Romance Collision ✔

Chapter Fifty-Six: Worth It

When the teenagers walked into the lower level of Eve's home, Daniel sat at the head of the table. Eve's mother was sitting at her usual spot. The father had his chest puffed out and arms crossed, watching the teens like a hawk.

Eve narrowed her eyes making her way to her seat and wondered why her father was sitting where he was. He never sat there. She rolled her eyes, thinking this was some sort of intimidation tactic.

When she looked at Gabriel over her shoulder, Eve lowered a brow at how easy-going the boy was all of a sudden. Just moments ago, upstairs, he'd been afraid of coming down and now Gabriel was grinning and seated himself across from Eve.

Most of the time, Gabriel had engaged in conversation with her mother.

It was the typical compliments on the food; how well it tasted, how much time she must have put into it, and just what a wonderful cook she was. Daniel growled, interrupting Gabriel's complimenting that the dinner was take out. Daniel kept watching Gabriel as the father savagely bit into the fried chicken leg.

Gabriel blinked a few times looking down at his plate of mashed potatoes, creamy macaroni, the honey spread biscuit, and chicken thigh Ms. Prince had placed in front of him. His green eyes flicked up to Eve. She was chewing slowly and smirked at him before nodding behind him.

Gabriel turned his upper body and spotted the large KFC buckets sitting on the counter. Beside the buckets were the smaller containers holding the sides.

"Huh..." He stared at the buckets five seconds longer then faced forward again. Raising a brow, Gabriel grinned at Eve. "I stand corrected..."

Eve bit her bottom lip, shaking her head before looking back down at her plate.

Daniel glanced between Eve and Gabriel and back again. He sneered, turning his narrowed gaze to Riley. The stern look he was already receiving made him frown, craning his neck back. 

His girlfriend's brow rose high, mouthing, "Be nice." 

When that only made Daniel's eyes narrow, Riley glanced at their daughter, mouthing, "For Eve."

Those last two words were the only reason Daniel hadn't ripped into the teenage boy for being alone in his daughter's bedroom. Or on her bed for that matter. But then the man remembered this boy had tormented his daughter for years, and suddenly came to the realization that he liked Eve.

Daniel had hoped he wouldn't be swimming in these uneasy, aggressive, and violent feelings until Eve was like... thirty. Pushing fifty, maybe. 

Scrutinizing Gabriel from where he sat, Daniel sat quietly as the teenager boy was smiled as he said something to Riley while he pointed at Eve with a fork in his hand. He was elaborating on Eve's accuracy with a paintball gun.

Turning to observe his daughter, Daniel frowned at the way Eve's gaze lingered on the boy across from her. The corner of her lips tugged upward when she heard him laughing with her mother, and then there was the blush Eve had when looking back to her food when Gabriel would glance at her.

'Oh no,' Daniel groaned. He scowled, looking down at the mashed potatoes and stabbed them with his plastic fork. 'She likes him!'

"Dad?"

Daniel's head snapped up; three pairs of eyes on him. He looked from Riley to Gabriel to Eve. 

Eve furrowed her brows, leaning forward. "Are... you okay?" She glanced at his plate, lifting her gaze to her father. He was obviously bothered about something.