Special Episode: Lazy Sunday
This episode is part of a larger story, Soft Touch. If you haven’t yet, you can go back and read it from the beginning right here.
Gabby stirs slowly, taking a deep breath. Her head is bedded softly against a pillow. A beam of golden sunlight is slanting across her face.
Her body is nice and sore, humming with some half-remembered bliss that makes her think she had a sexy dream.
A vivid, breath-stealing memory rushes back into her drowsy mind, waking her all the way up. Kent, last night, panting through deep, stuttering little moans, grasping her hips so tightly, his mouth playing with hers until neither of them could concentrate on that anymore.
Gabby’s toes curl at the end of the bed. This whole thing is still so new, and part of her can’t believe it’s actually happening. If Kent would stop making everything so dreamy, that might help her out. But he won’t, apparently, and secretly she doesn’t want him to.
She lays still for a long moment, swimming in the memory, then rolls over with a sleepy yawn, hearing the bedroom door pushed open. She remembers she’s in Kent’s t-shirt, and smiles as she sits up on her elbow to open her eyes.
“Buenos-” she begins, then stops abruptly, spotting the curious little face peeking in through the bedroom door. “Oh - Ellen!”
Gabby sits bolt upright, caught completely by surprise. Ellen pushes the door of Kent’s bedroom a little further open, hangs there shyly for a moment, then suddenly comes bounding over and hops up onto the bed across from Gabby.
“Hi!” she chirps brightly, smiling with her warm mahogany eyes. A perfect match for Kent’s.
“Good morning!” Gabby says anxiously, glancing at the door, hoping to find Kent there. “What’s, um - weren’t you at a sleepover?”
“Olivia’s dad had to go to the hospital, so he dropped me off early.”
Gabby quickly looks back at Ellen, concerned. “Oh, no! Is he alright?”
“Yeah, he works there! So I let myself in with the emergency key in the garage.” Ellen gives a jolt, like she just realized something. “Oh - dad said I’m not supposed to tell anyone where that is! You won’t tell him I told you, will you? Dad said it’s a safety thing, and that’s when he gets real upset, if I ignore the safety things.”
Gabby smiles in surprise at Ellen’s sweet, anxious expression.
“Aw.” She taps Ellen’s nose with her fingertip. “You really don’t want to see him upset, do you?”
“No,” Ellen says earnestly, settling herself down cross-legged on the quilt. “He’s already been sad a lot.”
Gabby stops still, blinking hard at Ellen. “Did he tell you that, sweetheart?”
Ellen shakes her head. “No, but I’ve heard him crying alone in here when he thinks I’m asleep. Especially right after mom left. It was every night, for a while. I could hear him if I put my ear on the door.”
Gabby draws back, staring at Ellen, her heart aching.
“Oh,” she answers, very softly.
“Yeah,” Ellen says sadly, then brightens up. “But it’s okay. He doesn’t do that anymore. Not since you came back to Ketterbridge, actually!”
Gabby’s heart flies to the other extreme so fast she gets whiplash. Suddenly her cheeks are burning, and an irrepressible smile is turning up her lips.
“How nice to hear!” she manages, feeling a little dazed.
“It’s great!” Ellen agrees promptly, beaming up at her. “I always wanted to go in and hug dad when I could hear him crying, but I knew he didn’t want me to know. But now you’re here, so you can do it, if it happens again! And I’ll pretend I don’t know about it.”
She leans forward with a conspiratorial air, so Gabby leans in to listen.
“This way,” Ellen goes on confidentially, “He’ll feel better, but we won’t hurt, um - what’s the thing that boys, um, get all worked up about all the time…?”
“Pride?” Gabby suggests, struggling to keep down a laugh.
“Yes! Won’t hurt his pride.” Ellen rolls her eyes affectionately. “You know how boys are.”
Gabby loses the battle against the burst of giggles building in her chest. Ellen doesn’t know why Gabby is laughing, but she’s infected by the giggles, and presses her fingers to her cheeks.
“What, Gabby?”
“Nothing,” Gabby says, full of growing fondness. “It’s just nice to get to know you better. You’re a very sweet little thing. And I can tell you love your dad very much.”
