“It’s your attitude toward him that’s unreasonable. Spending too much time with Sylvia Andrews, are we? Why don’t you just keep in mind how she really feels about Brian?” Gabby scoffed. “Though I get the feeling you’re about to find out in a big way.”

Her mother didn’t take the bait, and Gabby was glad, because the second she cast it out there, she regretted it. “This doesn’t have anything to do with her or Brian. It has to do with you.”

“I suppose Dad agrees with you on this. Was this his idea or yours?”

“He has the same concerns I do, yes.”

“Ian is the father of your grandchild. You could at least afford him that much respect. If you can’t, you’re going to lose a lot of mine. Both of you.” Doing her best to keep her composure, Gabby turned and left the store, even though going outside felt like walking into an oven and her mother apparently still meant to buy a few things. She wanted to tell her she didn’t want a damn thing from her—but she couldn’t, could she?

The car had remote start, so when Gianna had mercy on her and it fired to life beside her, Gabby got in the passenger side and put her head between her knees, deep-breathing.

Did she even want to subject Ian to this bullshit? Did she want to burden him with the knowledge of what her family—with the exception of Brian—thought of him? He’d had so much hurt to deal with all his life. She wanted to protect him from any future pain that might be coming his way—either from her family…or from herself.

It was the same feeling she’d had standing on the beach in Florida. Forces beyond her control washing away the sand beneath her feet, leaving her unsteady and unsure.

Chapter Eighteen

It was Candace who answered Gabby’s knock at Brian’s apartment this time, looking adorably disheveled with her blonde hair pinned up. She wore slouchy sweats and a T-shirt that could’ve been Brian’s for the way it swallowed her. She greeted Gabby brightly and invited her in.

“How are you feeling?” Gabby asked as she entered the apartment, almost identical in layout to Ian’s. A warm vanilla aroma drifted in from the kitchen that made her mouth water.

“Not too bad lately. How are you feeling?” Candace’s grin and the knowing tone of her question alerted Gabby to the fact that Brian hadn’t been inclined to keep her own condition a secret from his fiancée. She followed Candace into the kitchen.

“I’m okay. Still a little sick in the mornings.”

“Me too. I heard you went to the hospital, though. Everything okay now?” Candace bent down to peer into the oven, where obviously something sweet and decadent was baking.

“Seems to be. Is Brian around?”

“I sent him to the store. Should be back any minute. I realized I had no icing for the cupcakes.”

Gabby laughed, taking a seat at the bar that separated the kitchen from the living room. “You’re going to make him gain weight.”

“He’s already spending double time at the gym. I think he’ll be all right. Me, on the other hand…” Candace rolled her eyes. “Every day I say I’ll try to do better, and every night I’m in here baking.”

“So…when are you guys going to break the news?”

Her face darkened. “Well—” She paused when the front door opened, and Gabby turned to smile at Brian as he entered, carrying what looked like a ton of grocery bags, and kicked the door closed behind him.

“Isn’t that sweeeet,” Gabby said with pure syrup in her voice.

“If my hands weren’t full, I’d so flip you off right now,” he said, trudging into the kitchen, where he heaved the bags onto the counter.

“I said icing,” Candace laughed, looking over the pile of white plastic bags. “Only icing.”

“Yeah, well, who the f**k knows what you’ll come up with tomorrow night. I got everything we could conceivably be running low on.” He grinned and planted a kiss on the side of her bared neck. “Forethought.”

“Aw, you’re awesome.” She smacked him on the butt, and he made a grab for hers, but she twirled away, giggling. God, could they be any more sickening?

“Where’s Ian?” Brian asked, beginning the task of putting all the groceries up.

“At his place. I haven’t seen him yet tonight, but I’m headed over there in a minute.”

“He’s welcome, you know, if you want to call him to come over.”

“Thank you for that. Really. But I kind of wanted to talk to you first.”

“Everything okay?” Brian looked over at her, blue eyes wary beneath the bill of his black baseball cap. It warmed her a bit that her little brother still looked ready to kick some ass on her behalf if she said the word, even though it would be his friend on the receiving end and not a guy he hadn’t liked much anyway. Blood really was thicker than water with Brian.

“Mom is on my ass because of him.”

“Why?”

“She thinks he’s trying to weasel his way into our fortune or something.”

“Oh my God. That’s f**kin’ ridiculous.” Brian erupted at the same time Candace made a similar exclamation. “Do you want me to talk to her?”

“I don’t know. I mean, whatever, she can think what she wants, I guess, but…he doesn’t deserve that. It’s not like we were planning a wedding, but she makes it sound like I’ll be out on my ass if I try to set up anything permanent with him.”

“I can’t believe that,” Candace said, shaking her head. “Your mom is always so cool.”

“You didn’t grow up with her,” Brian said.

“Well, you didn’t grow up with mine,” Candace countered. “Believe me, I consider your mom cool.”

“Not about this.” Gabby stared down at her hands, where her fingers were laced so tightly together that her knuckles had gone white. “Maybe if, um…you guys would go ahead and announce, it would get all the focus off me?”

Brian and Candace both looked at her for a moment, then at each other.

“We weren’t planning to do that yet,” Brian said at last.

“Okay. Why not?”

“We’re going to get married first.”

“What?”

“Like, this weekend.”

Gabby heard all the words, but she couldn’t process them. “What?”

“I always warned y’all we were gonna run off and do it. Did you think I was joking about that? You ought to know me better.”

Sighing, Gabby shook her head. “I know you always said that. I’d just hoped we might be able to change your mind.”

Brian scoffed and returned to his chore. “Shit, no. We know what we’d be taking on with her family, and now you tell me Mom’s frazzled, so f**k all that. We’re going to take care of things, come back and say, ‘Here’s what’s going on, here’s what we did about it, f**king deal with it.’ I’m sick of the bullshit, Gab. We’re all grown-ass adults but you’d think we’re still teenagers for the way our parents want to have their hands all in our business.”

“I hear you,” she said quietly.

“We’ll move before we deal with it much longer, just leave it all behind. Evan had the right idea.”