The Price of Gold | Fortune's Fool #1

48 | your damn loverboy

• [ y o u r d a m n l o v e r b o y ] •

♥ gabriel ♥

UNLIKE MOST PEOPLE, I genuinely thought that fuzzy socks were pretty cool. Of course, I'd never tell anybody that but deep down, the so-called unwanted Christmas gift held a special place in my heart. They were kinda underrated.

Very emotional, Gabe

"Thanks, Nanna. I'm glad chill burn won't be an issue anymore," I joked, standing up from the armchair to hug her. Her frail arms wrapped around me before she lovingly patted my head.

"You're more than welcome, Gabriel. I'm sorry I didn't have time to give you anything else to open today; things have been considerably different than usual," She suggested, looking at me through the reading glasses that she always wore, even if she didn't have a book on hand.

At this stage, I was damn certain that she did it just for the aesthetic.

Gabriel's groovy grandma.

"Tell me what you want and I'll buy it for you, Gabriel."

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you can't buy a person.

Smiling at her, I let out a chuckle. "You're going to regret saying that when I empty your bank account-"

Halfway through my sentence, a rustling sound came from the door as somebody pushed something through the letterbox. "Post on Christmas day? Didn't know that was a thing."

Nanna and I had barely caught a few hours of sleep. Yesterday evening, I'd returned home to Britain with Nanna, Prince and Arlo. It turned out that the pair of idiots had got along with Nanna super well, to the extent where I wouldn't have been surprised if she chose them over her own bloody grandson.

To be honest, it didn't matter. Nanna could faff over them as much as she liked. Thanks to the pair of them, I'd made it back home sweet home for Christmas.

"Sit back down, Mister!" Nanna scolded when I got up to collect the post. "Don't go acting like a dashing dandy. It's only been a week; you're not recovered yet."

"It's fine, Nanna. It gives me an excuse to parade around the house shirtless. What's the point of having these guns if you can't show them off?" I responded with a wink. She tutted in disapproval whilst I waved my hand dismissively and grinned.

It hadn't taken me long to pick up that joking about my injuries seemed to make them hurt a little less now I wasn't hooked onto pain-relieving a-class drugs.

My legs had recovered a lot but that didn't alleviate the fact that I had several stab wounds on my stomach alongside a bandage across my head. The cuts on my face had begun healing and formed hard maroon scabs.

A sly smirk crawled on my face when I recognised the handwriting on the cover.

If it wasn't dear old Mr Carpenter, our neighbour.

"To Beth," I read aloud from the hallway before wiggling my dark eyebrows at her. "Oi oi, things seem to be progressing fast. I see we've skipped first name basis and gone straight to nicknames."

Nanna blinked a few times before pushing herself up from the chair and hobbling towards me. "Give it to me, you crazy boy. You're talking nonsense. We're just friends."

A secret letter on Christmas Day itself?

Damn, the lad knew how to pull girls almost as well as me. That was saying something.

My grey eyes moved onto hers, the skin in the corner crinkling as I laughed. "I'm coming, I'm coming. Don't have a heart attack." I bent onto one knee and dramatically bestowed the red envelope to her, "An impassioned love letter from your sweetheart."