“Dad’s the best!” Ellen agrees shyly, obviously pleased. Her eyes dart over to the night table. She picks up one of Gabby’s golden bangles, then turns it over in her hands, watching the light move through the stones. “I’m glad that he’s happy again.”
Gabby allows herself a moment to sit there saying nothing, glowing inside, before she answers.
“And - do you miss your mom, Ellen?” she asks gently. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. No pressure.”
“No, it’s okay.” Ellen shrugs her shoulders, wholly unbothered. “I’m happy with dad. Mom and I, um - we got mad at each other a lot. Even when we didn’t, we never, um - never really…”
She fades off, her little face screwing up as she searches for the right word.
“Connected?” Gabby offers, trying to read her gesturing hands.
“Mmm - yeah, I think that’s it.” Ellen looks guiltily at Gabby, twisting the bangle around in her hands. “I know we were supposed to, since she’s my mom. Dad really tried to make us. Mom and I tried, too. I think it must be my fault that we couldn’t, but I - I don’t know what I did wrong, or what’s wrong with me…”
“Oh, Ellen - nothing’s wrong with you,” Gabby protests immediately, her heart stumbling unhappily at the change in Ellen’s voice when she said that. “There are some things you just can’t force, sweetheart, and that’s okay.”
Ellen gazes up at Gabby with searching eyes. “Dad also said it isn’t my fault. He said that it’s nobody’s fault, and that we all tried our hardest.”
Gabby tilts her head to the side sympathetically. “It sounds like he’s probably right, from what I’m hearing. He’s a very smart man, your dad.”
Ellen grows thoughtful for a moment, then brightens up again.
“Well, either way, it’s okay!” she says earnestly. “I have dad. I’ll always have dad.”
Gabby smiles at Ellen, then reaches over to cuff her chin. “Sí, that man would take on the whole world for you!”
Ellen giggles, then pauses as Gabby holds out a hand for her bangle. She gives it back, looking guilty for taking it, then blinks in surprise when Gabby gently catches her fingers and slips the bangle onto her little wrist. Gabby gets the others from the night table and puts them on her, too, so she can get the full effect.
“This is fun,” Ellen laughs, giving the stack of bangles an enthusiastic jingle.
“I know, I love the little noise they make all day at work,” Gabby admits, breaking into a grin. “Here, do you want the earrings, too? I can hold them up - what - you already have your ears pierced, Ellen?”
“Since I was a baby, so I wouldn’t remember it hurting.”
“Our families share some traditions,” Gabby observes, smiling as she takes the backing off of an earring. “Tell me if this is too heavy, okay?”
“It won’t be!” Ellen protests with fiery determination, leaning forward so Gabby can put the earring in. “Wait - will you show me how to do it myself? I haven’t worn ones with hooks before.”
“Sure. Here, turn and face the mirror. There’s the backing for you - just don’t drop it.”
Ellen takes it with such immense concentration that Gabby has to fight back another laugh. She helps Ellen fit the dangly gold and green earrings in place. Ellen swings her head from side to side to make the earrings dance, then admires herself in the mirror across from the bed.
“You have such pretty things!” she sighs in delight, twisting to face Gabby.
Gabby quickly straightens up, having used Ellen’s moment of distraction to snag her pajama shorts from the floor and pull them on. She comes back to the bed and drops to sit next to Ellen again, smiling as she gives the bangles another jingle.
“Thanks, El! I’m glad you like them. They look beautiful on you.”
Ellen turns shy, her bright eyes growing very solemn. “Do you really think so?”
“Yes!”
Ellen looks closely at herself in the mirror, her cheeks glowing with a pleased blush. She hesitates, then blurts out - “Are you going to start staying over at our house more often, Gabby?”
Gabby’s smile falls away. She bites her lip nervously.
“Do you mind it when I stay over?” she asks, meeting Ellen’s eyes in the mirror. “It’s okay, you can tell me. This is also your home, not just Kent’s. I know it’s been a few times, now, and I wouldn’t want to-”
“No, I don’t mind!” Ellen jumps in immediately. “I know that when people date sometimes they stay over at each other’s places!”
