly horrified. “Oh… I don’t know. Gabriel might need me to stay home and stare at his cat.”

“I would like it if you went.” I’ve been trying to figure out how I could convince him to go. He’s not exactly the easiest person to talk into doing things with others.

“I’m… busy… every day that week. Wow, look at these saltshakers. Looks like they should be refilled.”

“The saltshakers are full,” I say. “Please?”

Liam stares at me, like we’re going to have a stare-off about this. Like there’s any possibility that I would let him sit at home all alone. And then because I’m the one asking, his stubbornness dissipates, and he sighs. “Fine. Why do you torture me like this?”

“Because I love you.”

He sighs again but nods. “I can’t wait for Thanksgiving,” he says. “And all the people. And having to pretend like I care about the ridiculous things humans like to speak about. And then trying to smile without looking too manic.”

Mom laughs. “It’s okay. I hate it as well, but if I have to suffer, I think you should suffer too.”

Liam nods approvingly. “I like your viciousness.”

Mom giggles and I realize that no matter how stubborn Liam is, he’s going to fit in just fine.