Second Nature (His Chance #2) - Alexa Land Page 0,4
mom, and they’d never even met me before I showed up on their doorstep four years ago.”
“Did you ever reconcile with your parents?”
“That’s not an option,” I said. “My dad took off before I was born, and my mom didn’t bother to let me know where she was moving after I left home at sixteen.”
“That breaks my heart.”
“It is what it is. What about your mom, are you two close?”
“We’ve had our ups and downs, and I don’t know if I’d call us close, but we get along pretty well.” I’d almost forgotten we were in the dining room with a lot of other people until Gabriel leaned in and whispered, “What do you think about blowing off this dinner party? I just really want to keep talking to you, instead of sitting around making polite small talk with everyone.”
I looked around and saw Phoenix chatting with Will and Lorenzo, so I told him, “I’m all for it. My friends are amusing themselves, so they probably won’t miss me.”
He grabbed my hand and led me into the adjoining commercial kitchen, where a couple of guys were getting ready to serve a mountain of food. Gabriel said, “Colt and Ren, this is my friend Riley. We have a lot of catching up to do, so we’re going to be antisocial and skip out on dinner. Hope you don’t mind.”
The older of the two was a handsome guy with dark hair and a short beard, and he smiled at us and said, “We don’t mind at all. Have fun.”
Gabriel found some silverware and used a dishcloth to pick up one of the desserts on the counter as he said, “I baked six pies for a total of fourteen people, so I’m going to steal one of them. I think there’s still plenty to go around.” Then he asked me, “Do you want some of the main course, too?”
“Actually, I’m good with just the pie.”
“Me too.” We said good night to his friends, and as we left the kitchen he asked, “Where to, my room or yours?”
“Yours. I’d like to see where you live.”
We left the main building, but we didn’t go to the second, nearly identical building like I’d expected. Instead, we took a path through some thick landscaping and eventually came to a tall fence. On the other side of it was a palatial mansion, and I blurted, “Holy shit, is this employee housing?” It was sleek and modern, and it jutted out over the edge of a cliff and tapered down a couple of stories, like a sculpture of wood and glass.
“Yeah. So, a few years ago, Ren built Seahorse Ranch and this house with his boyfriend at the time. Then they broke up, and now Ren and Colt are together. They wanted to start fresh by building their own home on the property, and Ren decided the best use of this place was to let his year-round employees live here.”
“That’s incredibly generous.”
“It is. He’s a great guy, and so’s his nephew Beck. They run the resort together.”
The inside of the house was as impressive as the outside. We cut through a huge living room, which reminded me of a nightclub, then went down two flights of stairs. When Gabriel opened the door to his room, I murmured, “This is amazing.” He’d transformed a fairly small room into something magical by hanging jewel-toned, sparkly fabrics from the ceiling and over the walls, creating the illusion of a tent. It was like something out of Aladdin.
He found a towel and spread it out over his plum-colored comforter, and then we both took off our shoes and sat on the bed, facing each other with the pie between us.
When he handed me a soup spoon, I asked, “What’s the plan of attack here?” He grinned as he pierced the crumb topping with his spoon, scooped up some of the cherry filling, and ate a big bite. I did the same, and then I told him, “This is delicious. I didn’t know you could bake.”
“I’ve been teaching myself over the last year. The people who live on-site are big on communal meals, and I wanted to be able to contribute. I don’t really like to cook, but baking is pretty fun.”
I ate another big spoonful of pie before saying, “This room is great. You need to come and help me decorate my apartment.”
“Where do you live?”
“I rent a tiny studio in West Hollywood. It has plain white walls and a view of a