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“Oh, my goodness, he is white!” Constance Robinson exclaimed. “Nelson, your daughter has brought home a white man!”
Gabriel pointed at the peachy complexion of Constance, with her brunette hair and fiery green eyes, and looked at Cabrina in confusion.
“My mother is white,” she said, placing her hand in his. “She just doesn’t know it.”
A tall black man with creamy brown skin came around the corner. Nelson stood at six feet three and sported an afro that looked like it came out of a black exploitation film. The only thing that was missing was an afro pick with a fist on the handle sticking up from the crown of his head. He wore a cardigan with a tie, along with black slacks and winged tip shoes. Gabriel was now thankful he had shaved and put on his best suit.
“Mom and Dad, this is Gabriel Neary,” Cabrina said.
“Nice to meet you, young man. Come on in. Dinner is ready and this guy is hungry,” Nelson said, pointing at himself with his thumbs.
“He is handsome, Cabby,” Constance said.
“And he can hear you, Mother.”
“Can he speak or just stand there looking sexy and delicious,” Constance whispered. “Ooh. I am starving and need to get dinner on the table so we can eat.”
Gabriel smiled at her, noticing the similarities in his mother-in-law and his wife. One of the immediate likenesses of the women was in furniture. The Robinsons lived in a mini-mansion. Every detail in the house spoke of money, breeding, and exceptional taste.
“Rosemary, you can serve dinner now,” Constance said to an older Hispanic woman, who disappeared into the kitchen returning with a cart of food.
“Do you like wine, son?” Nelson inquired.
“I do,” Gabriel replied. “I even bought two bottles from my collection as a gift to you plus an extra to have with dinner,” he added, passing the two bottles to Nelson, who nodded in approval at the red wines.
“I will add these to my wine cellar since I’ve already selected the wine to accompany this rib roast,” he said, placing the bottles on the buffet. “Tell me, Gabriel Neary, how did you meet my daughter?”
“Daddy, can we at least bless the food before you start to tear the man apart?” Cabrina asked as Gabriel pulled out her seat.
“Nope,” her father said. “I want to know before I get indigestion what his intentions are towards my baby. I can only assume that since you took a cross-country road trip that he has been enjoying the milk from the udders. We might as well give the cow a name.” Rosemary returned to the dining room with a cart laden with the dinner selections, placing the rib roast on the table.
“Daddy!”
“Honestly Nelson, you are calling our daughter a cow,” Constance said. “She does look a bit puffy, maybe too much sodium and Diet Cokes, but that is no reason to call her a heifer. Gabriel, the archangel, what is it that you do?”
“Michael is the archangel, and I am a theological sociologist for the government,” he said.
Constance’s eyebrows arched in surprise.
“Daddy, Gabriel has a Th.D. in theology,” she said with pride.
“What’s the matter, they run out of P’s at your school?” Nelson asked, cutting into the rib roast and slapping a large piece onto Gabriel’s plate. He cut a smaller piece to place on his own and to Nelson’s surprise, Gabriel exchanged plates with him. A bold move, but he was countering Nelson’s control over his space and the relationship with his daughter.
“I am a graduate of Duke’s School of Divinity,” Gabriel said, rising to open the bottle of wine he had brought for dinner. “I have a doctorate in Theology.”
Nelson’s face contorted at Gabriel’s bold moves in not only opening the wine that he brought, versus drinking what was being served. His chest swelled in the challenge at the exchange of the plates and thus far, he wasn’t impressed with his daughter’s new man.
Gabriel poured himself a small portion of wine, sitting the bottle beside his glass. He didn’t offer any to Cabrina, letting her make her own call if she still chose to eat off her father’s table or to dine at his. It was a hard call to force her to make, but she was married to him now and her father needed notification, that his daughter was no longer under his thumb. His wife wasn’t under his either but taking the wine from him would be symbolic of her leaving the father’s house to live in the one with him. She took the bottle of wine he’d opened, pouring herself a glass.
Nelson noticed.
So did Constance.
“You never said what your intentions were with my daughter,” Nelson said, setting down the carving knife. His eyes challenged Gabriel’s.
Gabriel didn’t want to play the game. However, he did want a good relationship with his in-laws and he thought of his mother and Michelle. The one thing most parents wanted were grandchildren that they didn’t have to raise.
“My intention with your daughter is to fill this really large table with your grandchildren,” he said, flashing Constance a charming smile. It worked. Cabrina’s mother sighed as she batted her lashes at Gabriel.
“Hell, I sure hope you plan to marry her first,” Nelson said.
