But cutting into all the goodness, a voice yells from upstairs, “Gabby!”
Jude stops and his eyes shoot to mine as we both still.
“Gabby!” Tony yells for me.
“Holy shit,” I whisper-repeat, at the same time he whisper-repeat, “Fuck.”
Jude, who’s wearing an angry scowl, puts his hands on each side of me, performing a push up from the sectional, grabbing my hand to yank me up with him. Standing here in my shorts and pink bra, he tosses me my tank as he tags his shirt from the floor.
“Gabby, where are you?” Tony yells again.
“Down—” my voice scrapes and I have to clear my throat. “Down here.” I pull my tank over my head, trying to right my clothes and fix my pony tail. “We’re moving stuff around.”
Jude comes closer to me looking straight in my eyes and leans down to kiss me softly and just as softly rasps, “Beautiful.”
“Ohmygoodness,” I say as I hear Tony tromping down my stairs.
I take a step back and try and get my wits about me at the same time Tony gets louder with each step. “It’s Monday Night Football, even though it’s preseason the first couple of quarters are still good, I figured Jude would be around again so I thought we could watch the game here.”
He said the last word as he took the last step, then stills to stare at us. I don’t know what he sees, but it feels as if I got caught with my hand in the cookie jar, only a million times worse. He looks to Jude, then at me before raising a brow. “Or I could go watch with dad.”
That’s when I feel an arm snake around me going across my upper chest and I’m pulled into Jude’s hard one where he holds me tight. My eyes get big not really knowing what to say, so I go with, “I’ll make popcorn.” Tony grins at the same time I feel Jude’s arm tighten around me further.
“Really, I can go,” Tony repeats.
“No, no,” I exclaim, feigning enthusiasm. “I just made homemade salsa and I have chips left. Popcorn, salsa, and chips. And I’ve got beer.”
I twist my neck as best I can and give Jude a fake smile. He narrows his eyes, shaking his head no, but mutters, “Sounds good.”
I turn back to Tony. “See? I’ll go get the beer.”
I try my best to get out of Jude’s ironman hold, but he doesn’t allow it until he leans down, kissing the side of my head. I close my eyes, only to find Tony staring at us when I open them. Giving him a small smile as Jude finally lets me go, I hightail my ass up the stairs as fast as I can to set about making popcorn and gathering drinks. I hope beer and popcorn are a special potion, making weird situations less weird.
A few moments later, Tony and Jude tromp up the stairs as I pull the popcorn off the burner, Tony saying, “We’re gonna have to watch up here, it’s a mess down there.”
“Good idea,” I agree, as if I’m going to argue. I really don’t want to sit with my favorite cousin and my … well, whatever Jude is … on the same sectional that I was just half naked on with Jude. That would bring things to a whole new level of weird.
I get everyone fitted with beer and popcorn, arranging the chips and salsa out on my super cool, very beat up coffee table. Tony settles in the club chair stretching his feet out on the ottoman and Jude collapses in the corner of the sofa, pulling me down next to him. He slouches, lifting his feet to my cool coffee table, puts an arm around my shoulders and tucks me in tight. I almost start to argue but really, it’s seriously comfortable. I sigh, take a swig of my beer and settle in to watch preseason football that I don’t give one care about.
My thoughts come back to present time and I look over at Reagan, telling her about my previous evening. She’s sitting there with her mouth hanging open.
“I know, right? And now, as one of my best friends in the universe, you know all there is to know.”
“So, what happened after football?”
“I fell asleep around half time, Tony said goodbye and Jude told me to go to bed, slept on my sofa again.”
“Is he coming back tonight?” she keeps on with the questions.
“I don’t know. That’s the thing, we never make plans, he just comes back every evening and leaves the next morning. I assume he goes home, showers, changes, goes to work, and does whatever else he does, and then he’s back again.”
“What does his tattoo mean?”
“I don’t know yet, but I’m dying to find out. I’ll let you know.” I smile and wiggle my eyebrows at her. “I think I’m done. There’s really no drying with the wax, you’re good to go. It’s so pretty.” I admire my handiwork.
“Gabby, you’re awesome. It’s beautiful and just what I wanted.”
“Go buy your table, Reagan. It’ll look great in here.”
“We’re going this weekend. I can’t wait,” she says with excitement.
I gather all my stuff and pull my phone out to text Jude. This is the newest thing he’s been bossy about. He’s still concerned about Trevor Harper and said they don’t have any leads on him, although they haven’t heard much more about me on the wiretaps, which is a really good thing. He said he wants to know where I am all the time, so now I have to text him when I leave somewhere and when I arrive. He really wanted me to go and hang out at the law firm or with one of my aunts, but I refused to sit around, telling him I have work to do. Texting was as good as he was going to get.
“I’ll see you soon, Reagan, we need to find a time to go out when John isn’t on call.” I say.
“I can’t wait, I haven’t been out in forever. I’ll call Lilly and Leigh and we’ll set it up,” she says as I lean down to kiss baby Ben on his soft head that smells like yummy baby.
“Perfect.” I smile and turn to my car.
It’s early afternoon, so I head to Target to for groceries. I’ve only been here for twenty minutes when my phone rings and when I see the caller, I sigh. “Hey, Lilly.”
“Tonight!” she exclaims, planning my evening again. “Reagan just called. You’ve obviously had a busy few days and there’s shit I need to know. Leigh can’t go, that jackwad of a husband has other plans for her. I’m worried about her, but until we’ll get Leigh figured out we figure you out. Bonefish at seven and you can share over Raspberry Vodka Collins. Lots of them,” she adds with enthusiasm. “It’ll be great! John’s not on call, he’s gonna take us and we can Uber home.”
“I don’t know, Lilly, I might have plans tonight.” I think about what my plans might be after last night. I stop my cart dead in the middle of the cereal aisle and it occurs to me Jude might have plans that include lulling me into another Jude coma, which seem to always make me okay with his plans. I change my mind immediately. “You know what? I’m hungry for the Salmon Asparagus Salad and I could use a couple of those drinks. Sounds like fun to me.”
“Yay!” she cheers. “Be ready at six forty-five, the minivan will be by to pick you up.”
“See you then,” I say hanging up.
I look down at my phone and decide to do something I’ve never done before. I’ve been texting Jude on a normal basis, but for some reason calling seems different, more familiar. Trying to pull it together, I hit call and put the phone to my ear, half-praying I get his voice mail.