“Hilarious. I only said that at Buddy’s that night because being contrary used to be my default response to you. But you can talk to me about business stuff. I can’t promise to understand it, but I am a good listener.”
“I know you are. I’ll probably take you up on it when you’re not dealing with other secret job stuff.”
“Speaking of job stuff . . . I have to take off in an hour since I’m refereeing two games at two different rinks. Then Dani wants to get together and talk, which I don’t want to do, but I’ve been putting her off for a while.”
“You never mentioned what your parents think about Dani and Tyson.”
“They weren’t super shocked. It was a pretty short conversation.”
“They didn’t ask if you’ve become involved with a sexy, well-dressed businessman who adores you?”
“Oddly enough, that didn’t come up.” She paused. “You think Jax knows about us? Or maybe I should ask if you’ve told him anything?”
I shook my head. “He’s dealing with four projects right now, so I don’t know if seeing us together more often has registered. Who have you told?”
“Besides accidentally spilling the deets to your mom?”
“She gave me an ‘atta boy’ for that, which was weird.”
“I’ll bet. Oh, speaking of weird . . . Dallas knows about us. I didn’t tell her though. She said she saw it in the stars.”
I snickered. “Of course she did.”
“This is super bizarre. I can’t believe I forgot to tell you. Remember I told you that she, Liddy and I had that girls’ night before they both skipped town, forcing me to ask you to help me with interview outfits?”
“Can’t say I’m sorry about them not being around since it led us here.”
“Me either. But when Dallas came back from Bali, she popped by and asked how it was going with us. The question flustered me. Then she told me to look on the top shelf where I keep my spices. She’d placed a note there, the night we were drinking together, that said, You and Nolan will get each other in all the ways that truly matter.”
“Jesus. That is spooky.”
“But entirely true.”
“Mm-hmm.”
I sat next to her and we devoured breakfast.
Afterward, Gabi pointed at yesterday’s newspaper on the coffee table. “You still get daily delivery?”
“I’m a throwback. I know most people read news online, but I like the paper version.”
“Me too! Did you get today’s Star Trib?”
I got up and snagged it off the catchall table in the foyer. “Right here.”
Gabi curled up in the corner of the couch with her coffee. “Can you pass me the sports section?”
In that moment, I could see us reading the newspaper together every morning while we fortified ourselves for the day. She’d gotten a panicked look in her eyes last night when I’d mentioned her moving in, so I’d have to be patient before I brought it up again. But she belonged with me.
After she left, I cleaned up the kitchen and made a grocery list for my housekeeper. Rather than go into the office, I logged into the LI server on my laptop and read through the million reports that defined my professional life.
At two thirty I changed into basketball shorts and a T-shirt, loaded my bag into my SUV and drove to meet my dad. I couldn’t wait until the weather warmed up and we could play racquetball at their outdoor home court rather than at the country club, which wasn’t my favorite place. But he’d been a member for years and we never had to wait for a court.
He’d booked enough time for us to warm up. He walked in, tossed me a towel and a bottle of water. “Go easy on your old man today, eh? I think I overate at brunch. Got some indigestion going on.”
“You wanna postpone?”
“Nope. We’ve already skipped two weeks.” He started stretching.
I grabbed a ball and bounced it on my racket, rotating it forward to back as a wrist warmup.
“So we missed you at brunch again. You said you’d explain why.”
“Don’t pretend that Mom hasn’t already told you.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Told me what?”
“That Gabriella Welk and I are in a relationship.”
A grin appeared. “Eeds did tell me. Sounds like it’s been going on a couple of weeks so it’s more than a one-off?”
“It’s the real deal, Dad. She’s just . . . it for me. I know it seems fast—”
“It’s not the length of time that’s the test, it’s the depth of