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Do you rein in all that audacity? Is it right to try to stop a boy from devouring life? He’s so bold, Judy, it sometimes takes my breath away. In another time, he’d be the first to walk on the moon. The first to corral fire.
Tobias will find a spitfire who challenges him and drives him insane, and they’ll go off and tear through the world, running with the bulls in Pamplona or uncovering hidden treasures in Egypt or something.”
“And Sierra doesn’t get that,” she continued. “She doesn’t get the solidness of Johnathon or the fearlessness of Tobias.
I actually don’t want a sweet one. I want one who’ll give as good as she gets, stick up for herself, stick up for me, and stick up for the babies we make. And when shit goes off the rails, and I admit I’ve been a dick, what I don’t want is her to shut her mouth and not admit she’s been a bitch, so we can take it from there. That’s what I don’t want, Kristy.”
“Yeah, I totally want my woman to worship the ground I walk on,” he shared. “See,” she retorted. “And she’ll do that because I’d die for her.”
with your broken promises and your ridiculous dreams.”
You know every word I say is true. And you know you don’t have what it takes to fight that. I’ll do whatever it takes to beat you, to give my son what he deserves. I was taught how, day in and day out by my mother, so I know the way. And I’ll take it if you make me, and I’ll die knowing I gave my boy happy.”
Johnny found the righteous blondes who’d go to the mat to take care of their kids. Toby found the nutcases. Good to know things didn’t change.
met Toby. The first time I’d seen that top-to-toe perfection. That thick black hair slicked back from a widow’s peak. His long black beard. His
tall, lean body with its broad shoulders and narrow hips and loose-limbed grace. The compassion in his crow-black eyes
when he worked on cars at the garage he half-owned, he played hardcore metal and he did it loud.
his forestry degree and put it to work as a logger and a park ranger and he had his pilot’s license.
Hell, Iz had Johnny’s ginormous rock on her finger, was living with him and he’d had stables especially built for her horses at his property, and they hadn’t even been seeing each other for a year. Yeah. A Gamble man went after what he wanted, locked it down, and then . . . onward.
“I say colored. That cute-as-fuck farmhouse will glitter into the fairy realm if you put perfect white lights on it. Colored with the fat bulbs. Retro and ugly.”
“I’m putting the lights up, babe.” I had a response to that. “Toby, really, I do not want that.” “Yes, you do. But even if you didn’t, I don’t give a fuck. I want it for you.”
“Later, Addie.” And with that, he prowled back down the sidewalk toward the garage with that long-limbed, loose, male grace that was so beautiful to watch.
That was life. It almost always went ways you didn’t expect. You just sailed those winds. Fighting them served no purpose.
And if it went the way he didn’t want, it would suck huge, but he’d bounce.
she did buy ice cream, so I knew she was my people even if she hadn’t been nice to me (which she always was).
Everyone in Matlock knows he’s got the patience of a gnat with women who aren’t worth it. Now others who don’t act like trash by treating people like trash,” Lorraine’s eyes slid to me before going back to Jocelyn, “well, they seem to be in it for the long haul.”
“He ever care enough in the nanosecond you two were together to fight with you about anything?” Lorraine drawled.
“Addie, do you think I give that first fuck you get your lipstick all over me?” he returned.
pumpkin chiffon pie with a gingersnap crust
that made me look like a hippie, gypsy, Stevie Nicks rock ’n’ roll queen. For his part, Toby was in his usual. Faded jeans. Boots. Long-sleeved vintage Eagles
tee. Beat-up leather jacket. And he had on one of those awesome extra-large beanies that drooped at the back and made him look badass and dope.
We fit. We matched. We had it going on. We did not watch Miracle on 34th Street. We watched A Nightmare Before Christmas.
I’d forgotten an important lesson my mother taught me. Shit worked out and you lived while it did.
Brooklyn looked in his face and shared earnestly, “Chacha, sissis, leepy, loona, Dodo.” “Well, heck, boy, that’s serious,” Charlie replied somberly.
“I have zero tolerance for stuck-up bitches,” he rumbled.
wish Mom was walking her down the aisle. I wish Mom could put her hand in the hand of a Gamble man. Mix moonlight with motor oil.”
heart melting....
I want her hand to put mine in yours, wrap our fingers around and I want to stand with you and her and know she’s down with the hand I’m gonna hold on to for the rest of my life.”
he was going to wrap that braided leather around their hands. A braid of leather that would bind them throughout the ceremony. A braid of leather Daphne was wearing in a picture Johnny had found, wearing it as a headband in a photo Izzy had, and Toby had found that leather braid in
“I like to think that God had a hand, linking me to your mother. He did this so she raised you girls to suit my boys, and I raised my boys to suit her girls.”
You’re a Gamble. “Those boys really do not fuck around,” I whispered.
“No, I’m only this Toby with my Addie. I’m a better man around you. I’m a better man for you. I don’t care if that sounds like it’s from a movie. As you say, romancelandia. It’s just fuckin’ true.”
“Love the fuck out of you, Addie.” “Love the fuck out of you too, Toby,”
Johnny looked up into the stars. And he got it. It wasn’t about being reminded what a small part of the universe you were, a speck, not even dust, a cell of nothing that exists and then fades away. It was about being reminded about the magnificence of the universe, and how you were an integral part of it, and you should not waste a moment,
you should find time
savor its beauty while you had your time amon...
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Though he did say, “Granite and steel packaged up in goose down and kitten fur.” “Say what?” Toby asked. “You got soft leather and smooth whiskey and I got goose down and kitten fur. But under what we got, it’s granite and steel. Daphne made that. That’s her legacy.
he came while kissing me. I loved that about him.
“You go to that reading with my rock on your finger and my promise to love and keep you for the rest of our fucking lives in your heart, and whatever happens, fuck them. You’re loved. You’re looked after. And you got family,” he declared. The ring was traditional. The proposal wasn’t. But it was Toby.
And within a month, Brooklyn’s last name was Gamble. Because when the Gamble Men decided to stake claim to someone they loved . . . They didn’t fuck around.
“I know Mommy and Aunt Izzy got magic,” Brooks told him. “Auntie Dee says they sit out under the stars an’ soak it up.”
