Midnight Rider

Chapter 17

“I don’t understand how trouble keeps finding you, it’s like  you’re a damn magnet,” Christian was cooking breakfast while I sat at the kitchen table. Dru sipped her coffee, her concerned eyes watched me.

I kept stirring my hot chocolate, I didn’t feel like eating this morning. My stomach felt like it was still in knots from last night, I barely slept. “It’s not like I intentionally go looking for it you know,” I answered him exasperated.

“I know but you’re my sister so I do worry about you.”

“At least Gabriel and his cousin came and got you quickly,” Dru added, “have you heard from Tanner yet this morning?”

“No…..I’m sure he has a lot of answering to do this morning.”

“Yea I’ll bet,” Christian snorted.

“What do you think Jason meant when he said that last night? About Tanner always liking his sloppy seconds?”

“Angel I think you know what it means, you just don’t want to admit it,” Dru put her coffee down and took a plate of food from Christian.

“I agree,” he said trying to hand me a plate but I pushed it away.

“I feel like there’s more to it than that though.”

“Maybe there is, you won’t know til you talk to him. The real question is are you sure you really want to know?” Christian asked while sitting down to the table.

“If I don’t find out the truth then I’ll just always be thinking he’s hiding something from me and I can’t be in a relationship with someone like that.”

Dru nodded her head in agreement while eating biscuits and gravy. I decided to get up and keep myself busy by cleaning and doing laundry. I couldn’t just sit around wondering what that conversation with Tanner was going to be like. I still had hope for the party tonight, I knew that would keep my mind off of it. After finishing all the chores I ran a hot bath to relax. I had just got comfortable I the tub when my phone dinged with a text.

Hey have you heard from Tanner?—Ciara

No…… have you talked to Eric?

He just left, he could only stop by for a few minutes. He brought me flowers though—Ciara

What did he say?

Well he was saying he was sorry but that I shouldn’t worry because it was his first time getting in trouble so it’s going to be ok. He also said it took awhile for the cops to get everyone’s statements so it’s a good thing Gabriel picked us up when he did. Apparently Jason was still trying to start s**t with Tanner even with the cops there.—Ciara

Seriously??? What an i***t…. What was he saying?

Eric didn’t say just that he was being mouthy and the cop was threatening to charge him with being drunk and disorderly if he didn’t shut up lol. He mentioned Tanner felt really bad so that’s probably why you haven’t heard from him yet.—Ciara

Well he has some explaining to do….I’m trying not to think about it right now I’m getting ready for Jay’s party. Gabriel should be coming to get me soon.

It’s a good thing you called him last night. Did you see the way Tanner was staring at Gabriel when he picked us up?—Ciara

Yes! I figured it was just because he thinks he’s in some contest with him, but it was weird.

Well he kinda is in a contest with him, they both want to be with you. And I’m sure they both wanna win.

Ok yea that’s true….so far Tanner isn’t winning any extra points right now.

Good!—Ciara

Why? Lol

Because I’m still team Gabriel! Duh!—Ciara

But Eric is friends with Tanner…

So? That doesn’t mean I am! Go get ready and have a good time!—Ciara

I got out of the tub and fixed my hair and makeup. The party shouldn’t be fancy so I just put on a sundress. I heard the doorbell as I was putting on my sandals. I came down the stairs just in time to hear my brother and Gabriel talking.

“Hey man I just wanted to tell you thank you for helping Angel out last night. She told us what happened.”

“Oh it’s no problem,” Gabriel smiled up at me as I came down the stairs.

“Hey ready to go?” I asked.

“Yea, it’s gonna be great. We’ll see you guys later,” he waved bye to Dru and Christian as we walked out the door.

He held the door open for me as I slid over to the middle seat. I watched him walk around the truck, he was wearing black jeans with a red V neck shirt. “What are you smiling about?” I asked as he climbed in.

“Just you,” he answered as we pulled away from the house.

“Me? What about me?”

“You’re just so cute,” he draped his arm over my leg and kissed me. “You look really nice, everyone’s really excited to meet you.”

“Aw, thanks. You look nice too….I’m excited to meet everyone.”

I was surprised when we pulled up to his grandparent’s house. From the front it didn’t seem like a party was about to take place at all. “How come no ones here?” I asked.

“Oh they’re here….see,” he pointed as we pulled into an alley next to the house. There was an empty lot next to the house that was full of cars.

“Oh wow!” I laughed.

