Gabriel's Promise (A Romantic Comedy) (6 page)

SAM

Wow, I really like this kissing stuff, how
come no one ever told me how good that felt? And my Gabriel must be an expert
at it cause he always made me feel so good. He must've had a lot of practice I
didn't like that thought one bit. No
sirree
Bob, not,
one, bit.
I wonder if he had a girlfriend back home. He better not...we'll just see about
that.
Maybe I needed pop's shotgun for this, last I saw it was in the kitchen.

Chief

I wonder what had Miss. Priss in a tizzy now,
I saw her come and lift the shotgun off its hook, I didn't hear anyone pull up
outside so it could only mean one thing.
I thought of giving Benedict Arnold a heads up but changed my mind, served him
right whatever it was, knowing Ma Barker it was probably nothing more than
breathing the wrong way.
I rolled my chair closer to the doorway between the kitchen and living room so
I could hear what was going on.

GABE

I was in the
chiefs
room getting some measurements when I heard the unmistakable sound of a shotgun
being cocked behind me, what the hell?
I turned around to such a sight as to make a lesser being piss themselves; what
the hell had happened now? Not five minutes ago she had cornered me for another
one of her tongue attacks now she was pointing a gun at me.
"You got a girlfriend in Virginia?"
"What?" What the hell was she talking about?
"You heard me Casanova."
"Of course not, if I did I wouldn't be here kissing you what kind of man
do you take me for?"
"Yeah right, maybe you think you can have a little tryst with the country
hayseed before going back to your city hussy." She actually sited me, no
joke, gun on shoulder finger on trigger and eye squinted. Right at my head;
again what did I get myself into?
"Samantha I'm not that type of man, now put down that gun before someone
gets hurt."
She took her sweet time lowering the gun before she turned and went back the
way she came and I breathed a sigh of relief, which lasted all of two seconds.
I was going to have to teach flower a thing or two about dating etiquette.

I followed her to the kitchen where the chief
was sitting in the doorway grinning like an ass.
I took her hand and dragged her out the backdoor into the yard.
" The next time you point that thing at me I'm going to tan your
hide."
"Oh yeah, you just try it, I'll punch you in the eye."
She would too the infuriating woman.
"I mean it Samantha, you don't kiss a man half to death one minute and
then point a gun at his head the next, not unless you're crazy."
"Don't you call me crazy." Oh shit now she was fuming which was never
a good thing.
How to calm her the hell down? The chief was no help he was once again watching
and laughing like he was at the damn movies. No wonder my flower petal was half
crazy cause her father was all the way nuts. Funny! I never noticed anything
off about Phil.
"Okay what set you off this time?"
She started blushing and bowed her head, now she was shy, I found myself
looking to the heavens for guidance.
No wonder the chief was always doing it, I'd only known her a few days and
already I was looking for divine intervention.
"Well?" I was still holding both her hands in mine so she couldn't
get away, or slug me.
"We...
ll
, we were doing all that kissing stuff
and I never stopped to think if you had a girlfriend or not, I don't want to
kiss you if you have a girlfriend that's not right."

She was too damn cute and adorable, no wonder
I'd fallen so hard so fast. She was my own personal enigma, an innocent lamb in
the body of a sexy siren.
"Do you believe me when I say I don't have one?"
"I guess."
"No guessing Samantha, either you believe me or you don't."
She squinted her eyes at me, uh oh I don't think she liked my tone of voice.
"I'll think about it."
"You'll..."
She was the most exasperating female.
"Okay then, no more kissing until you do figure it out." She pouted
at me and I turned and walked away; the chief was smirking and I wanted to kick
his chair but that couldn't be right so instead I just gave him a glare as I
passed him by.
"If I had any sense I'd pack my bags and get out of this asylum." I
muttered it as I made my way pass him, which only made him laugh harder. I went
back to doing what I was doing for another ten minutes.
When I came out of the room Charlie was in front the television and Billie the
kid was in the kitchen supposedly making dinner, there was a lot of banging and
grumbling going on in there though.