“I already have,” Gabriel replied, holding up his glass. “Cheers.”
“Cheers, my ass, you Bible-thumping socialist,” Nelson responded, puffing out his chest. “What the shit fire, donkey nuts you mean by you already have?”
“He’s a sociologist, honey,” Constance said. “And stop trying to swear, it makes you sound ridiculous.”
“We got married last week in Las Vegas,” Gabriel said with pride as a large fist came across the table and punched him in the mouth.
Nelson hit Gabriel so hard, he knocked his glasses off his face, spilled his wine down his shirt, and Gabriel swore he saw three bluebirds fly over his head. The poor man appeared as if he’d taken three more shots of Isiah’s bourbon stash.
“Daddy, how could you?” Cabrina said, rushing to the kitchen to get ice. Constance remained seated waiting to see what would happen next. Her son-in-law intrigued her and she knew that if her daughter married the man, there was much more to the good looking, eye glass wearing nerd.
“Easy,” Nelson said. He balled up his hand making a fist. “I did it just like this.”
He swung at Gabriel again, who caught the punch in his hand, moving rapidly, getting to his feet, pulling Nelson’s arm behind him. He yanked on it hard to let the man know he meant business as he leaned down close to his ear.
“I let you get in the first one to impress your wife and daughter,” he said. “You won’t get another.”
He released him quickly, sitting back down before Cabrina returned, with Gabriel consciously made an effort to look helpless as she pressed the ice to his mouth, fussing and fawning over him like a child with a big boo-boo. Gabriel’s eyes rested on Nelson as Cabrina made grand gestures with his glasses, then checked to ensure the tissue on his lips wasn’t swelling. Gabriel, patting Cabrina on her ass, asked her to have a seat. Nelson fumed as he watched the scene in front of him.
“I understand you are angry. I should have come to you to ask for her hand in marriage,” Gabriel said. “It was not my intention to deny you the honor of walking her down the aisle and placing her hand in mine.”
“Well, you did!” Nelson said pouting. “Both of my girls ran off and married men who didn’t have the courtesy or respect to come through my door to ask for their hands in marriage. There was no time for me to get to know either of you before you stole my babies. You are damned right I am angry and hurt!”
Gabriel changed the subject. “I like to fish and have a boat,” he offered.
“Oh yeah?” Nelson said as if he cared about two turds left in a cat box.
“I am a Steelers fan as well,” Gabriel added.
“The Bengals are my team,” Nelson said, softening a bit at Gabriel’s attempt to mend the fence the cow had stampeded through.
“I like to cook,” Gabriel said.
“And I like to eat,” Nelson replied.
Both men were quiet, but Gabriel was insistent upon finding a happy medium. “We both love Cabrina,” he said.
“Bullshit,” Nelson said. “You young people don’t know anything about love. You think once you stick your dick in a woman and she moans that you have a soul connection. Relationships are made of so much more. Love will leave you strung out and in the poor house, Cabrina!”
“Sir,” Gabriel said. “I woke up this morning and your daughter wasn’t beside me. Even though I knew she was in the other room, I missed her. I can’t imagine waking up another day with her not at my side. I am in love and looking forward to spending the rest of my life making her happy.”
“Awww,” Constance said. “I think that you will.”
“The jury is still out for me,” Nelson said, pushing his plate away. He’d lost his appetite and sat with his arms folded like a child.
Cabrina watched her father, the man who had raised her and Tameka with respect and caring. Her father was hurting now that another man had replaced him in her heart.
“Daddy,” she said. “In the past week, we have driven across country, meeting new people, visiting sights, and enjoying life. I have never felt more alive than I do now, and I am so glad I married this man.”
“I see the glow about you,” Constance said. “You look radiant.”
“Thank you, Mother,” she said softly. “Daddy, I will never love any man more than I love you, but it is time for me to leave the nest as well. I am going to be close by in Elyria. It is only forty-five minutes away. The door will always be open for you both, but I have to move my stuff first.”
“You’re quitting your job, too I bet so you can start making all these babies he wants to sit and my table and eat up all my damned food,” He spat out, angrier than he should have been, but she was moving on and leaving him. Just as Aisha had done and didn’t look back.
“Not right away,” she said. “I will give you six months’ notice and train my replacement and, we’ll go from there. Please, understand Daddy, I am happy.”
“I see you are. This old man just wants what’s best for you,” he told her, trying to grip the loss filtering away from him of his only fathered child.
“My husband is a good man,” Cabrina said, her eyes full of tears. “You have no idea how good of a man he is, but you will get to know him in time.”
“If you say so,” Nelson said, still sulking.