“Yea I have a big extended family.” Gabriel found a parking spot and we walked toward the house. The backyard had a patio with some outdoor furniture, a firepit and grill. They had brought in extra tables and chairs with tents set up for some shade. There was even tiki torches and lights set up on the tents and around the trees. I could also see all the flowers his grandma planted, including the tiger lilies.

“This looks so nice! Is this what you guys were working on last night?” I asked.

“Yea my dad and uncles took abuelo fishing, they camped last night and will be coming back today. That way we had plenty of time to set up.” He grabbed my hand as we walked closer to the house. I could smell meat cooking on the grill and some coming from inside. He opened a sliding screen door and lead me inside the kitchen/dining room.

“Oh my gosh is this her??!!!” I heard someone yell when we walked in. When I looked around I could see about a lot of people staring at us. I put a big smile on but I suddenly became very nervous. All of the women in the house crowded around to meet me. I could see the guys behind them laughing at Gabriel who was blushing from all the attention I was receiving. There are so many telling me their names I doubt I can remember them all.

“Angel it’s so nice to meet you in person finally! I feel like I already know you as much as Jay and Gabriel go on about you!”

“Mama!” Gabriel gave his mom a funny look as she gave me a big hug.

“Oh I’m sorry! I’m Belinda I’m Gabriel’s mom. I’ll try to introduce you to the girls.” She whisked me away into the group.

“These are Gabriel’s aunts; Willa, Isabella or Bella, and Luna,” they all smiled and hugged me, “and this abuela Rose!” His grandma was my height with long gray hair. Her and all the older woman had on aprons, you could tell they had been cooking all morning.

“I’ve been waiting to meet you!” she smiled and hugged me.

“It’s so nice to finally meet you! It smells amazing in here,” I looked around the kitchen at all the food.

“We cooked enough to feed a small army,” his aunt Willa said.

“That’s because we have enough family to have a small army,” Rose laughed.

They went back to cooking and Gabriel steered me into the living room where the cousins were sitting. Gabriel started to introduce them to me, “You’ve already met Roman.”

“Nice to see you again,” I smiled.

“So this is Quentin and his wife Flora. Miles and his wife Grace. Mary, Lily and Michael.” They all smiled and waved.

Gabriel showed me around the house while we waited for the party to start. One of the rooms he showed me had been turned into a play room. There was already a few small kids in there playing who all waved ‘hi’. More friends and family started to show up.  His aunt Luna’s phone started ringing, “everyone be quiet!......Ok see you then, alright everyone we need to move everything outside and be quiet! They will be here in a few minutes!”

Everyone jumped up and started grabbing food and chairs to take outside. Grace went into the playroom and told all the kids to go hide outside. We found some empty seats by the firepit. After we all heard them pull up to the front of the us everyone was quiet. As soon as they all walked out into the backyard we yelled, “SURPRISE!!”

Jay’s face was priceless he was shocked but so happy to see everyone there. Everyone was getting their chances to tell him happy birthday. Gabriel walked in front of me to hide me from Jay’s view as an added surprise. “Abuelo feliz cumpleanos! I have another surprise for you!” and he grabbed my hand and pulled me around him.

“Hi Jay happy birthday!!” I gave him a big hug.

“Angel! Oh my gosh! What a great surprise! I’m so happy to see you two together,” he smiled at us. We moved out of the way so more people could come talk to him. After a few minutes it was announced that we could now eat.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen this much food, I need two plates just to try everything!” I told Gabriel.

He laughed, “No one ever goes away hungry here. You can always come up and get a second plate.”

“As long as I save room for cake I’m good.” I went back to sit down.

“Hey will you hold my plate for a second and I’ll grab us drinks?”

“Yea sure!” while I was sitting some of the cousins came and sat down next to us.

While Gabriel was gone Roman asked me, “so your ex is Jason Garrett?”

“Yes….why?”

“I was a older than him in high school but I remember playing football with him. I didn’t realize he was your ex until we picked you guys up last night.”

“Oh well yea unfortunately he is…” Gabriel returned and handed me my drink. As he went to take his plate from me he gave me a kiss on the cheek.

“Aaawww……you guys are so cute!” Lily exclaimed. We both smiled at each other but I could still see his face getting red again. As we sat and talked to everyone I got to hear funny and embarrassing stories from when Gabriel and his cousins were little. My cheeks were hurting from laughing.

