phone out of his back pocket and started punching in something as he left the room.
Yeah, that’s what dads did, biological or not. They coped. Gabe just wished it wasn’t so damn hard.
He suddenly needed to find Natalie.
• • •
“This place is pretty spectacular. I’ve only ever lived in condos.” Natalie made the comment as she closed the French doors and stepped back inside the great room after looking out over the rolling hills and lush green lawn that stretched as far as she could see. She glanced up, took in Gabe’s drawn face and came to a halt. “What’s wrong?”
He plastered a fake smile on his face and came around the sectional to meet her halfway into the room. “Nothing.”
That he thought he could still fool her, or that he needed to, frustrated her a bit. She got self-protection, but they’d shared so many secrets that they had to be past some of the basic stuff.
“Something.” She put a hand on his chest. Let it trail down until it rested on the top of his jeans.
His hands came up to rest on her waist. “Rick has been in contact with Brandon.”
Rick wasn’t even in the room and he changed the mood to something dreary. The guy needed to back off. She wished she was in a position to tell him. Frankly, if he were standing here she would. Forget protocol and manners. He acted like an ass and deserved to be treated like one.
Since Gabe didn’t seem to be in the mood for an it’s-not-that-bad speech, since it clearly was, she went with reason. “Doesn’t that violate your informal agreement that he not talk to Brandon directly about what’s going on?”
She could have Bast there in ten minutes to straighten it all out. Maybe not that fast, but he’d hammer through a real deal. The problem was, no matter how she turned this problem over in her head, at some point Gabe was going to have to concede to the DNA test. He could only run from the truth, whatever it was, for so long.
“Rick isn’t exactly one to follow the rules,” Gabe said.
He managed to say it in a nice way, so she followed his example. “Apparently he’s not a boundaries type of guy.”
Gabe exhaled and his head fell forward. He rested it against her cheek and just stood there. “He wants a DNA test, but I guess you figured that out.”
“Seemed logical under the circumstances.” She caressed his cheek because nothing she could say would bring any comfort.
“He wants it now and has given me a deadline to agree. I have a week or two left. He promised not to bring Brandon into this directly right now, but who knows.”
She hesitated for a few beats before talking again. “You should be the one to tell him.”
Gabe lifted his head and looked at her with eyes filled with pain. “That’s not a conversation I ever want to have.”
She felt sick for him. His love for Brandon, biological or not, shone throughout the entire house. She couldn’t walk into a room or down a hallway without seeing a reminder of some piece of family history. Photos from rafting trips and baseball games. Little Brandon and Brandon as he was now. The photos showed so much.
But photos were about memories, and they had a real-life crisis to deal with. She brushed a hand over Gabe’s hair. “What are you going to do?”
“Let it happen. Maybe try to control the conversation a bit. Brandon wants to see him.”
She’d meant the DNA test, but he clearly was talking about a meeting between Rick and Brandon. No question he wasn’t ready to deal with the big picture yet. “That sounds like a nightmare.”
Gabe lifted his head then. Sadness vibrated through him and tugged at the corner of his eyes. “That’s what all of this is, Nat.”
“That boy loves you.” She knew that. Could tell from ten minutes with the kid.
“I know.”
At least he had that. She’d been raised without any sense of love. She envied Gabe for his certainty even as she worried about the weeks ahead and how he would get through them. “You aren’t going to lose him.”
Gabe exhaled as his expression visibly changed. It was as if he pulled himself back from the emotional abyss. “Hey, we’re supposed to be worrying about your safety.”
She glanced out the glass door then looked around the comfortable room. “I feel pretty calm here.”
“Me, too.” His hands slid a little lower, past her waist.