Gabby smiles in relief. “Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah, I know about dating,” Ellen says impressively. “A boy in my class asked me out once!”
“Really? Did you say yes?”
“No. I had a science experiment going that I was pretty focused on, so…”
Gabby lets out a sharp sputter of laughter, dropping her forehead onto Ellen’s shoulder.
A wave of baffled giggles breaks from Ellen. “Did I do something, Gabby?”
“No, you’re just so - so-” Gabby begins affectionately, struggling to speak through her giggles - then breaks off as she notices something in her peripheral vision.
Kent is standing frozen in the doorway, two to-go cups from Mugshot clasped in his hands. His shoulders are lightly dusted with rain, and a few droplets are sprinkled across his glasses.
He’s staring at Gabby and Ellen with a complicated, glowing expression in his eyes. Gabby isn’t sure how long he’s been standing there, but he shifts on his feet when he realizes he’s been caught.
“Hey, you two,” he rasps, then hastily clears his throat. “This - this is a nice sight.”
“Dad!” Ellen springs up to stand on the bed, grandly showing off her jewelry. “Look! Doesn’t Gabby have pretty things? Where did you get them all, Gabby?”
“You collect them slowly, sweet thing, and build up a little collection over time. That’s why it’s good to save up for the special things, the ones you really want and like.”
“Oh.” Ellen pauses, faintly embarrassed. “I think I spent my last allowance on Twizzlers.”
“Candy is also a worthwhile investment,” Gabby tells her firmly, and Ellen giggles.
Kent gives himself a shake, then steps into the bedroom and hands Gabby her steaming cup of lemon ginger tea.
“Good morning,” he says softly, and then, to Ellen, “Hi, you! You’re home early. Did you have fun with Olivia?”
“Yes!” Ellen bounds over to fling her arms around Kent. “Dad, can I go out for a little bit?”
“Where, baby?”
“To the little park by the flower shop! There’s a cool log there I want to look beneath.”
Kent lets out a sputter of fond laughter. “Fine, little miss. But take the emergency phone, and I want you back in three hours. Give Gabby her jewelry back before you go.”
“Okay!” Ellen slips off the bangles, then slows all the way down to very carefully pull the backings off of the earrings. “They are kinda heavy, Gabby. You wear these all day?”
“You’re still growing, El. Look at your little ears!” Ellen giggles as Gabby tugs on one of them. “You can wear the big earrings when you’re grown, if you want to.”
“Did you behave while I wasn’t here?” Kent asks.
Ellen, who had already hopped down from the bed, turns and looks anxiously at Gabby, clearly thinking about how she gave up the location of the spare key in the garage.
“She was perfectly well-behaved,” Gabby tells Kent. “Not a single rule broken.”
Kent doesn’t miss the relieved and grateful expression Ellen immediately fixes Gabby with.
“How nice to hear,” he answers, around one of his deep, warm laughs. “Now can someone tell me the truth?”
“Bye!” Ellen says hurriedly. “I love you!”
“I love you, too,” Kent calls after her, but she’s already vanished through the door.
“You let her go out on her own, Kent?” Gabby asks, taken by surprise. “Just like that?”
Gabby is actually pleased to hear it, if so. That means Ketterbridge must still be pretty safe, safe enough for kids to do some wandering and exploring. That’s encouraging news for the City Manager’s ears, but for some reason Kent freezes, his eyes filling with alarm.
He comes over and sits down on the edge of the bed, his eyes searching Gabby’s face with a certain anxiety.
“I - look, I just think that kids need some freedom. Ellen and I have talked over all the safety things, and I’m just a phone call away. Don’t you think it’s important that she’s got some independence, and confidence to-?”
“Kent,” Gabby interrupts gently. “Why are you acting like I’m arguing with you?”
Kent stops. His eyebrows slowly draw together in vague confusion.
“I… don’t know. I guess you’re not.” He peers nervously into her eyes. “Does that mean we’re on the same page?”