“Come for dinner in two weeks,” Gabriel said. “We should have everything in place by then.”
“Ooh, sounds wonderful,” Constance said, sitting up in the chair. “I just love dinner parties. Is there a theme?”
“Yes, the theme is love, so wear something red,” Cabrina offered as they closed out the evening asking for doggy bags to go plus getting a photo of the four of them.
The ride home was quiet as Gabriel periodically checked his lips in the mirror. Cabrina mumbled under her breath that he’d asked for it by baiting her father. She didn’t understand his logic in doing such a thing and getting himself punched in the face. He responded to her unspoken questions.
“Your father is a control freak,” Gabriel said.
“Well, duh,” she replied.
“I took away his control. His control over you, his control over the wine we had for dinner, thereby removing the mechanism by which he maintained order in your life. He already felt he’d lost control by Tameka walking out, and now you are exercising your independence with a man he knew nothing about,” he said.
“Lost control over Tameka?”
“Why do you think she left, Cabrina? Look at the perfectly matched dishes, towels and furniture pieces in your home,” he said. “Your parent’s home looks like a museum filled with expensive items your father enjoys collecting. It was stifling even for me. She left to live in a no-frills home with mismatched plates and crooked cups. Something that I noticed drove you bonkers.”
She found herself smiling. The lopsided cups did irritate her to no end and the thought of Tameka making more also irked her. What puzzled her was that Tameka had the money to buy anything she wanted and it still sat in an account protected by her mother’s name, something Cabrina insisted she do when they graduated college. A weird thought hit her. Zeke probably had no idea how much money Tameka had.
“At first, the thought of Tameka hitting you bothered me, but just like your father, she wanted to strike out to silence the controlling voice,” he said. “Whether you know it or not, you also tried to control her, which is why she left with no safeguards. When she lived under that roof in that house, your father kept tight reins on you girls. I can see it and I just met the man.”
“I know,” she said, looking out the window.
“Cabrina, I understand the need for order, but life is not orderly. It is chaotic and overwhelming, and some things you just can’t control,” he told her.
“Yes, two crazy people with a vibrating life-sized sex doll who steals your wine and underwear is a perfect example,” she said, eliciting a strong laugh from him.
“Mrs. Neary, the one thing I can control is my heart. I give it to you freely with all the love I have inside of it,” he told her.
“That, Mr. Neary, I accept and raise you one non-constricted heart in return,” she said as they pulled up to the gate of their home. The retinal scanner identified her husband and opened the old iron cow gate. She still had yet to see the room in which he worked.
I have no control over that portion of his world and don’t need to. I have enough trust in him to leave his work world behind that door. She held on tight around his neck as Gabriel carried her over the threshold without dropping her.
“Mrs. Neary, I believed I failed to tell you how stunning you look in that dress and heels,” he said, unzipping the black cocktail dress.
“You look pretty dang dapper in that suit and tie as well, Mr. Neary,” she said, helping him with the tie. He was surprised they had to dress so formally for dinner, but she explained that is the way her mother expected them to look for Sunday dinners in her home. He explained that they would never do that in their own, not even for the holidays.
“We are going to have a good life,” he told her.
“You are the minister, Gabriel. From your mouth to God’s ears,” she said, turning back the covers on the bed.
This evening would be his first night sharing this bed with a woman. He was sharing it with his wife. A woman whom he’d fallen in love with over the miles, over the smiles, and all moments which made the worth whiles. Kissing her tenderly, he held her hand under the covers, and he said a prayer of gratitude and drifted off to sleep.
****
ONE WEEK LATER
The moving truck had departed as the old Colonial stone house was transformed into a warm home, with drapes, deep Persian rugs, and furniture that didn’t smell like liniment and old meat pies. Cabrina stood in the kitchen looking out into the backyard at the space where Gabriel said the starter garden grew. Fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and heads of cabbage and lettuce would spring up in the coming months and she found herself looking forward to picking her own produce.
On the monitor, a flash of a car showed on the screen and she recognized her mother’s Mercedes. Gabriel had altered the scanning system so she could operate the gate remotely from any room in the house as well as with her phone. She pressed the button, allowing her mother’s entry, meeting her at the front door.
“I’m sorry to just pop in, but curiosity got the better of me, and I had to see where you were living,” Constance said, stepping over the threshold. “Plus, I miss you.”
“Mother, I was just at work yesterday,” she replied, returning the hug. “I took the day off to supervise the movers.”
“Oh, everything has arrived,” Constance said, looking about the living room.
“Yes, come on in, welcome. Let me make you a cup of tea.”
