Page 117 of Loving Wild

“Go make your daughter happy.” I give him a nudge in the ribs as I sit up, making room for Gabe to move.

“Fuck me,” he mumbles. “I haven’t even learnt the words yet.”

I watch as he takes the guitar from his dad, then sits on the stool Joe vacates. Gabe strums the guitar a few times, but my eyes are on Ava, who’s sending a massive grin in my direction.

“What?” I mouth to her.

“Listen,” she says while gesturing to her dad.

I don’t immediately recognise the song when Gabe opens with the guitar.

“Little Bird, this one’s for you,” he says right before he starts singing.

The ball of emotion in my throat is replaced by my heart as it attempts to squeeze its way out of my chest, fly on feathery angel wings, landing at the feet of Gabriel Wild.

I don’t cry, but somehow, my eyes still leak as I sit rigidly upright and watch and listen to Gabe singing One Direction’s ‘Little Things’, through the flames of the fire pit.

I’m not sure if all the conversations around us stop, or if I just no longer hear them, but for those few short minutes, it’s just me and him.

His eyes are mostly on his fingers as he strums, plays, or whatever he does to the guitar strings, but every now and then, he looks up and gives me that lop-sided—I’ve been drinking but I’m not drunk—sexy and so very cocky smile.

He knows what that smile and the words to this song will earn him later and wanting and needing that little extra boost to my confidence, I knock back my glass of drinkthat’s been sitting on the table in front of me for the last half hour.

Ava stands and makes her way towards me. It’s not until she drops down into the space Gabe left that I realise her eyes are brimming with tears.

“What’s wrong?” I ask while pulling her long lanky body into my lap.

“He loves you so much,” she chokes the words out between sobs. “It just makes me so happy.”

“Makes me so happy too,” I tell her. “I lovehimjust as much, but I can’t sing so all I can do is tell him and show him.”

Ava nods. “Yeah, nah, I’ve heard you in the car. You can’t sing.”

Her honesty makes me laugh, but I’d expect nothing less from Gabe’s daughter, or any of the Wild family.

As the song ends, Ava pulls out of my lap to give her dad a standing ovation. The rest of the girls clap while the boys boo at the One Direction song choice, shouting out requests from Eminem to Good Charlotte and Imagine Dragons.

Ava returns to her bean bag, and as I watch her go, I notice Joe is watching me. I give him a smile, he gives me a wink that touches my heart.

I need to catch up with my own family, make the effort to see my mum soon. We’ve spoken on the phone, I’ve told her the Jay story, told her about Gabe, but I got the feeling she thinks Gabe is just my rebound revenge fuck. I need her to meet him, to see us together to know that we’re a couple.

* * *

I don’t knowhow much later it is when Gabe holds my hand and pulls me towards the bedroom. After the kids drifted off to their own firepit, Dani went to the kitchen and started pouring shots. Gabe cut me off after the third, or maybe sixth Cock Sucking Cowboy, and because I’d whispered into his ear something about being a cock sucking Essex girl, he was now in a hurry to get to our room.

Pulling me through the door, he closes it, spins us around so my back is to it, and kisses me.

Hard. Deep. Wet. Long.

All the things I like from his kisses.

His hands slide from my hips up my waist; reaching around his neck, he pulls my arms from where they’re wrapped around him and pushes them up over my head.

“Stay there,” he orders.

The only light in the room is from a side lamp I left on earlier, but it’s enough to illuminate us both. He’s barefoot, wearing boardies and a T, and I watch as he climbs up on the bed, reaches behind him and pulls off the T before sitting with his back against the headboard. I take in the dark hair on his chest, follow its path down to where it disappears inside his shorts, and watch as he laces his hands across his abs, and crosses his long, bare legs in front of him.

When my eyes trail a path back to his face, his eyes are on my bare legs. I’m wearing shorts and a hoodie over a T; my shoes lost somewhere during the day.