“I’m not sure I have an opinion on this,” Gabby admits, after some thinking. She reaches over to stroke Kent’s beard, savoring the sensation against her fingertips. “I don’t have any parenting experience. You also know Ellen much better than I do, so you’d know what she should be allowed.”
“Yeah, but it seems like you two know each other better all the time,” Kent says, with something hopeful in his voice. He seems to hear it, too, and quickly clears his throat. “Besides, I know you. You’ll have opinions on this as soon as you feel like you have enough information.”
Gabby laughs, then blushes as Kent puts his forehead against hers, letting out a breath of relief. Like her laughter just soothed his worried soul.
“We can talk about anything, Kent,” Gabby murmurs, as gently as possible. “And we can also disagree without it being an automatic disaster, alright?”
He gives her an adoring smile, then watches as she gets up to find her clothes. She slips her pajamas off, catches a glimpse of herself in the mirror, and freezes.
She just realized that in stripping off her clothes, she put her side to Kent at an angle where he can see as little of her as possible. And she’s holding her pajamas bundled up to her body, hiding herself even more. She did it instinctively, without thinking.
Gabby’s heart sinks as she understands. This is the time she’s taken off all of her clothes in front of Kent in the full of the golden sunlight. She’s only stayed over a few times, and it’s always been at night that she’s been completely naked in front of him.
She hates that this kind of thing still happens sometimes. That she still acts like she has something to be apologetic for, without even meaning to. She bites her lip unhappily.
Kent doesn’t seem to have noticed, but suddenly he gets up from the bed and comes over to her. His hand slips over hers, tugs her pajamas out of her grasp. Gabby’s breath catches in her throat as Kent takes her by her waist and lifts her off of her feet.
He places her on her back in the bed, naked in the center of a pool of sunlight, then draws back to stare at her admiringly.
“Don’t you move, baby.” He drags the pad of his thumb over her parted lips as he straightens up. “I’ll be right back.”
Gabby lays still, trying to get her racing heartbeat and blushing cheeks under control.
“What were you doing?” she asks, when Kent reappears at the end of the bed.
“Putting in my contacts, so I can see you clearly without my glasses falling on your face.” He eagerly climbs onto the bed and sits up on his knees between her legs, his eyes roving slowly all over her body. “Actually, since we started dating I’ve been wondering if I should get Lasik.”
Gabby blinks hard, then lets out a startled giggle. Blushing deeply, she reaches down for his belt buckle, but he catches her fingers, then presses them to his lips.
“I’m sorry, angel. Did Ellen take you by surprise while I was at Mugshot?”
“She did, but it was sweet. She accidentally told me where the garage key is, and then remembered she wasn’t supposed to tell anyone about it.”
“Oh, is that all?” Kent breathes out a soft laugh, stroking his knuckles up the inside of Gabby’s thigh. “Guess I’ve got to let her know that doesn’t include you. It’s in the box with the Christmas decorations right inside the garage door, by the way. Help yourself if you want it for anything, just please make sure to put it back.”
“Oh,” Gabby murmurs, caught by surprise. “Okay.”
Her mind goes to the kind of things that certain contemptible jerks from her past have said to her.
Look, that was fun, but don’t tell anyone about this. I don’t want anyone to know. You get it, right?... Make sure nobody sees you on the way out… No, you can’t come over, my boys are here, I don’t want them getting any ideas about us… anyways, when can I come over again?
That type of thoughtless, undisguised cowardice was their idea of romance, apparently. Dumb apes.
Whereas Kent has already gone right to telling Gabby where to find the key to his house, whenever she wants. And the very first time he asked her over, she met his daughter, had the chance to get to know his friends better.
Then again, everything about being with Kent has been different. Gabby’s thoughts keep going back over and over again to the first night they spent together in this bed. She remembers the huge, trembling rush of breath he let out when their bodies melted together, a sigh of infinite relief that sounded like it had been waiting for ages to finally be let out.
Kent had been a little nervous, but as soon as the last bit of doubt faded away, he was so breathlessly overeager that he didn’t even realize how wild he was driving her, overstimulating her and turning her into an incoherent mess. Just thinking of that mind-melting ecstasy now makes Gabby’s toes curl in the sheets.
