Page 101 of Saving Ren
I let out a long breath and move towards the centre Island.
“Ren?” My eyes meet his. “You okay, you hungry?”
“Um, yeah, thanks.”
I need to find my phone and google cures for snoring, maybe go to the chemist and see if I can get something for it. Gabe doesn’t come across as too fazed, but I’m wondering what he really thinks. “Go sit down outside, I'll bring your brekkie out.”
I wander out onto the deck, visions of me wearing one of those face masks attached to a breathing machine in the coming years running though my head. Staring at the glass of orange juice on the table, I hope that maybe there’s some Prosecco mixed with it. It might make my headache worse, but if I drink enough, at least I won’t give a flying fuck about the snoring.
Taking a sip, I’m disappointed to find it’s plain OJ, and I just need to woman up andownthe fact that I snore, like a boss.
Gabe appears, carrying plates loaded with scrambled eggs, bacon, mushrooms, and toast, I watch and wonder if he’s the sexiest waiter ever to have existed.
Despite the sunshine, it can’t be above fifteen degrees right now, and Gabe’s perfectly erect nipples display that he must be feeling that.
“You not cold?” I ask.
“Nah,” is all I get in response as he shoves a forkful of eggs into his mouth.
“Why, are you? I can put the heater on. . .”
“No, no.” I smile at how quickly he offers to accommodate me. “It’s just not that warm, and you’re not wearing a shirt.”
“Does all this distract you?” He waves his open palm over his chest and abs, brows raised, lips pulled up into a smile as he waits for my answer.
“Hmm. All that skin on show, those bumpy things on your belly, that V thing you’ve got going on, it is kinda putting me off my breakfast a bit.”
“You are so full of shit, woman,” he says, eyes narrowed on me as he shakes his head.
The sound of a car engine running at the gates has us both turning that way. Due to the sun glare, I can’t see anything.
“You know anyone with a Golf?” Gabe asks.
“Yeah, Ryder.” I stand up as I answer, my son’s car now visible.
“Shit,” I say as I head back inside. “I need to put some clothes on. Let him in will you and put a bloody shirt on,” I call over my shoulder.
Ryder has checked in with me regularly since I’ve been here, but it’s been twice a day since meeting Gabe and finding out we’re in a relationship. He’d obviously got straight on the phone to Sonny, my eldest son, after we’d been at the house last Sunday because he’s called me a couple of times this week too, questioning me about what was going on.
“Far out, my mother’s a Cougar,”had basically been his reaction.
I don’t know if word has gotten back to Jay yet, or if he even knows I was at the house collecting my stuff. I assume he would’ve noticed the empty space in the wardrobe and bathroom, but who knows what’s going on with that man right now?
I pull on a pair of leggings, an oversized long-sleeved T, and my UGGs before heading back out to the family room, only to find Ryder sitting at the table on the deck next to Gabe, tucking into my breakfast as the pair of them chat.
I watch for a minute, my brain and my heart competing to work out how I feel about this, resulting in making me feel a little sick and lightheaded—or that could be the hangover, I’m not entirely sure.
“Hey,” I say to my kid as I step outside. “Everything okay?”
“Hey, Mum. Yeah, all good. Just thought I’d come and check my new dad’s looking after you right.”
I sit down in the chair next to him as I attempt to come up with a response. I look towards Gabe, expecting him to be wearing a look of horror, instead, he’s smiling while shaking his head at my son.
“New Dad, seriously? I’m what, ten years older than you?”
“Thirteen,” I blurt. “I’ve done the maths,” I add a little quieter. The men at the table both staring at me. I stare at Gabe’s chest, noting that it’s still bare. I’m about to remind him to put a shirt on when Ryder speaks.
“Thirteen, it happens. I know a kid who knocked some woman up at that age and became a dad. She was older though, his parents pushed to have her arrested because she was over eighteen, twenty-odd, I think. She ended up on the sex offenders register and everything.”
