Page 26 of Tempting Fate
“If not Flynn, who?” he asked.
“No one from around here.”
Their food was up, and Gabe went to the counter to get it. He handed Raylene her tortaand took his burrito. He excused himself to go to the head to wash his hands. Raylene had used one of those wet wipes on the ride over. Even in the teams, he’d been a fanatic hand washer. As a result, he rarely got sick, despite the nasty shit they’d breathed and ate during deployments. When he returned to the table, he noticed Raylene had waited for him to eat. Growing up in the Moretti household, you waited to eat, you went hungry. There were too many of them to stand on ceremony. Their table was like a circus, his sibs and steps all talking at the same time, passing food—and gas—fighting over the last dinner roll or strip of bacon, and joshing each other endlessly. It was the best.
He supposed being an only child, Raylene had had a completely different experience. And there was the fact that her father was an asshole. So, yeah, it wasn’t the Moretti house.
“Dig in,” he told her, and took a big bite of his burrito. “Is it as good as you remember it?”
“Uh-huh,” she said around a mouthful. “Maybe better.”
“I didn’t discover Mexican food until the Navy. At home, it was either Italian, Irish, or some combination of both.”
She nodded, pushing a piece of pork back inside her sandwich. “Logan said you guys were like the Brady Bunch…a blended family.”
“Yep. My real old man ran out on us when I was two and died a year later from a stroke. My ma met Tino Moretti a few years later and that’s all she wrote. Bada bing, soulmates. He adopted me and my baby sister, brought his own brood into the mix, and they had a few of their own. Big Italian family.”
“But you’re Irish?”
“Half and half. Biological dad was Italian. After him, Ma swore off Italian men. Obviously it didn’t stick.”
She dredged a tortilla chip through a bowl of salsa. “You’re still close with everyone?”
“Like glue. We’re spread across the country but that doesn’t stop us from Skyping and texting each other every day.”
“Wow. Nice. I wish Logan and I could’ve been like that growing up. Good ol’ Ray made sure that didn’t happen.” She pushed her sandwich at him. “You can have the rest, I’m full.”
He held her gaze until she blinked and turned away. “You tried to screw him out of his inheritance, Raylene.”
In a voice barely above a whisper she said, “And for that I’m eternally sorry.”
He didn’t know how sorry she was, but she had dropped her suit contesting Logan’s share of Ray’s living trust. In the end, Logan had gotten a nice chunk of change. Logan didn’t hold a grudge against Raylene, so why should Gabe? But the thing was, he did.
On the way out of the restaurant he asked her, “What are you planning to do with all that gold when we dig it up?” It wasn’t as if she needed the money, she’d been left a small fortune. But he wanted to know if her so-called eternal remorse extended to splitting her bogus buried treasure with Logan, who was as much a Rosser as she was.
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you get your share.”
He laughed to himself, because his share of nothing was nothing. “Wrong answer.”
Raylene turned away, swishing that fantastic ass of hers in the air, and got into his SUV without saying a word. As they drove to the farm, she turned on the radio and, to piss him off, flipped the dial from his classic rock station to country music. When Dolly Pardon’s “Jolene” came on, Gabe sang along.
“Raylene, Raylene, Raylene, Raylene, I’m begging of you please don’t take my gold.”
She slugged him in the shoulder and muttered something about him being an idiot. When they pulled up to the house, there were a couple of cars in the driveway that weren’t Logan and Annie’s and Gabe could feel Raylene tense. He shut off the engine and grabbed her by the arm before she could flee.
“Tonight’s just family, so you can relax.”
“Gia and Flynn will be there. Flynn hates me, and I hate him.” That was Raylene, always on the offensive. Gabe knew it was her coping mechanism.
Flynn had been old man Rosser’s estate attorney. He thought Raylene was a spoiled brat and never hesitated to voice that opinion out loud. The fact that he and Gia now owned Rosser Ranch was probably another thing that stuck in Raylene’s craw.
“Gia’s in the wedding, Ray. It only stands to reason that she and her husband would be included in the rehearsal dinner.”
“I know,” she said, trying to sound conciliatory. Yet Gabe saw the same vulnerability that had been there the night of the potluck streak across her face. And damn it, it brought the protector out in him. No matter how much he tried to look at Raylene as an assignment, she got to him. And despite his better judgment, he pulled her over the seat into his lap.
“You’ll be fine, Ray.”
She straightened her spine. “Damned right I’ll be fine.”
