The Twenty Year Triangle

Chapter Forty-Nine

"Gabe? Gabe!?" I leap up, and he catches me in his embrace as I lunge at him. "Is it really, you?"

He's taller and much bigger in person than he is on the screen, and he's as handsome as ever with those sparkly green eyes of his and that dimpled grin.

"Look at you, Kinz! What are you doing here? Kels, what is going on?"

"She thought it was, Luna, babe," Kelsey says. "Climbed up here and found your tequila."

"This is..." I look at Kelsey and flush red. "Gabe is your... husband, isn't he? I am so sorry. I just jumped on him."

"Oh, it's fine!" She says with a natural ease. "We are both huggers, and Gabe has women throwing themselves into his arms a lot."

"That has to suck," I say.

"It doesn't bother me." She shrugs as she stands, and Gabe starts over towards her and then he kisses her softly, not caring at all about the audience of one. He then sits down in the chair she was in and pulls her into his lap as he wraps his arms around her. She is beaming, as is he, and I can see they are very much in love. 

"The key for us with his career is two things, trust and passion. We trust each other so much there is no room for doubt when we aren't together, and we have so much passion we never take our hands off each other when we are together."

"That's perfect," I say. I am so glad that Gabe found someone and is so happy.

"Wait, it's your birthday Gabe! Happy Birthday, big football star!" I say, and he grins bashfully.

"Eh, thanks," he shrugs it off.

"I should go so you two can have your time!"

"No, please don't go yet," Kelsey says. "An old friend of Gabe's is all the more reason to stay. So, hold on now. Would farmgirl be the girl from sophomore year, his first real girlfriend?"

"She broke my heart," Gabe says with a playful smile, and Kelsey makes an oh, face and then leans back to kiss his cheek, which makes him smile all big.

They are flipping adorable. I love this.

"You broke up with me, remember?" I remind Gabe. 

"For good reason, now tell me why you're here?"

"For those same two reasons," I say in a telling way.

"What?" Gabe makes a face. "Please do not tell me..."

"She's torn between two men," Kelsey says.

"No," Gabe says as she shakes his head. "Not the same two men."

"Yeah," I wince.

"Kinsey, what the– how are you in this now?" He is shaking his head. "Kels, baby I need. a shot too."

"The same two guys?" Kelsey asks as she pours one for him in a champagne flute, and then we all down them. 

"Yes, the same two that she was torn between in high school," Gabe says. "Neither of which were me, the guy she was with."

"Yeah, sorry about that," I offer.

"It's all good. I'm right where I need to be." He kisses Kelsey's head, and she smiles.

"You've really been in the same love triangle since high school?" Kelsey asks.

"It's a twenty-year triangle," Gabe jokes.

"I'll kill you," I shoot him a look. "I got divorced recently and moved home, and things started happening with Hunter. Then Oliver suddenly comes home, and it muddled everything."