Page 90 of Gabriel's Salvation

“But what, Natey boy?” I laugh. “You're a pussy that still hasn't figured out how to close the deal yet?”

“It's not like that,” Nate says as his whole face goes as red as a tomato. Man, it's so much fun to tease him.

“Tell that to your poor blue balls,” I laugh again, as I reach for the radio and turn it back up with an accomplished grin.

We drive for a while longer and I can't help but smirk as I see Nate continually giving me the side eye. I hear a buzzing from beside me and look over at Nate's phone on the dashboard. Every couple of seconds it keeps going off.

“Do us a favor and see what that is,” Nate asks.

I reach for his phone and notice it says it's from Isabella.

“It's just her,” I say, placing the phone back down.

“What did Bella say?” he asks.

“What? You want me to read it?” No way in hell would I let anyone read my messages.

“Well yeah, I can’t I’m driving, duh”

I reach for the phone again and read the first message out loud.

“Hey baby,” I read before clarifying, “she said baby, not me.”

“Yeah, no shit Sherlock. What else did she say?”

“Hey baby, I can't wait to see you. Pops says he will drop me at the movie theater so you don’t have to drive all the way over here to pick me up. The film starts at ten but I'll meet you about 9:45 p.m. if you want so we have time to grab snacks.” What a boring ass message. Literally no sass or anything. If that was Riley, she’d at least have made it flirty.

Another message buzzes through as I'm reading. “What's that one say?” Nate asks. When the fuck did I become a fucking personal assistant?

“It says.. I got this for you, what do you think?” I reply feeling confused. That is until it buzzes a second later telling me it's a picture. I quickly cover the screen before I see something I REALLY do not want to see.

“It's a picture!” I gasp. Shit, now I'm the one who's flustered and embarrassed.

“A picture of what?” Nate asks, still not taking his eyes off the road.

“A..picture.. from your girlfriend,” I say slowly as I exaggerate each word to drive my point home.

“A… picture…of…what?” Nate replies in a mocking tone. Seriously, is this boy an idiot? A picture from his girlfriend. It's blatantly gonna be naughty. And the last thing I wanna do is see a naked picture of my brother's girl by accident.

“I don't know,” I say in frustration. What sort of weirdo is my brother that he wants me to look? Does he have some weird fetish or something?

“Well then, looook,” Nate replies with a shake of his head.

“O-kay” I reply hesitantly as I remove my hand from the screen and peer at the photo nervously. What the fuck?!? It takes me a second to properly grasp what I'm looking at. “It's a picture of candy… on a bed,” What the heck?

Nate peers over for a microsecond before telling me to hit voice note.

“No way, where did you find those?” he says excitedly. “You're so adorable; bring them with you. Can't wait to see you. Love you, baby,” he then hits the send button.

“What was that all about?” I ask as soon as he's done.

“When we were kids her grandparents used to take us to a little sweet shop and she always chose those swizzle sticks. But the shop closed down years ago and we’ve not seen them anywhere since,” he explains.

“Ohh,” I sigh. “I really thought it was gonna be something else,” I laugh as I shake my head.

“What was?” Nate asks, sounding confused.

“The picture. I really thought it was gonna be some naked picture or something. I just saw the bed and panicked,” I say as I continue to laugh.

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