Foraged Love in a Berry Grove - Love Tales from Santa Margarita Island Book 1

Chapter 5 - Your Firstborn for Gossip, er, Intel

The ride back from the farm was as quiet as a tomb. The only sounds came from the swipes and taps on Gage's and Nikki's phones as they secretly chatted on Messenger.

- The silence is driving me nuts.

- Want me to whistle?

- To the tune of "Beth". Haha!

- Wow, Nikki. Never pegged you for a Kiss fan.

- Sure. All the '70s greats. Kiss. Rush. Led Zep. Barry Manilow...

- Lol – you're a regular Seinfeld.

- I have my moments. So, what were you and Beth talking about?

- Kombis. She has one too.

- Imagine that. Don't tell Wandy, but that's common ground. Not your love for VWs and my dad's birthplace. Haha!

- She was grasping at straws with that one. So, you're only into vintage music, not vintage vehicles?

- Don't know much about the latter, but they're interesting. Your Kombi's cool.

- Thanks. If you're interested enough, we could check out the vintage car show at the yacht club happening today.

- Sure. Just don't tell Wandy. She's bound to get too excited.

- Deal. Pick you up in an hour.

And now Gage's Kombi was rolling up the long driveway leading up to Nikki's palatial home. He stopped at the canopied portion right in front of the massive wrought iron, wood, and glass contraption that the house had for front doors. Before he could shut off the engine, Nikki came bounding out, dressed in a tie-dyed maxi dress.

Gage laughed. "Fitting outfit. You look fantastic."

Nikki smirked. "I couldn't resist. I could just see Patrick rolling his eyes."

Gage rolled his eyes at that. Patrick seriously needed to be de-yuppie-fied.

The car show was fairly humming. Gage suggested sustenance before they started their ramble. They had just beat the lunch crowd, too, so the food tent had several empty tables. Gage left Nikki to the task of snagging a table while he went off to order their meal.

Later, Gage fondly watched Nikki gamely attack the smorgasbord he'd toted to the table - corndogs, mojos, buffalo wings, nachos, and two kinds of cake. Nikki being Nikki had to take a selfie with their food and post the picture on her Instagram.

"I was actually afraid you wouldn't eat any of them," Gage admitted. "They're not the haute cuisine you're used to."

"So, this was a test?" Nikki arched her eyebrow before stuffing some more mojos into her mouth.

"No!" Gage exclaimed before ruefully admitting, "Kind of." He laughed. "You're pretty cool, Nikki!" He was beginning to reconsider his decision not to date her.

Sheepishly, Nikki confessed, "I have the palate and appetite of a fat kid. Up until I was 18 years old, I had been about 30 pounds overweight."

"How did you get to your current svelteness?" Gage inquired with a teasing tone.

"I became friends with Wandy our first year of college and she turned me into her project. She was worse than Jillian Roberts, but a year later, I was the right weight for my height." Her phone dinged with a message alarm. "Speak of the devil!" Nikki showed Wandy's comment to her picture. It said, "YOUR ARTERIES!"

The two of them laughed. Gage was pleasantly surprised at how much fun he was having with Nikki. In their past get-togethers, he'd found her kind of boring and superficial, like a quieter Wandy, but she was turning out to be witty and so much more down-to-earth than he had had her pegged. He was definitely going to ask her out again.

He had just raised his eyes to broach the subject when he caught sight of a vision – if visions wore shorts, tank top, and flipflops with their curly hair bundled on the top of their head in a messy bun. The corn dog landed on his paper plate with a thud.

Nikki looked alarmed. "You have the expression of a kid who just witnessed an apparition in Medjugorje. What are you looking at?"

"Don't look! Don't look!" Gage hissed in vain as Nikki swiveled around to check out the view behind her.

"A-ha!" she crowed.

At that very moment, Beth's eyes swept around the room, glancing past them before doubling back. When he caught her eye, Gage smiled and bobbed his head in greeting. Nikki gaily waved. Beth's companions saw her and started heading over, much to Beth's obvious dismay.

There were two guys and a girl with her. One of the men had his arm around Beth's shoulders. He was a big, handsome, happy-looking guy wearing an old Rush T-shirt and cargo shorts. He glanced down at his old CBGB T-shirt and cargo shorts. They could be twins! They both have scruffy Black Irish looks, except that the other guy's eyes appeared to be hazel instead of blue like his.

"Nikki!" The same guy boomed.

"Jordan! Hi! Hey, you guys!" Nikki got up to give them all a hug, including Beth, murmuring to the latter a soft "Are you okay?" that Gage and the others didn't miss.

Beth nodded quickly, her cheeks flushing pink. "Hello again – Gage, isn't it?" She turned to her companions. "They were at the farm this morning." She gestured vaguely. "These are Zion, Noel, and Jordan." She finished, tapping the hand clamped on her shoulder. "We'll let you get back to your meal. It was nice seeing you here. Let's go, guys." She hurried away with the other three trailing after her.

"Well, well," was all Gage could say before taking a big bite out of his corn dog.

Nikki narrowed her eyes at him. "I could put you out of your misery, you know," she smirked. "All you have to do is admit you love Beth Cohen." She started laughing like a maniac.

Gage shook his head. "I never figured you to be this diabolical. Okay, I'll play. What do you mean by that?"

Nikki tried to stifle the giggles with little success. "Look, I can tell what conclusions you've jumped to, and they're making you miserable. What if I said you were wrong and didn't have to be?"

"But first I have to admit that I love her? You're worse than my students," grumbled Gage.

"I'm waiting."

"Not gonna happen," Gage replied, slurping his drink.

"I'm putting a two-minute limit to my offer." Nikki glanced at the dainty Rolex around her wrist and nonchalantly resumed eating. "I mean, I know so much, and I have no qualms about gossiping. I've known her since we were kids. Gosh, there's so much I can share about her. I can be like your Beth Google. Just ask away, but time's a-ticking. Tick-tock-ti-"

"Okay, it's obviously not love..."

"You just don't believe in love at first sight," Nikki quickly bantered. "But I do, and lucky for you, I'm a sucker for love stories, meet-cutes, and HEAs."

"What and what?"

"Never mind. All I'm saying is that I can see Cupid's arrow still twanging on your chest from impact." Nikki smugly pointed out.

"You're insane!"

"Ten!" Nikki warningly began counting down.

"I'm not in love with her!"

"Eight!"

Gage wasn't going to bite, right? It hasn't even been a year since his devastating split from Lauren, so he wasn't ready to pursue any kind of romantic entanglement. He imagined a little cartoon dust cloud as common sense fled his brain. Rolling his eyes, he ventured. "It's a huge attraction, I admit. Can we just call it a crush?"

"Good enough!" Nikki squealed, clapping her hands. "Okay, first things first. Let's put your splintered heart back together."

"Huh?" Gage frowned.

Nikki dramatically drew a deep breath before letting out, "Jordan is her brother. Her younger brother." She gleefully watched Gage try with resounding failure to curb the grin growing on his face. "Oh, look at you, so happy with this piece of news!"

Gage rubbed his hand over the lower half of his face, shaking his head at Nikki's giddy laughter. "Oh my gosh! You're so gonna marry her and name your firstborn after me!" she trilled.