Page 106 of Family Bonds- Gabriela & Luca
“Didn’t your mom ever tell you not to lie?”
He grinned at the humor in her voice.
“I don’t always listen to my parents, do you?”
“Nope. Not anymore,” she said. “And finish up so you can get out of there. I mean it. We’ll talk tomorrow when you can.”
He hung up after that.
The warmth in her voice lingered longer than it should have, and he realized, somewhere between stale sugar and easy laughter, that this was exactly what he’d needed.
31
TURNED INTO MORE
“This month it’s babies galore,” Gabriela said on Saturday.
They were at her brother’s house for his birthday. Justine wanted to have dinner and cake. Nothing major, just pizza and wings, that she was dying for.
“It seems to be,” her mother said, reaching into the box and snagging a slice of the veggie one.
She grabbed one of those and one pepperoni. She’d come back for wings.
They all sat at the table. Her brother’s house had been small before he got married.
But the addition he and Justine added last year almost doubled the size with them moving all the bedrooms upstairs, going from two bedrooms to four, and the two bedrooms downstairs converting to an office and bigger living room and kitchen.
They’d stayed at her parents’ house while the bulk of the work was done.
It worked out well she had the house to herself now.
“The family is expanding faster than most can keep up,” Garrett said.
He glanced at Justine. Almost too quick.
Like a knowing grin and back to his food.
Gabriela wanted to ask what that was about, but decided it wasn’t her place.
She didn’t like everyone always wanting to know her personal business.
But like she’d told Luca, it was getting harder for people not to say something.
Though she and Luca didn’t work at the same time, they weren’t making a secret of their relationship.
They worked out at the gym together multiple times a month.
They went to dinner and lunch during those five days they had off together too.
Maybe not as much now with the weather having been miserable, but they still were seen.
Just not by anyone who worked at the hospital.
Or not that she’d noticed.
Yet it didn’t stop Kate from poking at her, throwing sly hints and asking how her dating life was going.
As if she knew Gabriela wasn’t single but was waiting for her to admit it.
