I'm sitting in the middle of Sean's living room staring at all nine of my new 'provisional' team members. Everyone looks a little restless, and after a minute of awkward silence, I burst out in peals of laughter.
Gabriel is the first to break, and he joins in, leaning against me as we fill the quiet with snorts and howls and hoots.
"This," he gasps, "is," shriek, "fucking," he grabs his stomach and tries to get a breath, "ridiculous!"
The others are looking at us like we've gone mad, which pushes me back into hysterics. Gabriel takes a few gulping breaths and then covers my mouth with his hand, trying to stop my antics. "We all show up, ready like we usually are, to get Trouble moved, and everything she owns fits inside of one fucking suitcase!"
Luke and North look at one another, both of them wearing cargo pants and heavy duty gloves and shrug. Silas leans over and scoops both of them up, one in each arm and winks at me. "I came to do heavy lifting, Aggele Mou, so where should I put them?"
Gabriel hasn't moved his hand away from my mouth, so I lick his palm and he screeches. "Eew, that's nasty, Trouble!"
I giggle and get up. I walk around Silas, who is struggling to keep a hold of a grunting North, and tap my finger to my bottom lip. "Hmm," I say as I study the brothers, "I think that they would really match the decor in my new room, don't you?" He grins at me and then drops the two.
"Aggele, how about you leave these buffoons and I will be the only decoration you need," he whips off his shirt and strikes a Herculean pose. I can't help but stare at his perfectly defined abs and pectoral muscles. He embodies the Greek demi-god well. At this, several of the others copy him and keep trying to 'one up' each other. Luke does a handstand, Nathan does the quintessential 'muscle man' pose, North starts flexing his biceps at me. It's preposterous, and they're starting to shove, getting a little more aggressively competitive with one another.
Kota notices my anxiety over them and gathers all of their discarded clothing and tosses it in each of their faces. "Enough," he orders. A couple of them grumble at him, but they all start to dress.
Owen clears his throat. "I propose that we all take a trip over to Sang's new residence. Let us measure her room and see what we will have to work with. Then," he looks at Gabriel, "we'll take a trip to purchase any necessities that may be lacking. We can plan for a greater outing at a later date, but for now, I just want to get her settled." Everyone agrees, and before there can be another round of 'who-gets-Sang' he grabs my hand and drags me to his car.
"Sean, Sang, and Mr. Coleman will be riding with me. Mr. Lee, Mr. Griffin and Mr. Morgan together, and both Taylors and Mr. Korba will take the Jeep. Everyone know where we're going?" I'm buckled in and alone in the car while they sort themselves out. My breath leaves fog on the window, and I trace a heart around where I see my boys talking. I assume that they all figure whatever it is out, because moments later, we're all on our way to my new home.
***
I look back at my Pookie and see that she is bouncing her knee and chewing on her thumbnail. I give Gabriel a look and nod toward her. His brow pinches and he pulls her thumb from her mouth. "Don't bite your nails, Trouble. You'll mess up the polish," he grumbles. He cups her hands into his own and kisses each of them. "You okay?" he asks. Her knee is still bouncing and I notice that she's taking rapid, short breaths.
"Pumpkin," I turn more directly in my seat and reach for one of her hands, "I need you to take deeper breaths right now. Gabe is going to help you, okay?" Her pulse is racing, and I pray that Gabriel can get it down.
