Emmaline and Esme ran up ahead, skipping alongside their grandfather. The others sorted themselves into pairs so as not to block the sidewalk. The noise level didn’t appreciably decrease.
“Hey, Gabe!” called one of his brothers, the one who looked most like Gabriel—though his eyes were a brilliant blue rather than steel gray. “Introduce your girl, why don’t you?”
The pretty young redhead at his side, her skin even paler than Emmaline’s—who had to be their child—elbowed him. “Excuse Sailor,” she said to Charlotte, her smile friendly and her accent unusual. “My husband has the manners of an elephant.”
Grabbing his wife’s jaw in a playful grip, Sailor planted a wet kiss on her mouth. “You know you love me.”
“Get moving,” Gabriel yelled back. “You know Dad isn’t going to wait for you two to make out.”
“Jealous. I bet you want to—oomph!”
Charlotte bit the inside of her cheek at the sounds coming from behind them. Gabriel’s breath brushed her cheek the next instant as he leaned down to whisper, “I want to do all sorts of things to you, Ms. Baird, just not in public.”
“Sailor, Ísa,” he said the next instant, turning slightly so they faced the other couple, “meet Charlotte.”
“Hi,” she managed to get out.
Ísa waved her over. “Come talk to me and let the boys amuse each other.”
Charlotte wasn’t good with new people, but Ísa was so welcoming that it would’ve been churlish to refuse… and she wanted Gabriel’s family to like her. Letting go of his hand on a bracing breath, she fell in with Ísa, the men taking up the rear.
Gentle and warm, Ísa proved easy to talk to.
When Emmaline ran back to take her mom’s hand, Alison came with her. The older woman slid her arm through Charlotte’s while Emmaline and Ísa went forward to join Jake, Esme, and Joseph.
“So,” Gabriel’s mother said, “you’re the one who’s been driving my son crazy.”
It was such an odd thing to hear that Charlotte responded before thinking through her words. “I don’t think I’m the one who’s been driving anyone crazy.”
Alison’s laughter said she knew her son well. “Trust me, we’ve all heard about his assistant who won’t listen to him and refuses to work Sundays.” The other woman patted her hand. “Good on you. My sons are forces of nature—they picked that up from Joseph.” An affectionately dry comment. “It’s either stand your ground or end up mincemeat.”
Startled at the thought that Gabriel had spoken about her to his family, she found herself saying, “Did he tell you I threw a muffin at his head?”
Alison burst out laughing again. “God, sweetheart, what had he done?”
“He kept growling and snarling at me that the documents weren’t right when I’d double and triple-checked them.”
“That doesn’t sound like Gabriel. He’s the most detail-oriented of my boys.”
“Uh-huh.” Charlotte nodded. “I suspected he’d ‘lost’ some of the pages on purpose just to mess with me.”
Alison’s lips twitched. “That sounds like Gabriel.”
And suddenly Charlotte was laughing with this woman who had given birth to the most talented, infuriating, and gorgeous man Charlotte had ever known.
WHEN ESME WAS SENT back with a message that Grandpa wanted to talk to Uncle Gabe, Gabriel knew exactly what the conversation would entail even before he reached his stepfather.
“Dad,” he said, “What’s up?”
“You mother told me of her talk with you,” Joseph said in his steady way that demanded absolute attention, his black hair grizzled with white now but his body and mind no less in shape than when he’d first come into Gabriel’s life. “Have you really considered your decision, son?”
Gabriel shrugged. “You know what he did to us. Cancer doesn’t change the fact that he’s an unreliable piece of shit who abandoned his wife and children.”
His stepfather lifted a hand to wave at another family on the other side of the road; Gabriel thought they might be neighbors. “Look, Gabriel,” Joseph said. “You’ve always been smart and you know your own mind, so the decision’s yours.” Putting one hand on Gabriel’s shoulder, he squeezed. “But I want you to think about what that anger inside you will do to you if he ends up dying before you’ve cleared the air with him.”
Gabriel glanced over his shoulder to make sure Charlotte was still okay with his mom before he returned his attention to his stepfather. “I will,” he said because of his respect for Joseph. “But I can’t see myself changing my mind.”