She starts to drag Kent’s shirt up, then lets out a desperate little sound when he stops her.
“Hey - let me take your clothes off!” she protests uselessly, squirming and blushing beneath him. “I don’t know why, but having you fully dressed while I’ve got nothing on is making me feel twice as naked!”
“Is it?” Kent asks dreamily, his eyes dragging slowly up her body. “Yeah, you’re right. Maybe that’s why I like this so much.”
Gabby stares up at him, blushes an even darker shade of scarlet, then tilts her head aside and tries to hide her face in her hair. Kent watches her, and when she steals a glance at his expression, her heart stumbles. His pupils are blown out, his eyes glazed with fiery heat.
“Hey.” His chest is starting to rise and fall faster beneath his shirt, his breathing picking up. “If you’re not busy, I was thinking… you want to take a lazy morning, do some breakfast in bed? I wrote down what you said about the creamy banana and date milkshakes you used to get in New York. I think I might be able to replicate it, at least approximately. I bought the stuff, so should I try?”
“Sure, go for it,” Gabby answers impatiently, gazing up at him with begging eyes. “But right now-”
“And I made some - some - raspberry s-sticky buns last night.” Kent doesn’t sound fully aware of what he’s saying. The longer he goes on looking at Gabby, the more he seems lost in a spell, lost to everything except the sight of her. “So? Would it be possible for me to hold the City Manager here for three hours, even though she’s probably got some work she wanted to get done?”
“I’m starting to think that anything is possible,” Gabby giggles.
She wraps her legs around Kent and uses them to wrench him down to her. Caught off balance, he catches himself on his elbows, then starts panting eagerly.
“Damn,” he murmurs, his voice dazed. “I just want to keep looking forever, but at the same time-”
Gabby lets out another burst of helpless laughter. “Don’t you dare just keep looking!”
Kent sweeps her back into his arms and rolls them both onto their sides, facing each other. Gabby manages to get his shirt off in the process, and he lets her do it, breathing out a little laugh when he sees her victorious expression. She waits for him to kiss her, but instead he gazes deep into her eyes, his expression turning all the way serious again.
He reaches over and softly buries his fingers in her hair. Stroking the strands between his fingers, then ghosting his fingertips over the shorter, wispy little locks at the base of her neck, the ones that always escape when she wears a ponytail.
Then he puts his thumb to her lips, and exhales a blissful sigh.
“God, I’ve been feeling like I was such a loser,” he blurts out breathlessly, half-laughing. “And then I pulled you. I have to recalibrate completely. Am I actually incredible?”
“Yes,” Gabby agrees, so enthusiastically that it seems to startle Kent.
He laughs, then pauses, cupping her cheek in his hand.
“Gabs, are you happy?” he asks softly.
Gabby stops still, then nods, looking at him with disbelief in her eyes. How could he not be totally sure, already?
Kent lets out a heavy, relieved breath, then suddenly pulls her up close to him and wraps her tightly in his arms.
“Okay,” he says, stamping a kiss onto her forehead. “Good. I’ll keep you happy. I can do it, this time. I can do it.”
Gabby’s chest throbs with an overwhelming rush of emotions. She snuggles deeper into Kent’s arms, nuzzling her nose into his neck.
“I have no doubts in your ability to do that,” she answers, leaning in to kiss him.
Meaning it with all her heart, so much more than he knows.
~~~~
Later, Gabby stretches out in the deep blankets of Kent’s bed, letting the sunlight and his fingertips do a slow dance on her shoulder.
Her body is heavy with residual pleasure, her cheeks colored with a rosy blush that’s only grown deeper after a long shower with Kent. She distantly remembers that she’d felt the itch to get some work done, to make some progress untangling the many messes she’s inherited at City Hall. But now that strikes her as impossible. Even getting out of this bed sounds impossible. She hasn’t even put any clothes back on, and neither has Kent.
Gabby gazes at him with adoring eyes, appreciating all the fine details of him. The rich, glowing hue of his skin, the soft warmth in his eyes, the sunlight catching on his beard.
