Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 44435 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 222(@200wpm)___ 178(@250wpm)___ 148(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44435 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 222(@200wpm)___ 178(@250wpm)___ 148(@300wpm)
I’d only done the security routine a couple of times since Gabriel and I had been back home, but Gabriel had been with me the entire time. I was a last resort when the other guys needed a break, which was fine. It was just hard as fuck to not continuously be distracted by Gabriel as he moved around the store, helping Sophia stock books while she dealt with customers.
Gabriel had proven to be… well, he wasn’t good with the customers. At all. He stammered, and his anxiety went through the roof when he was put on the spot. Didn’t matter that he knew the layout of this store like the back of his hand; he would forget where something was the moment a stranger stopped him to ask.
“Prepared to be here until closing time?” Chase chuckled, looking at Gabriel, who was now flipping through a book, his lips pursed in thought.
I sighed. “Never am, but he loves it here, so…”
Chase nodded in agreement. “I get it.” He looked over his shoulder at Sophia, who was helping the newer girl make something—I didn’t know what. Sophia knew I drank black coffee. There was nothing complicated to it.
Unless she was also getting something for Gabriel, which was very likely. Gabriel enjoyed the drinks here, but I knew as soon as we got back to the clubhouse, he would be asking me for chocolate milk. It was just his preferred drink.
I was surprised the boy didn’t bleed chocolate at this point.
“Sophia may be looking to hire someone part-time on truck days,” Chase informed me. He nodded his head toward Gabriel. “I think he may be a good fit. Sophia can focus on the customers. I can stick around him to make sure no one tries to ask him anything. And, of course, you’ll be here, too.”
A job working a couple of times a week in Gabriel’s favorite place probably wasn’t a bad idea. It would put money into his pocket, which I didn’t really care about; I enjoyed and wanted to take care of everything for him. But it would also give him a little bit of independence. He flourished when he thought he was making me proud—and to be real, he always managed to do that. Having a job would probably help him come out of his shell and find himself more and more, too.
I didn’t give a damn about him working so long as he remained stuck on me. Needing me. Wanting me.
“I’ll talk to him,” I told Chase. “It’s his decision in the end.”
Sophia walked up at that moment and silently handed me my coffee before walking over to Gabriel with some kind of fruity-looking pink drink. I grimaced, but Gabriel beamed at her and thanked her before setting it beside him.
Chase clapped a hand to my shoulder and walked off, leaving me to hover over Gabriel, just as my boy and I both preferred.
He looked over, searching me out, and his eyes brightened when he spotted me. I let my lips quirk up the tiniest bit at the corners for him before taking a sip of my coffee.
“I love you,” he told me. Gabriel loved telling me that out of the blue for absolutely no reason at all, and honestly, I ate it up every single fucking time.
“I love you, too,” I assured him, knowing he needed to hear it. His eyes went all soft and gooey, and fuck, my heart twisted in my chest, eager to launch from my body and mold to his own.
He aimed his attention back on the book in his hands, a small smile playing on his lips.
This boy of mine… he was fucking everything. And I was never letting him go.