As Long As You Love Me ✓

7. Sorry Not Sorry

Mom put a hand on her hip, placing herself between the two of them, looking back and forth between them. "Would one of you please tell me what's going on?"

Gabriel opened his mouth to speak, but Silbie shoved her hand toward him. "Hush! Not another word." She faced her mom, lowering her voice an octave. Sweetly. "Gabriel's upset because apparently, someone saw me with Owen Filgard. He's Zari's god-brother. I like him, Mom, and he likes me, and it's none of Gabe's concern. I'm eighteen, and he treats me like I'm still twelve."

Gabriel fisted his hands and spoke through clenched teeth. "Well, if you were, he'd still be too old for you."

Mom drew her brows together, and Silbie recognized the expression. The one that said she was about to hear numerous examples and stories of her mother's past. God, she knew them all by heart. Devastated by her first love, Gabriel's father. Then losing Silbie's dad. If she had to listen to all of those again, she thought her brain might explode.

She turned away from Gabriel, faced her mother, and matched her gaze. "Before you get all nostalgic, let me remind you of the age difference between mom and my dad."

"She was in her mid-twenties," Gabriel said. "When you're twenty-six and he's thirty-one, you'll have my blessing."

She cut her eyes over at him and smirked. "Just keep quiet. This is between Mom and me. Besides, there is nothing you can say that Owen hasn't covered. He's on your side, but I don't care, and no matter what anybody says, I'm going to spend time with him."

Gabriel's nostrils flared, and he opened his mouth ready to argue when Dawn waved her hand, shushing him.

Mom took a deep breath and Silbie braced for the wrath of Dawn. The last time she'd been on the receiving end was age thirteen when Mom found her smoking a cigarette. After two weeks with no electronics, and being forced to write a five-thousand-word essay about how smoking causes lung cancer, Silbie learned her lesson.

"Sounds like you're aware of all the reasons you shouldn't date him, so I won't forbid it."

Gabriel threw his hands in the air. "Mom! What is wrong with you? Owen is not some pimple-faced high school boy. He's a grown-ass man with an agenda. Being with her makes him practically a sex offender."

Silbie shoved her brother. "Shut up! Don't say that about him. He's the nicest guy I've ever met. The only one who's ever measured up to you, and I won't let you talk about him that way. Do you understand me?"

Mom stepped between them. "Go to your room and let me have a word with your brother."

*

Gabriel's heart raced. Maybe he needed to remind Mom how guys thought about girls. Well, some guys and in his opinion, Owen was that type. And the guy had not wasted any time. Within hours of his arrival, he'd met an easy mark. Why not take advantage of an innocent girl while he was in Parkers Prairie? Not with his sister, he wasn't.

Once his sister was out of sight, he glared at his mother. "There's only one thing he wants, and you're making a big mistake. You shouldn't allow her to see him."

"And how do you propose I do that? Take her car? Hire someone to follow her? Tie her to a tree?"

He crossed his arms over his chest. Leave it to his Mom to make him feel like a petty child."Yes."

"No, Gabe," she said, and he stopped. He had never heard that tone in his mother's voice before. It sounded motherly. But not in the usual way. It was very... responsible. Authoritative, maybe. "I know in the past I haven't been the take-charge type. I sat back and let you take charge of things after her dad's death and having to work all the time, and, really, I didn't try to take it back again when things became more stable. But things are going to change. You don't have to deal with things by yourself anymore. You don't have to be the only strong one, the rock of the family. That's my role. I know you've given up your childhood to help me raise her and I'm grateful for that. It's something no kid should have to do. But you're not her father, Gabe. She needs you to be her brother."