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We head to Grizzly Peak and join the line for the Run. Out of nowhere, Gabe grabs my hand and squeezes. “Lo?”
“Yeah?”
“Best birthday ever.”
“Really? Even though you’re officially old now?”
He laughs. “Even though I’m old. I don’t know what I would have done if you’d moved to Australia.”
“Please? And miss out on all this? Did you know they don’t even have a Disneyland there?”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously. No way am I moving to a country where children grow up deprived of Mickey Mouse.”
“Yeah, that’s just fucked up.”
“Totally.” I nod, but I’m a million miles away, wondering what I’d be doing now if Macehadasked me to move halfway across the world.
Come nine p.m., I’m dead on my feet. Gabe insists on staying for the first round of the light show and despite my protests, I give in and text Clementine, letting her know we’ll be at least another hour. She doesn’t respond, so I’m betting they’re already well on their way to being drunk, again.
Gabe pulls me to him as a man and his little girl pushes to the front. I have half a mind to give him shit, but the look on his daughter’s face as the first float comes down the street, makes me smile, and I glance back at Gabe. The same rapture is echoed on his features, but he’s not watching the floats, his gaze is firmly fixed on me. My brow crinkles because I can’t make out his expression. After everything with Mace, we’d never talked about that kiss, or why he did it. Why he’d chosen that moment to kiss me. I give Gabe a nervous smile in return and stare at the floats again. A beat later, his arms wrap around my waist, and he pulls me in against his chest. He bends and rests his chin on my crown as he holds me, and I grin like a lunatic.
I’ve been texting Clem the entire way home, so when we pull onto my street, I glance up from my phone and frown. “Oh no, buddy. You’re not dropping me at home.”
“I’m not? I thought you were exhausted?”
“Hell no. I could go all night,” I say in my flirtiest accent and instantly screw my nose up at how cheesy that sounds.
“Yeah?”
I roll my eyes. “Not like that. Although, I guess Mace and I used to have an awful lot of marathon se ...” I trail off when I catch Gabe’s tight jaw and the muscle that’s popping there. “Never mind.”
“Hey, Lo? Do me a favor and don’t talk about fucking the love of your life on my birthday.”
I make a pffting sound. “He was hardly the love of my life.”
“Sure seemed like it when he left.”
Um ... ouch. That stung.
Gabe pulls up to the tattoo parlor and parks the car. He climbs out and walks around to the passenger side to open my door. I glance at the blackened-out shopfront, knowing that all of our friends are inside just waiting to surprise him, and this is not the time to get into it, but I can’t help it all the same. “Mace will always be special to me.”
He winces and jams his hands in his pockets. “Yeah, I got that.”
“Not for the reasons you think.”
He frowns. “What—”
“Loving him helped me get over you,” I blurt out. Gabe’s eyes widen. “I mean, for a minute, and then I was right back—”
Gabe pulls me to him and just when I think he’s about to finally kiss me because we’re finally in the same damn place at the right damn time, Clem, Tommy, Santa, and all of our friends bust through the front door of the shop out onto the street yelling, “Surprise, motherfucker!”
His head snaps in their direction and then back to mine. “You knew about this?”
I give him a weak smile, unsure of what to say. I wish we could rewind, and I could take those words back. I wish I’d never screwed Mace at my twenty-eighth birthday party. I wish Clem could get a damn clue and finesse her timing a little ... because it sucks. Gabe is dragged away from me by his buddies. He glances back but I tilt my chin and tell him to go on in. Clementine sidles up to me with a grimace. “Okay, am I so high I’m hallucinating, or were you two almost kissing when we yelled surprise?”
“You’re not high. Or maybe you’re not high enough.”
