Page 79 of Jake's Angel

I watch as Gabe places the skillet on the open burner and pours olive oil into the bottom, letting it heat.

He nods. “Maggie felt the same way. It’s why she ran away and came here to be with me as soon as she turned eighteen.” He leans into the fridge, grabbing out fresh garlic cloves and begins peeling them.

“Same as me.” I whisper.

“What was that?”

“Um, you said Gramps knew about you two.” I’m confused. “He approved of you being together?”

I watch him continue to shuffle around mixing the garlic into the oil. He turns back to the fridge and grabs an onion,handing it to me. “Here, make yourself useful, would you?” He smirks over his shoulder at me as he pulls out a steak and begins unwrapping it.

“Russell loved Maggie and wanted her to be happy. He didn’t care who she married, and he wasn’t the least bit concerned about how much money I had or if I would fit in his social circles.”

“Bikers don’t care about money?” I raise a challenging brow.

“Of course, we like money. When it’s our own and no one can tell us what to spend it on. People in high societies like to play ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ and I’m a Jenkins. We want to live happy and ride free. It doesn’t take millions of dollars or long hours of kissing ass to do any of those things.”

I slide the chopping block with the freshly diced onion over to his side while wiping my eyes with a clean dish towel. He slides the onion into the pan along with cubed cut pieces of steak. He sprinkles some basil, parsley, and a few other seasonings that I can’t read from where I’m sitting, but the house smells amazing. It’s almost distracting enough to derail my thoughts.

“Gramps hates social circles. He avoids them at all costs,” I say, playing with the label on my water bottle.

Gabe smiles. “You’re right. Probably why he was okay with Maggie moving here and marrying me.” He winks. “My social circle couldn’t give a rat’s ass 'bout how many hotels or fancy cars some jerkoff in a big city owns. They didn’t even know Maggie came from money when she came here. Well, Dad did, but I never told anyone else.”

“She liked it here? In Oakridge with your family?”

Gabe smiles, adding tomato sauce and zucchini to the mixture on the stove, then grabs a pot and fills it halfway with water.

“Maggie loved it here. Mom and Dad fell in love with her from the first moment they met her. So did the club. Then, as thepeople of the town got to know her, and her generous heart, they all fell in love with her, too. The day we had to announce the two of you passing was one of the worst I’ve ever experienced.” His mood is somber, but he still has a soft smile as he speaks. “When I tell you the whole town turned out, I mean it. They closed the entire town for half a day so everyone could come and pay their respects. It wasn’t me they were there for …” He sighs deeply. “It was for my Magpie.”

He places the pot of water on the stove, turns the burner on, then adds salt. Then he stirs the tomato sauce mixture, covering it with a lid, and turning the burner down before taking a taste off the spoon for himself.

I finish my bottle of water and walk it over to the trash can and toss it in.

Gabe tears open a bag of spaghetti noodles. Breaking them in half, then setting them into the boiling water. Turning back to face me, he leans his back against the counter, arms crossed as he strokes his beard with one hand.

“Did she ever talk about my grandmother?” I don’t know why I ask. I guess I want to know if Eleanor truly hated my mother, or if it’s just me she treated like an indentured servant. Abusing me, using me, and blackmailing me into behaving like the perfect grandchild. I did as she said and gave the impression we were the happiest of families and I was ever so grateful for her taking me in and giving me a life my mother squandered away.

Bitch.

“As far as I knew, they got along fine up until a few months before Maggie was about to graduate. She turned eighteen and was planning on moving here with me, but we hadn’t told Eleanor. Maggie’s plan was to move out and get her degree in business. Eleanor damn near lost her fucking mind over it. I don’t know exactly what was said, only what Maggie would tell me.”

“I have an idea. Eleanor West is not a fan of the women in her bloodline going to college. When I told her my sophomore year that I was going to apply to college, she forbade it. Gave me some spiel about how she wouldn’t have me embarrassing the family name by giving my virtue away to the first beer guzzling frat boy I found.”

“What a bitch.”

Duh.

Gabe walks over to the stove and turns the fire off. Grabbing two potholders, he grabs the pot of noodles and empties it over the strainer in the sink. He lets the noodles cool for a minute while he goes about grabbing plates and forks, setting them on the counter. He plates the noodles, covering it in the meat sauce mixture he’s made. When I reach across to dip my fingers in the sauce, he smacks my finger away. “It needs cheese. You can’t taste it until it’s perfect.” He grins, grabbing the parmesan from the fridge and generously pouring the shredded goodness all over the top of the dishes.

“Grab the drinks, will you?” He gathers the plates, carrying them over to a small oak dining table, and sits them down. I follow him with drinks in hand and sit across from him.

“Anyway, the night Maggie left home, she did it without Eleanor knowing. Of course, Russell knew. He took her to some Gala or some other fancy ball thing. I don’t really know.” He pauses, nodding toward my plate. “I’m not telling you another thing until you try it.”

I take a bite of the food he’s prepared and am stunned by how good it is. “This is so good. Did Liz teach you how to make this?”

“Actually,” he says, wiping sauce from his beard. “This is Maggie’s recipe. It was her favorite thing to make. Well, it was the only thing shecouldmake when she first came to live here. Apparently, she wasn’t taught to cook much where she grew up.”

“No, not if my grandmother had anything to say about it. We weren’t meant to cook and clean. We were meant to entertain and look pretty.” I huff and quickly shove another bite in my mouth when I realize the heated glare in Gabe’s eyes. He seems curious and angry all of the sudden but doesn’t say anything, causing me to sigh in relief. Instead, he twirls his fork and goes in for another bite.

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