"
Pssst
, what'd
you do to set her off?"
"As
If
you weren't listening."
He cackled at that one.
"Lord you two are a pair, I hope I live through this courtship of yours
boy, you know kisses are supposed to soften the girl up not turn her into a
spitting hellcat, looks like you need some help. I thought you big city types
knew all about the birds and the bees."
"Shut it." Lord now I was beginning to sound like her.
We watched the game for a little bit before Sam came into the room.
"Lord here come the kissing bandit." He muttered that out the side of
his mouth, right before a whirlwind landed in my lap.
"I believe you."
 
She hurried
the words out and then her lips were on mine.
I forgot all about chief being in the room for a second as we just kissed like
two horny teenagers.
"If you two don't cut it out, I'm gonna throw cold water on you."
Sam stiffened up I guess she just remembered we had an audience too; good to
know I could make her forget herself.
"Pipe down if you want something more than cauliflower for dinner."
She huffed back out of the room.
"No indeed son you're not doing it right, there's no softening far as I
can see,
you
have your hands full with that one. Now
tell me this since you introduced her to this new pastime of locking lips,
who's she supposed to kiss when you head out? Cause my girl is the practice
make
perfect type."

Chief

That was a plain and utter lie, if anyone of
these yahoos around here tried to kiss the Venus flytrap she would take their
heads off, but he didn't have to know that. Serves him right for not sharing
his breakfast and I knew just how to stoke the flames.
"Maybe she'd ask Brand to help out, those two learn practically everything
together." I sat back and awaited the explosion, it wasn't long in coming.
"The hell she would, she wouldn't dare." I just raised my brow at him
doing everything I could to keep a straight face.
He was out of the chair like a shot, uh oh maybe I shouldn't a said anything
who knows how Miss. Priss would react.
All I heard was a loud screech followed by
po
...op.
Shit that boy sure had a big mouth.

GABE

The next couple days were mild by Holder
standards; the cold front had warmed somewhat and the grumblings were down to a
minimum, if not completely gone.
This is Sam and Chief we're talking about here after all I think grumble is
their language of choice. My flower is still practicing her kissing skills on
me, and there's been no more mention of the Brandon kid. Good one chief.
I've been ever so gently getting Sam use to the idea of coming home with me for
a visit, the chief too of course, it just wouldn't be right without him,
besides I don't think they were ready for that type of separation yet.
I took Sam into Annandale for something to do since chief was going fishing
with Geoffrey and I told him I had no interest in that, at which time he
questioned my manhood.

She needed new books anyway and I wanted to look
around, it got me to thinking about where she got her spending money. They must
live off of the chief's disability I think. That can't be much, especially with
a teenaged girl to support, from what I can tell they love to shop.
That's the first thing I have to take care of, padding their account; I'm sure
they'll both raise hell so I'll have to find a diplomatic way to broach the
subject. I think I know just how to do it too.
We walked around for a while after she got her books until we came across a pet
store and she got all dreamy over this puppy in the window, she'd been wearing
a scowl the whole time we were here until now. I'd come to realize that was her
people repellant, it worked too.
Seeing her become so soft over the dog there was only one thing I could do.

When we got home hours later laden down with half the pet store
Charlie was already back.
He came out on the porch as we were leaving the car.
"What the hell is that?" He pointed to the obvious dog in Sam's
hands.
"It's a dog, what does it look like?" she went into warrior stance,
feet planted, chin lifted, ready for battle.
"Whose dog?"
"Mine, Gabriel got him for me, isn't he cute?"
"Looks like a squirrel with hair to me, where do you think he's supposed
to stay?"
"With me and don't you say one word about my Charlie."
"Char...you named your damn dog after me?
"He's a king Charles what else would I name him?"
Oh good Lord I hope she wasn't serious about that.
"I'll cook him if you bring him in this house."
Now that was just mean, nasty and mean.
"I'll feed him to you."
Wow, okay.