Gabby’s thoughts drift to what Ellen said. I’ll always have dad.
Not a doubt in her mind, none at all. That’s the kind of father that Kent is. Gabby has seen him dead tired, practically falling asleep on his feet at the grocery store after an exhausting day - still carefully reading all of the ingredients on a new kind of juice box Ellen wanted to try.
He’s so clearly a man who loves with his whole heart. Who loves like he means it, because he does.
It’s a little soon to be thinking about love, Gabby scolds herself.
But all the protective internal voices that normally whisper to Gabby all the time, trying to make sure she doesn’t miss any bad signs… they seem muffled and distant right now, far away. Or at least, the volume is soft enough that the rustle of the beautiful fruiting trees beyond Kent’s bedroom windows covers them up. She’s beginning to forget about them altogether. They sink under the surface, slipping away.
It’s pure peace to lay here with Kent, to feel his fingertips trailing over her naked back. Gabby lays still, wondering if this is the closest someone can get to dreaming while still awake. This is almost like sleep, this kind of restful, heavenly stillness.
Kent grasps the back of Gabby’s neck and presses a lingering kiss onto her forehead.
“Gabs…” he murmurs, his deep voice full of reluctance. “I hate to say this, but I think we need to get dressed. I told Ellen to be back in three hours, so if she listened to my instructions she’ll be home soon.”
Gabby sits up on her elbow, a little dazed. Three hours? Has it really been almost three hours, already?
“Oh - yeah, of course.” She starts to sit up, then laughs when Kent tightens his arms around her. “How am I supposed to get dressed if you don’t let me go?”
“I don’t know, but I can’t. It’s too hard.” He pulls her up against him, burying his nose in her hair. “You want me to let you go? Fine. Break both of my arms.”
“Stop it!” Gabby laughs, squirming free.
She gets out of bed and pulls on her high-waisted denim shorts, then her flowing white crop top with the crocheted sunflowers. She puts on all of her jewelry and fixes a sun-yellow bandana over her dark hair, trying to fix it into something beautifully messy instead of just messy.
As she finishes up her makeup, she realizes that Kent has stopped in the process of getting dressed. When she glances at him, he’s watching her with intent, admiring eyes. She laughs and spreads her hands at him inquiringly, and he quickly turns away, his cheeks glowing.
“You look adorable,” he tells her over his shoulder, pulling a shirt out of his closet. “Is it casual day at City Hall?”
“It’s Sunday,” Gabby reminds him, fitting the last of her rings into place. “And I thought I might - not go into the office. Take you up on the offer to stay for breakfast. Or longer, if you’re free.”
Kent stops, smiling at her in surprise. “Oh - yeah? You’re not off to do some work, you’re just gonna stay and relax?”
Gabby couldn’t leave right now if she tried, so - “Mhm, if that’s okay with you.”
Kent smiles, then comes over in his black briefs to kiss her softly. His warm, sweet breath mingles with hers as they stand briefly locked together in the sunlight.
Gabby secretly fans her face a little when he turns away, her cheeks burning. God, he’s so brutally, agonizingly handsome, even cuter now than he was in her memories. He grew up and filled out into such a well-built man, much taller and bigger than he was before. But his eyes kept that same dark, gentle softness she remembered being there. And the constant worried furrow of his brow suits him, somehow.
She follows him down to the kitchen, where he opens the door to the backyard so that the breeze and the sunlight can spill inside. Gabby leans her shoulder against the doorframe as Kent puts on a pot of coffee, letting her eyes wander over the yard. The cherry trees, the loose arrangement of thick grasses and flowers, the greenery climbing over the walls.
“Your backyard is so beautiful, Kent. Is it a pollinator garden?”
“It is.” Kent comes to look over her shoulder at the yard, obviously pleased at the compliment. “It used to be straight-up flat green grass, but it turns out those kinds of lawns are basically ecological wastelands. As Jamie kept accidentally reminding me by wincing every time he looked at it. Finally I told him that if it bothered him so much he could turn it into a pollinator garden, because I didn’t have time for that. And guess what happened?”
