Finding Gary (The Romanovsky Brothers Book 4) (31 page)

Gary did too, just in time to see that his family had caught sight of both of them across the grass, and were currently in the process of turning to look at them, each with a new frown or scowl on their face the moment they saw Reggie.

“Yeah, they look real excited to see me,” Reggie said, taking in one cringing face after another.

“I never said they’d be excited; I said they gave the okay,” Gary said, squeezing his hand again while motioning to his family, who were now shading their eyes and squinting toward them in confusion, clearly wondering why they were all staring at each other across the expanse.  Gary motioned to them.  “Besides, they aren’t frowning because they’re angry you’re here.  They’re squinting because it’s such a beautiful day, and the sun is in their eyes.  It’s beautiful, Reggie.  A beautiful day for the family I love and the man I love to sit together and learn how not to despise each other.”

“Sounds like a grand ol’ time,” Reggie grumbled.

Gary met his eyes and stepped back, tugging his hand gently.  “Please?”

That was all Reggie needed to hear, and Gary was pleased to see that word—‘please’— worked just as good out of the bedroom as it did in it, because in the next moment, Reggie was following behind him.

The sun assaulted them as they moved closer to the table, and Gary was grateful his family had chosen a table under a triangular shaded structure so they wouldn’t have to endure the searing heat for all of lunch.

Gary’s eyes jumped from one of his family members to the next.  He couldn’t lie.  They really
didn’t
seem happy to see Reggie.  They weren’t even making an effort to remove the tightness between their eyebrows or even paste a fake smile on their faces.

Gary took a deep breath as they came to a stop next to the table.  “Hey, guys.  I hope you all meant what you said on the phone, and are going to put in the effort to make this a pleasant, violence-free afternoon.”  He spoke through clenched teeth.

His family gaped at them.  No response.  No smiles.  No nothing.

Roman sucked his teeth.  Since it was so quiet, the sound permeated the air and sent every eye shooting to him.   The air grew thick as Roman squinted his blue orbs at Reggie, his biceps visibly flexing from where they jutted out of his t-shirt.  He took a deep breath and stood, causing everyone around the table to gasp.  Angie took his arm from next to him, and Bette reached across the table to cover his hand with hers.  Both begged him with their eyes.

Roman never moved his gaze from Reggie, his chest picking up under his shirt as it blew in the breeze.

Then, Roman took the back of the folding chair next to him, considered Reggie for another moment, and yanked it out. 

Reggie and Gary both hesitated.

Roman raised his eyebrows and motioned sharply toward the chair.

Reggie jolted and then released Gary’s hand. 

“Yeah, okay…” was all Reggie could grumble, stumbling clumsily towards the chair Roman had pulled out, never dropping his guard completely, not even as he took the chair and scooted under the table.

Roman waited until Reggie was settled, watching him the whole time, before he begrudgingly re-took his own seat.

“Little over the top, but good enough…” Gary mumbled, taking the seat across from Reggie and letting his eyes flutter along each face at the table, all of which were clearly relieved that Roman had taken the high road and not the violet one.  “Thanks, Rome, for not going straight for my boyfriend’s jugular today,” Gary said.

Nervous laughter filled the table, and Roman met Gary’s eyes, still not smiling as he motioned to Jessica, who was next to Leo directly across the table from him.  “Well, we need someone at this table who’s not afraid to pull the trigger.” 

Jessica instantly lamented, ignoring the hand Leo placed on her back.  “Hey, guys, I’m a federal agent for the United States government.  Unfortunately, that means I can’t just go around shooting whoever I want.”

“He had me on the ground,” Roman said.  “He was trying to take the gun out of my hand.”

“Are we really going to have this conversation, again?” Jessica beamed.  “You think I didn’t want to shoot him?  Of course I did. I
love
shooting people.”

Leo rubbed her back; half focused on his plate with an amused smirk on his face. 

