“Tossa.” I mumble under my breath and I swear I see his shoulders shake with laughter as I follow him down the stairs.
We are keeping it simple tonight and entertaining outside; it’s not really warm enough for a barbie but Gabe has had some of his blokes over the past few weeks, inspired by what we did up at the Palmers with their pool house, he has had built a fully enclosed alfresco area where the Tiki hut was down by the pool, in the space of a few days we now have a fully fitted kitchen area, with a built in barbie, a toilet and shower and enough room for the pool table, dart board, some new outdoor furniture and the outdoor dining set; The front of the room looks out over the pool, with timber bifolds to either let in the sun or keep out the cold, there are also patio heaters hard wired into the walls and pointing down from various points, basically it’s now an all-weather area and looks great and that’s where we will be doing our entertaining tonight…
We take my car and go to the wholesale butchers and pick up steaks and chops, then onto the fishmongers and pick up prawns and salmon; we then drive over to pick up Ava. Gabe’s hand has been at his jaw, rubbing on his stubble with his thumb and index finger for the last ten minutes, I know he is getting more and more stressed the closer we get to Nina’s house and it really pisses me off that she has this effect on him. I prize his hand from his jaw and take it in mine.
“You okay?”
“I’m good, why?”
“You’re rubbing your jaw, you do that when you’re stressed or thinking.”
He looks at me with such a boyish smile that my heart melts. “Do I?”
“You do. Why are you smiling?”
“Because I love it that you’ve noticed that I do that, it made my heart speed up when you said it.”
“I seriously want to shag you when you say things like that.”
“Lauren, jeez, spoil the moment why don’t ya, I was ready to have a d and m with you and your mind is once again firmly in the gutter. You really are a nympho.”
He brings my hand to his mouth and kisses my palm.
“Don’t ever change, I love that you want me so much.”
“Well make the most of it lover. Coz when dem babies get here I ain’t gonna have time for none a dat shit.” I put on my best ghetto voice. Which I’ve gotta say is pretty good.
“That’s a terrible accent Lauren. We will make time for sex, no matter what.”
He parks the car, undoes his seat belt and leans over to kiss me.
“Babies or not. I cannot keep my hands off of you and nothing will ever change that. You coming in with me?”
I never say yes, I always wait in the car but not today, now that I know how much Nina despises me, I hate the thought of Gabe being in her company without me. I nod and undo my seatbelt.
“Thought you might” He says with a smile.
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing. Get out.”
I slide out the car and pull my hoodie off; I removed his oversized one before I even got into the car earlier, pissed off that my act of defiance had been completely ignored by him.
“No, tell me what you meant. You said that you thought that I would get out of the car. Why did you think that?”
He laughs as he comes around the car and pulls me to him.
“Because you are my green eyed little red head who goes off like a fire cracker and I just knew you wouldn’t want me going in and seeing Nina on my own.”
“Hark at you, making me dress like the Amish today before I was allowed to leave the house.”
He shrugs his shoulders and kisses me full on the mouth. “Just protecting my assets baby.”
“Errrrm, think you’ll find they’re my assets Baby.”
“Actually Baby, I think you will find they are our babies’ breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
He kisses me again. “I love you.”
“I love you too. Now let’s go and face your ice queen ex Mrs.”
We head up the drive and Gabe knocks at the front door and pulls me into his side just as Nina swings the door open and instantly glares at me.
“You’re early.”
“Yeah, we err, we have a lot to do, we have people coming over tonight for a bit of a gathering and some tucker.”
She looks from me to Gabe and then back to me. “You better come in and wait.”
We walk through a bland hallway to a bland kitchen as Nina calls up the stairs for Ava to hurry up. The only warm thing about this home is the evidence that children live here, a highchair in the corner next to a toy box and finger paintings on the fridge. Gabe has hold of my hand, or do I have hold of his? Either way, we both have sweaty palms.
“House is quiet. Where are the kids?” Gabe asks, attempting to make polite conversation.