“Are you serious?” Gabby twists to look at Kent over her shoulder, her eyes widening with disbelief. “Jamie redid the whole yard by himself?”
“No,” Kent sighs wearily. “We did it together. I started helping him once I realized he was really gonna do it. But we did get the idea halfway through that we could make it a pollinator garden and a rain garden, and we got pretty excited about that, so we started over. Took us a damn long time, just like I warned him it would!”
Gabby smiles, laughing inside at the grumbling affection in Kent’s voice. It sounds like he and Jamie had fun, and worked hard. The lovingly made finished product speaks for itself.
“By the way,” Kent adds, wincing a little - “If you ask Jamie about this, he’s gonna say we did it because I lost my temper with the half-broken lawn mower one too many times trying to maintain the grass lawn. But don’t listen to that fool. It was about the environment, totally about the environment.”
Gabby lets out a startled laugh, turning to look at Kent again. She finds him dreamily watching the play of the sparkles on her neck, cast there by the sunlight hitting her earrings.
He slips his arm around Gabby’s waist, pulls her backwards until she’s pressed back against him. His hand comes up from behind her to catch her by her jaw. He gently tilts her head to the side, nudging her braid out of the way. His lips come down softly on her neck, right on the speckles of sunlight. He lingers there for a long moment, until Gabby’s heartbeat is crashing in her ears, giddy heat rushing through her body.
Kent slowly draws back, opens his eyes, then freezes in alarm when he sees Gabby gazing wildly up at him.
“Shit, I’m sorry - is it too much?” Kent thumbs her chin, watching her with worried eyes. He puts a hand to his chest, over his heart. “I’ve just had it all pent up in here for so long, with nowhere to go...”
“N-no, it’s okay,” Gabby manages, struggling to get her breath back. And then, as she processes the second part of what he said - “Oh, Kent… I’m so sorry, mi cielo. What you’ve been through sounds so rough.”
“It’s alright,” he says, obviously relieved. “That stuff is all in the past, now. So long as it’s not making Ellen sad, you know? Not having her mom around. I’ll admit I do worry about that.”
“From what she said to me about it, I think she’s doing okay,” Gabby answers reassuringly, then arches an eyebrow in surprise as Kent draws back sharply.
“What - Ellen talked to you about that?” He stares at Gabby in disbelief. “Seriously?”
Gabby watches him in confusion. “Just a little bit, but yes. This morning.”
“Oh.” Kent shakes his head, nudging his glasses further up his nose. “She hasn’t really opened up to anyone but me about it, before now. I’m just kinda surprised she felt okay doing that.”
He looks pleased and startled at the same time, so Gabby figures she’s not in some kind of trouble.
“What about you?” Kent asks softly, gazing down into her eyes. “Your past, what you’ve been through? You still haven’t said too much about it.”
“I know. It’s not…” Gabby pauses, realizing the truth of what she’s saying, then goes on more slowly, “It’s not that I don’t feel comfortable talking to you about it. I do, and I will. But I’m just so happy, I don’t want to think about what’s behind me, anyways. Like you said, it’s in the past. And the present is a lovely place to be, right now. I’m very happy right here.”
Kent blinks hard, a warm, flustered smile slowly turning up his lips. He leans down to press a kiss onto Gabby’s waiting mouth, then steps back into the kitchen to take down some coffee mugs. Gabby begins to step out into the backyard, lured by the sweet-smelling summer air.
“Hey, just a reminder that Aiden might be out there. He sits out on the porch to read sometimes.” Kent breathes out a little laugh. “He reads a lot more than I expected, from what I knew of him before he skipped town.”
Gabby steps back into the kitchen, her curiosity piqued. “I thought you met him when he moved back. You knew him before he ever left?”
“Oh, not that well.” Kent adds some milk to the coffee mugs, extra in Gabby’s. “One summer when he was in high school he and some of his friends were doing odd jobs around town to earn some cash. I had them haul away some old stuff from the flower shop, help me move some new stuff in. I was having the interior redone, and I’d given Jamie and Des a holiday while we were closed, so I didn’t have anyone on hand. Aiden was helpful, easy to talk to, that’s all I really remember. But everyone in town kinda knew about him, because he was a breakout soccer star for the high school team.”