Jessica went on, arms flailing.  “But if I’d taken the shot and got you instead of him, I think you’d be singing a different tune.”

“I told you to take the shot,” Roman grumbled.

“When you start signing my paychecks, I might listen the next time you tell me to take the shot, Roman.  Until then, the United States government would really prefer it if I didn’t open fire with an innocent man in the crosshairs, so…”

Roman sucked his teeth again, looking to Reggie.  “Like I said, we need more people in this family who won’t hesitate to pull the trigger.”

Jessica continued grumbling.  Then she shot an accusatory glare at Reggie.  “Where the hell did you get that gun anyway?”

“I’ve always carried. Since the day my father became Governor,” Reggie said.

Bette took a deep breath from the head of the table, watching Reggie worriedly.  “Perhaps we could all be a little more sensitive to what Reggie’s been through?”

Roman met his mother’s eyes, and it seemed to hit him for the first time that, while he was an awful man, Reggie
had
just shot his own father in cold blood, less than a week ago.

Roman met his eyes, clapping a hand on his back.  “You did a good thing, man.  The right thing.”

Reggie swallowed, feeling Gary squeezing his hand from across the table.  “Should’ve done it a long time ago.”

Roman slapped his back again.  “Good man.”

“We’re happy you’re here, Reggie,” Angie said, leaning over to look at Reggie from where she sat next to Roman.  Her eyes circled the table.  “Aren’t we?”

Grumbled agreements came in from every angle, even from Val, who sat with an empty space next to him.

His family’s agreements were half-hearted, but at that point, good enough for Gary.  He knew it was going to take time for them to warm to Reggie completely, and he was just happy to see they were on the right track.

Gary frowned when his stomach growled, and he looked at his father.  “Can we eat?”

Tony cleared his throat from the opposite end of the table from Bette, his eyes hitting Reggie.  “I know we don’t usually pray, but…” He motioned to Reggie.  “I think it’s only appropriate, out of respect for Reggie…”

Gary looked at Reggie just in time to see his chest swell, and he tightened his hand around his.

“Reggie, you’re going to have to lead the prayer,” Tony said.  “Because this family don’t pray.  We just throw down.”

Laughter filled the table as the entire family nearly joined hands.

But Roman’s smile left the instant it came.  His back straightened.

“Hold up,” Roman said, his eyes going wide as he took in something across the grass.  “Holy shit…”

No one bothered to admonish him for using those two words mere seconds before they were set to pray.  They were too busy turning in their seats to follow his gaze, wondering what had put so much shock in his eyes.

And, one by one, as they caught sight of what Roman had seen, those two words floated from the lips of every person at the table.

***

“It’s only going to be weird, awkward, and scary at first, okay?  But it’s important that you stay brave.  You might be embarrassed because of the way you’ve been acting, and you’re going to want to curl into a shell to protect your heart and your ego, but that’s no way to live, okay?”  Zoey said, shaking Marcus gently from where she held him at her side.  She instantly shifted him on her hip, quietly noticing that he was getting heavier by the day as the grass crunched under her shoes. The shade of each oak tree they passed gave them a temporary reprieve from the scalding sun. “You’re going to want to protect your pride, but that’s no way to live either.”

Yanking the pacifier from between his lips, Marcus offered it to Zoey with a gurgle, his smile lighting up her life as usual.

“Thank you, baby, but no thank you.  Mommy doesn’t want your pacifier because she’ll just vomit it right back up.”

Marcus reclaimed his pacifier in the next second, sucking furiously.

Even though he couldn’t respond with words, Zoey would swear on her life that kid understood every word she was saying.  Feeling his protruding stomach against hers was the only thing bringing her peace at that moment, and she cuddled him closer when it finally came into view.

“Remember,” she said, squinting towards the picnic table at the far corner of the park, littered with the very people who she was coaching her son on, even though she was the only one of the two who really needed coaching.  When it came to unconditional love, Marcus had that for eons.  He wasn’t the one that needed the pep talk she’d been giving him for the entire drive up there, for the entire time they’d sat in the parking lot, or during the long walk across the grass.  “Swallow your pride, baby.”