"Nobody's cooking the damn dog, could you two act like adults
for once?"
They both turned the Holder glare on me. Yikes! I held my hand up in surrender.
"Carry on." Now I was the one rolling my eyes as I followed my flower
inside, these two surely were a pair.
As I passed the chief to get to the door he had one last parting shot.
"I hope that mutt eats your expensive shoes, and don't ever forget your
car door open, if you know what I mean."
"You're a mean old man, I think I'll leave Charles down here with you
tonight."
He spluttered all kinds of threats but I kept going, maybe I could get Sam to
feed him cauliflower for dinner again.

Chief

" That's it, I'm taking this mutt out to the woods and
setting him free." Damn dog kept me up all night with his
yapping ,
that damn Gabriel was more trouble than he was
worth. Buying her a dog, like I didn't have my hands full with one pain in the
ass already.
"Don't you threaten Prince Charles or you'll be the one in the
woods."
"Samantha Eliza Holder don't you threaten
me ,
and where in the blazes is that upstart I thought you two were joined at the
lips?" I got a dishcloth thrown at my head for my efforts.
"You rang chief?"
I rolled my eyes at him, he was such a traitor, some son in law he was going to
be.
"We have to do something bout that damn dog, if he sleeps down here again
I won't be held responsible for my actions." Look at him with that
smirk,
I'll get him back before the day was out. Now instead
of one enemy in the camp I had two, I would've thought the boy would be on my
side, but no he had to side with Calamity Jane.
"What seems to be the problem chief?"
"
Wha
... first of all why was that dog down here?
Shouldn't the flying squirrel be up in Miss.
Priss's
room since she's so in love with him?"
"Pop Prince Charles probably just wandered down the stairs in the middle
of the night and couldn't find his way back up, when I fell asleep he was right
there with me."

I looked at traitor Joe and caught him smiling, I knew he had made
good on his threat and let that damn dog down here.
"What were you doing in Samantha's room last night Gabriel Sweeney?"
Good Lord the boy is always spraying me with coffee.
"What?"
"Nothing, I just thought I heard you moving around in there last night I
followed the
foot steps
over my head from your room to
hers. You're lucky my legs don't work or I would've been up those stairs with
my shotgun." Good she was glaring at him with murder in her eyes. My work
here is done.

GABE

Oh you're slick chief I could see my cactus bristling already,
there had to be some way to get out of this.
"Oh you must've heard when I went to the bathroom, the two rooms are so
close you must've been mistaken, besides I listened outside the door to see if
Charles was crying, you know new surroundings, new faces he might've had a hard
time adjusting, but I didn't hear a peep so I went back to bed, I guess he'd
already come downstairs to find grandpa."
"Aw, that's so cute, hear that pop you're grandpa."
I looked at him and he was cross eyed with frustration, gotcha.
"What's for breakfast Samantha would you like some help?" She preened
under my attention, as the chief went back to rolling his eyes and muttering.
"That's okay, you sit and have your coffee, I've got it all under
control." She turned back to the stove with the dog underfoot.
I took the opportunity to give the chief a wink while stifling a grin, he'd
gotten steamed veggies again for dinner last night, only this time she'd added
boiled fish, I didn't even want to know. Yuck. You would think he would learn
his lesson by now, but no, he still kept putting his foot in his mouth.

There was a knock on the door and I sat at attention, I hope it
wasn't a salesman it was too early in the morning for this mess.
Whoever it was must not have been a stranger because I heard the door open and
two sets of feet came towards us. I saw the chief looking rather jovial all of
a sudden and thought it was his fishing buddy, but no, when the new arrivals
entered the kitchen I understood his sudden joy. He was mean, dog mean.
"Good morning Holders." They went over to kiss his cheeks one on each
side.
"Thanks for calling us in Charlie, we all know how difficult she can be
about these things." Diana and Paula looked at me while waving their hands
in Sam's direction.
Uh oh, chief what the hell did you do now? I think I heard the sound of a
locomotive coming from the stove where Sam stood, but no it was just my
wildflower growling.