“I love how small towns get collectively excited about things like that,” Gabby laughs, dropping to sit at the kitchen table as she accepts the coffee from Kent. “He was that good?”
“Yeah, he was exceptional, and everyone was expecting him to go pretty far after graduation. With soccer, or, you know - college football teams recruit placekickers from soccer teams. Aiden looked really promising either way. But then he just disappeared as soon as he graduated. It was practically a scandal.”
Gabby stares at Kent, absorbing all of that. The years-long gap on Aiden’s resume wasn’t lost on her when she made the decision to hire him from afar, but she didn’t know about this aspect of things. She had just decided it was none of her business.
But that was back when he was a prospective employee, not a friend, employee, and one of the two people who mysteriously rescued her from her sinking car.
“So where was he?” Gabby asks, unable to stop herself. “Why did he leave, what was he doing?”
“I have no idea,” Kent answers over his shoulder, now busy assembling a sandwich and slicing up some apples. “He won’t talk about it. I don’t even think Jamie knows. But I wonder now if he was picking up all those odd jobs in high school to save up money for when he left.”
Gabby watches Kent curiously for another moment, then gets up and drifts over to the door of the kitchen. She steps out into the fresh air, takes a deep breath of it.
Aiden is relaxing in the sunshine on the porch upstairs, one long leg hanging down, a book spread open on his other knee. He glances up when Gabby steps outside, gives her a playful tip of his snapback before he goes back to reading.
Gabby waves back, wondering how many secrets Ketterbridge really has. Some part of her has always wondered.
She wanders slowly around the pollinator rain garden, this beautiful thing Kent helped build with his own hands. She loves the way all the little flowers are tipped with sunlight in the afternoons, and how they shiver when large drops of rain fall in the early morning.
This place is so peaceful, and Kent is just inside, the smell of fresh coffee drifting out on the breeze, the sunlight warm against her neck... Like a dream. Like magic.
Gabby lets out a sigh of self-directed exasperation, wondering how many times this wild thought is going to fight its way back to the surface of her mind. But here, in Ketterbridge - what is and isn’t possible? Haven’t seemingly impossible things happened to her already? Aren’t they happening every day, lately? All the time? Wasn’t this morning with Kent one of those things she always struggled to envision as possible?
Gabby gives a start and looks up in surprise, shaken from her thoughts by a scrabbling sound beyond the wall of the backyard. Ellen appears on the other side, swings herself over, and hops down into the yard, all out of breath.
“I’m on time!” she announces triumphantly. “Three hours! I’m not late, am I?”
Gabby checks her watch. “No, you’re right on time! Nice work.”
“Oh - you’re still here, Gabby!” Ellen pants excitedly, like she only just realized.
“Yeah, I thought I’d just hang out with you and your dad today.”
“Really?” Ellen beams up at her, then catches her hand, clearly still riding the momentum of the energy rush that got her home on time. “Then you should come look at my earrings! I only have studs, though, is that okay?”
“Okay for what?” Gabby asks, breaking into a jog as Ellen rushes across the yard, still holding her fingers.
“I don’t know!” Ellen answers, so cheerfully and unconcernedly that Gabby bursts out laughing.
Kent startles and looks up as the two of them go rushing across the kitchen together. “Um - hello - Ellen, baby, I made you a snack-”
Ellen crashes to a brief stop. “Thanks, dad, but me and Gabby are in the middle of something!”
“What-?” he lets out a sputter of indignant laughter. “Just you two, or am I allowed to tag along?”
“No, you should come, too!” Ellen says encouragingly, already back on the move. “And bring the sandwich! Please!”
Gabby catches Kent’s eye, suppressing another laugh. He’s trying to look exasperated, but he’s shaking with silent laughter. And Gabby can see something beneath that, in the depths of his eyes. Something glowingly sweet and infinitely warm. It lights up his whole face.
Like magic, Gabby thinks to herself dazedly. Every day. All the time.
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