“Ok let’s go grab some cake,” Gabriel suggested. I don’t know if he did that to give me a break from everyone or if he didn’t want anymore stories being told about him.

I reached and grabbed his hand, “your family’s great.”

“Thanks, I think so too.” As we walked to where the cake and ice cream was a group of guys turned to talk to us. I recognized them as his dad and uncles.

“This must be Angel! It’s nice to finally meet you, I’m Nate, Gabriel’s dad. You’re even prettier than he said you were,” he laughed teasing Gabriel. You can really tell Nate is his dad, they have a similar body build but Gabriel’s eyes are blue like his mom’s.

Gabriel shook his head at his dad, “these are also my uncles, Paul, James, and Hector.”

“It’s nice to meet you guys.”

“So how was fishing?” Gabriel asked.

“Well…you know how your abuelo’s been getting. He does really good until the late afternoon and evening and then he’s just tired and worn out, but he had a really good time.” His dad answered.

It made me a little sad to hear this. I knew Jay was one of our sicker patients and they can go down very quickly sometimes. I turned around to watch Jay, someone was taking his picture with all the little great grandkids. He looked so happy.

“Ok everyone! It’s time to sing happy birthday!” all of Gabriel’s aunts were carrying the cake and ice cream over to his grandparents.

Some people sung in English and some in Spanish.

Feliz cumpleaños a ti feliz cumpleaños a ti feliz cumpleaños querido abuelo feliz cumpleaños a ti. Ya queremos pastel Ya queremos pastel, Aunque sea un pedacito, pero queremos pastel.

We all cheered at the end as he blew out the candles.

“Hey you think we should turn on some music?” Mike(Michael) asked. “My truck is right there I can turn it on.” He walked over to a black shiny truck and turned the stereo on. After cake we all started dancing and singing. Soon a slow song came on and Jay grabbed Rose to dance with her. Everyone was taking pictures before they made all the couples join in. Gabriel grabbed my hand and led me out there. He kissed my forehead as we started dancing.

“Are you having a good time?” he asked.

“The best,” I answered smiling up at him. After the slow song a faster one came on.

“Want to practice your salsa moves?” he asked.

“Lead the way Mr. Swayze,” I laughed. After a few steps his grandpa cut in to dance with me while he danced with his grandma. It was the cutest sight.

“Hey you’re getting pretty good!” Jay exclaimed.

“Well I had a good teacher.”

“He is something isn’t he? I’m not bias or anything though,” he laughed and winked at me.

Soon after all the dancing it was starting to get late. We could all tell Jay was getting warn out.

“I should probably get you home,” Gabriel leaned over and whispered to me.

“Well ok….” We said goodbye to his cousins and went to find Jay and Rose.

“Abuelo I’m taking Angel home now.”

Jay and Rose hugged both of us. “It was so nice to meet you, you come over anytime you want,” she said.

“Oh I will, thank you for having me.”

“Make sure you get her home safe, ok?” Jay told Gabriel.

“Si abuelo, I know,” he answered.

We walked to the truck holding hands. “What do you think your family thinks of me?” I asked.

He laughed, “well I know my cousins are probably wondering how I got you to agree to be seen with me in public.” He opened the door for me.

“Why do you say that?” I slid over to the middle as he walked around.

“Cause you’re amazing and I’m not,” he laughed.

“You haven’t looked in a mirror lately then.”

“Really?”

“Really really.” I snuggled close to him as we pulled out of the alley. “I had a great time, the party was so much fun.”

“Good, I’m glad.” When we pulled into the driveway he pulled me onto his land and wrapped his arms around me.

“Any more surprise dates up your sleeve?” I asked before kissing him. I ran my fingers through his hair.

“I’ll need a couple days to think of a good one.” He kissed me again keeping a tight hold on me. After a few minutes he eased up his grip around me. “I probably need to let you get inside, I told my mom I would help clean up the party.”

I sighed, “ok….”

“You don’t want me to leave do you?”

“No….do you want to leave?” I stared into this eyes.

“Well no I don’t want to, but I do have to get back and help them.” He slid me off of his lap and opened the door. We kissed again on the porch.

“I’ll text you ok?” he said while giving me one last hug.

“Ok, be careful, goodnight,” I unlocked the door. He waved goodbye as he pulled out of the driveway. I was on cloud nine when I changed and climbed into bed. I fell asleep so I didn’t hear my phone go off with a text from Tanner.

We need to talk. Call me when you can—Tanner.