“The whole house is beautiful but I have no words for this.”
“Happy you like it.”
Gabe approached and didn’t stop until he was close. I tipped my head back and smiled.
Happy didn’t begin to cover how I felt but I was pleased he was happy. I, on the other hand, was ecstatic to be there. Not because it was a big, waterfront home. Not because the furnishings were gorgeous. My overwhelming joy came from Gabe. What was going to happen next, and the day after, and the day after that.
“Does me being here feel right?” I asked.
Gabe didn’t hesitate when he told me, “Nothing I’ve earned was enough. No amount of money I’ve saved gave me enough security. No place I’ve lived felt like home. Nothing has ever felt right in my life until I saw you. Now I understand why. Nothing was right, nothing was enough, no place was home, because you were not there.”
“I know that feeling,” I returned.
“I’m gonna marry you, Evette.” My breath caught and my toes tingled. “Then I’m gonna plant my babies in you and give you everything you’ve ever wanted.”
“Just you. That’s all I need.”
“Nope, you need everything.”
The time was nigh for Gabe Harris to learn the meaning of everything.
“You don’t get it, but you will. You are everything. Just you. The way you smile at me. The way you look at me. Sometimes with a hunger that makes me shiver. Sometimes with a soft, sweet gaze that makes me warm. But always like I’m precious. Everything is you making me feel safe and loved. Everything is hearing your laugh. Everything is lying next to you in the middle of the night listening to your stories. Everything is falling asleep cuddled close and waking up the same.”
“Jesus,” he growled.
Not his I’m-turned-on-throw-me-on-the-bed-and-ravage-me growl but a painful one that sounded like it hurt.
“Gabe—”
“You need to stop.”
“What?”
“Two reasons.” His hand shot up and hooked me around the back of the neck and I didn’t miss his wince. “One, you being sweet means I wanna toss you on our bed and show you how much I love you. And that is not an option for me for several reasons—one of which is that your parents are due back any moment.”
It was unfortunate he couldn’t toss me on the bed because now that he’d mentioned it in his rough, bossy tone I seriously wanted him to.
“And the second reason?”
Gabe curled his fingers and pressed deep. Which gave me a shiver and a tingle, this one not in my toes, but a full-body quake that my man didn’t miss. Not that he could, because I hadn’t bothered to hide that this was one of those times where he was giving me everything just by being him.
“Reason number two is you being sweet means I want to lock your parents out, kiss the fuck out of you, which I’ve yet to be able to do. Then kiss other places on your beautiful body which would lead to you making all those sounds I fuckin’ love. Which would mean I’d toss your ass on our bed and show you just how much I love them by making you moan some more. And since I can’t do any of that I’d appreciate it if you’d stop being sweet.”
Gabe’s disgruntled look made me grin, but thinking about how he’d called his bed our bed twice now made me smile huge.
“That’s one reason, just worded differently,” I pointed out.
Gabe didn’t concede.
Instead, he gave me sweet and the way he did it was far better than what I gave him.
“Welcome home, Evette.”
Oh. My. God.
“Welcome home, Gabe.”
Chapter 34
I couldn’t remember a time when there were so many people in my house. And that was because there had never been a time when so many people were in my house. Something about it felt good—made it feel like a home.
But right then my concentration was on Evette and her dad outside on the dock, not on my teammates and their families milling about my house.
“She was worried for nothing,” Jenn London said from beside me, watching her husband and daughter.
Evette had not been wrong; her mother was a ballbuster and bossy as fuck. But like I’d told Evette in the car ride home, I’d never had a mom look after me when I was sick. Or maybe I had before my dad died, but not after. And that wasn’t to say there hadn’t been times when I’d caught a cold or flu, just that my mom didn’t