fake smile drop. “Please try to rein her in, okay? I know my fashion sense isn’t like Alicia’s at all, but don’t let her put me into a chicken suit or something like that.”
“A chicken suit?” He laughed. “Fat chance. She’s got visions of grandeur. Expensive grandeur.”
“Well, I guess I won’t be too dressed up. Wouldn’t want me to be a threat or anything, right?”
Gabe’s expression was indecipherable. “That’s absurd.”
His comment had an invisible sting. “Exactly.”
Gabe stretched, and the tails of his shirt rose, showing a sliver of skin at the waist of his slacks. “I’ve got to get going. I’m being dragged to taste menu choices tomorrow morning between my work meetings.”
My pulse sped up at the sight of his abs, and I immediately bounced up off the bed. “Menu choices, huh? No rest for the weary groom, eh?”
He shook his head. “So it seems. And you pay double for everything when you’re planning a wedding just five months away.” He rose off the bed, standing just inches apart from me. “Apparently, that’s like a week in wedding time.”
I could smell his cologne again, and my head began to swim. “Yeah, five months isn’t very long to plan the wedding of the century.”
“I know. Alicia is going overboard. I should have seen it coming. Oh, and hey, about the wedding date…” Gabe’s face fell.
I scowled and pushed his chest. “You mean my birthday?”
He looked down. “Yeah…listen, I’m sorry. I know we always hang out on your birthday for…”
“Pizza and baseball.” I glanced at the Mariners pendant hanging on the wall.
“It’s just that Alicia’s parents can’t both get time off work until that week, and they are booked clear through the summer. Alicia wants them both in town for all the festivities. We’ll still be hanging out on your birthday, right? We’ll just be…” His voice trailed off.
“In tuxes. Well, you’ll be in a tux. I will be in a chicken suit.” I took a deep breath and peeled my eyes from the pendant. “It will be fine. It’s a silly old tradition, anyway. It’s time for new traditions.”
He nodded. “Right.”
I opened my bedroom door, and we walked down the hall to the front door.
“Bye, freak show,” Gabe called, rapping on Betsy and Kim’s bedroom door with a smirk.
“See you later, Daddy,” Kim’s muffled voice answered.
Gabe frowned. “Alicia’s not pregnant.”
One of my eyebrows rose high on my forehead. “You sure? I mean, this quickie wedding, and—”
Gabe shook his head. “No. Alicia just doesn’t want to wait.”
“Okay, then.” I opened the door and leaned against the frame. “Thanks for asking me to be in your wedding.”
His frown softened. “Of course. I can’t imagine getting married without you there.”
Gabe pulled me into a tight hug, his face buried in my neck, his lips against the skin behind my ear. My head started to buzz, and I drew in a long, deep breath of his musky, rained-on scent, letting our hug last longer than it should have. Closing my eyes, I dug my fingers into the fabric of his shirt, pretending for just a moment that Gabe was mine. I could almost swear that he’d taken in his own deep breath, his lips and nose now buried in my hair. I felt weightless in his arms. The effect Gabe had on me was pure magic.
It was he who pulled out of the hug first, holding me at arm’s length, his eyes hazed over. We looked at each other, neither of us knowing what to say, but both of us increasingly aware of the incongruousness of our hug. Ten seconds passed…then twelve…
I spoke before he could, hoping my words would stifle the need brewing deep in my belly. “I think you’ve got cold feet.”
Gabe gritted his teeth. “I do not.”
“Then you had too much wine with your dinner tonight.” I took a shaky step backward.
His Caribbean blue eyes were focused on me. “I haven’t had anything to drink.”
My heart twisted. “Okay.”
“It’s just that…” He stopped speaking and just looked at me.
My insides tightened. “What?”
He released my shoulders and stepped through the doorway. The moment was gone. “Gotta go. I have three other groomsmen to call.”
Chapter Seven
June 13, 2001
The Parkers took me downtown with them today, and Gabe and I had a blast! We got into a lemon fight at the Chowder Shack, like we do every time we go, and Nora got mad at us. Like she always does. She said that she would never bring us again, but I saw her and Guthrie