Roman was the first to notice her.  He’d been in the midst of a laugh that lit up his face.  Zoey couldn’t hear his laughter, but she could see it, and she could imagine what it sounded like.  Deep and genuine—heaven to any ear; like it always had been.

The moment Roman caught sight of her across the grass, that heavenly laugh and smile vanished.  His face went deadly serious.  He sat up, stark straight. 

Zoey froze in mid-step.

Sensing the change in Roman, Angie instantly followed his shocked gaze, and in seconds, her face wasn’t much different from his.  Her jaw went slack, and even as her cat-eyed glasses slid to the tip of her nose, she didn’t push them back up.  Even from a hundred feet away, Zoey could see the moisture gleaming in Angie’s eyes.

Bette was next.  Since she’d been watching Roman and Angie adoringly from the head of the picnic table, she saw the rapid change in them, as well, and when she followed their eyes across the grass to Zoey and Marcus, she immediately stood from her seat at the table.   Zoey saw the words “oh my word” leave Bette’s mouth, and that was enough to prompt Zoey to continue walking forward.

“Be brave, okay?” Zoey whispered, tucking her lips and nose into the side of Marcus’ head as, slowly but surely, every shocked pair of eyes in the Romanovsky family shot to them—Leo, Jessica, Gary and even Reggie King.  Tony looked over, and after a moment of shock collected himself just long enough to elbow Val, who was in the seat next to him.

Val elbowed him back, and when Tony motioned towards Zoey, Val looked up with his lip curled softly.

The moment Val’s eyes landed on her, Zoey froze in place, again.  Unable to move.  Unable to take another step.

“I thought I said be brave,” Zoey whispered, shifting Marcus closer again when Val immediately stood, circled the table, and began moving toward them.  She took a small step back, worried that her baby might fall right out of her arms if they shook any more wildly.  She could see her bosom heaving below, and knew the bra she’d chosen for the occasion probably wasn’t the most family friendly.  Though it would definitely be
Val
friendly.

She dug her nails into Marcus’ t-shirt, straightening it to keep her mind distracted.  The closer Val got, the harder she tugged, sure that she’d stopped breathing completely when he was close enough to touch.  The heat of his body seemed to permeate over the sun itself when he was within a foot of her, his golden eyes searching hers, displaying the shock surely running through his body as he took her in with his lips parted. 

“I was thinking…” She barely heard her own whispered voice, but the jump in his brows showed Val could hear her loud and clear.  “I was thinking… instead of three days a week, you could see Marcus…” She inhaled deeply.  “Every single day of the week.”

Val’s face collapsed.

Zoey swallowed.  “Every single day… For the rest of our lives?”

They searched each other’s eyes, the silence growing louder with each heavy moment. Zoey was the first to take the step forward.  She didn’t even know she’d done it, the tiniest step, just enough to shift the tip of her ballet flat from one shard of grass to the other.

But it was enough for Val.  He closed the rest of the space for her, a gasp parting his lips before he muffled them against hers, sucking her bottom lip between his as he jammed his eyes shut tight.

Zoey watched his eyes close, watched him disappear into another world, and she was right on his heels, a tear leaving her eyes as she closed hers too, parting her lips softly against his, unaware of the whimper that had been waiting on the edge of her tongue until it warmed the space between their sealed lips.

He encircled her waist with one hand and Marcus’ with the other, closing them all into their own little cocoon, sending warm chills over every inch of Zoey’s body as he swept his tongue against hers with a moan, only pulling back when the lack of oxygen threatened to take him to his knees.

He’d taken the first step.  The step not even a million pep talks would’ve given her the bravery to take, so when he pulled back and searched her tear filled eyes, Zoey was happy to take the next one.