WIP Wednesday: Dirty Pool #MichelandGabbie

Hey, loves!

I technically finished Gabbie and Michel's book today, but for the smexy scenes as I like to leave those for last and to do them on their own day, but since today is Wednesday, I figured ... well, one last WIP Wednesday for them would be fine, right?

Do enjoy.

***

“What good would it do me to tell you to stay away from the lad, hmm?” her father demanded sharply. “I think I have said more than enough over the last several months since you’ve run around with the prick that it’s clear I don’t approve. But whatever it is, you’re determined to see it through, so I might as well let you get it out of your system now before reality comes to wake you up.”

‘What does that even mean?”

Charles scrubbed a hand down his face. “You’ll learn in time. As I intend.”

“I—”

“And as for that Italian fecker,” her father continued, “he needs to pick a side, Gabbie. If he wants to entertain the Italians in the daytime, and then shift with my daughter in the shadows when no one is looking, then a man can’t trust him, can we? A lad like that … his mind is too sharp, lass. They had to know what he was doing, and then he can decide what he really wants to do. I know where he comes from, and you have to watch him like it, too. I need him to know that I am aware of his choices, and he has others to consider now.”

“Are you giving him the option, then? Them, or us?”

Charles arched a brow. “It isn’t that deep, sweetheart. You don’t have to understand when all I want you to do is follow along.”

Wasn’t it that deep?

She thought so.

“Follow along with what?”

Charles waved a hand at her, and she knew what that meant without him actually telling her. A dismissal. He was done with their discussion, and she was quite aware how that worked with her father. Once he was done, he was finished. No amount of her prodding or pressing would get more from him.

“I have men to deal with,” he told her. “And you haven’t checked your sugars since this afternoon. Go do that now.”

“My sugars are fine!”

“Do it.”

She wasn’t a child.

She still felt like it sometimes.

Charles gestured at the ground of lads that had attended the meeting, too, and were now waiting in the hallway just beyond Gabbie. Without waiting for her to really move out of their way, they pressed past her in the tight quarters, not even bothering to excuse themselves or pass her a second glance.

She wasn’t important.

Dismissed.

“Da—”

“Go, but not too far because I expect to speak with you again later,” her father ordered one last time. Then, to the men in the office, he added, “They never intended to settle, lads. That much is clear. We won’t act … yet. We’ll wait and see what they do first, aye, and then we’ll make the hard choices.”

Charles shut the door in Gabbie’s face, essentially leaving her alone in the hallway. It was amazing to her how she could feel so many things all at once. Anger warred with her disbelief and astonishment. Panic swelled in her heart, swirling with anxiety and sadness.

Did it really have to be like this?

What did that mean for her?

For Michel?

For them?

She didn’t know, and she didn’t like it.