“I’d love that, along with some tea cookies if you have any,” her mother added, walking about the three-bedroom home. “I don’t see your husband. Is he still at work?”
“He is,” she said, not mentioning his work was in the other room. She knew her mother well enough to understand what this visit was about. As the kettle heated up, she went to her new office and retrieved the scrapbook she had completed of their journey just a few days ago. She’d worked extra hard on it each evening to have it ready especially for this moment.
In the kitchen, she added her mother’s favorite loose tea to a diffuser, placing it in a teacup, not a mug, on a matching saucer, with a color-coordinated napkin, and a bit of milk. Lemon tea cookies were placed on a serving platter, accompanied by a few wedges of cheese, and grapes she drizzled with clover honey.
Constance stirred the tea, looking at her daughter with motherly eyes. She offered a practiced smile, which meant she had questions on Cabrina’s judgment about the decision she’d made for her life. Unlike Tameka, she couldn’t slap the shit out her mother and tell her to mind her own business, but she had something better. Like the conversation with Josiah and Mary, she waited patiently for the opening to state her case.
“Darling,” Constance started with the sympathetic look she often gave to homeless people begging her for spare change. “I just want to make sure this is what you want with this man you barely know. Honestly, how much can a sociologist with the government make?”
“I’m happy Mother,” she said. “This home is paid for free and clear, plus I make a good amount from my online business. Once I sell my townhouse, it will add substantially to my nest egg. My car is paid for and I have more clothes than I can ever wear. My furniture is paid for so your concern for more worldly possessions is really not a point of interest for us. This feels so good to me.”
“Every crackhead you meet will tell you they felt the same way after their first hit of the pipe, but after that, their skin starts to peel, and their teeth fall out...I’m only worried that Aisha’s disappearance made you do something drastic,” Constance said. “I know, I know, but a mother worries.”
“Aisha is fine. She is a mother now,” Cabrina said.
“So, you did see her. We figured you were going to find her and see for yourself,” she said. “Cabby, I know you hadn’t been dating and this man just popped up out of nowhere. A sociologist. Really, darling. He will never be able to give you the life you are accustomed to!”
“Thank God for that!” Cabrina said. “I don’t want that life. Mother, I don’t want your life. Let me show you the life I want.”
She opened the scrapbook that her husband had given her as a wedding present. The page opened to a photo of her and Gabriel’s wedding pictures with her bridal party, which made her mother sigh at the beautiful gown she wore. Cabrina turned the page to show photos of their dinner at Cut and the ridiculous check for the cowboy sirloin, wine, and side dishes. Each page cataloged a visual image of her adventure with Gabe, including the hypnotist show and them onstage pretending to go under the man’s suggestive plays. She turned the page.
Constance marveled at the amount of food on their plates in Flagstaff while having lunch at Oregano’s. She cooed and fawned over the photos of her daughter riding the tram in Sandia Peak knowing her child was terrified of heights. Image after image Cabrina explained as she showed off the Cibola National Forest, the Blue Hole of Santa Rosa, and half-naked Gabe getting out of the water.
“He is a fine-looking man and in a good shape,” Constance added, touching the blue water in the picture.
Constance’s green eyes sparkled when she laughed at the picture of Paunch and Judy popped up on the next page in Amarillo.
“Is that man trying to lick the colors on that nasty car?” Constance asked.
“Yes, but that is nothing,” she said, flipped the page to reveal Paunch in the Batman cape and cowl and the life-sized sex doll with the eyes rolled up in its head and the tongue lolling to the side. Constance roared with laughter as her daughter recounted the tale with the on-the-road stalkers. The page again was flipped.
A stop at the Clinton Presidential Library revealed a photo of Gabriel praying with the angry old man, plus a second shot of the men hugging. The next page showed them getting ribs in Memphis plus their tee shirts.
“I’m proud of our tee shirt collection,” Cabrina said, tossing the 12-inch page in the book to the next images of her and Gabe in various tees including the loud purple ones.
“Mother, the place even had purple milkshakes,” she told her. “Look, this is Aisha and her husband Zeke, along with their parents, Josiah and Mary. That is Michelle. She is beautiful.”
The next image showed Cabrina holding Michelle. The loving look she gave to the child brought a tear to Constance’s eyes. Her daughter had never wanted to be married nor have kids, which is why she found the whole situation to be odd. That was until she saw the photo of her holding the baby.
“You are going to make a great Mom,” Constance said.
“I have no choice but to be one,” she said. “I had a great Mom myself.”
They continued to go through the large scrapbook as she showed her mother pictures of herself on the back of an ATV, the deer that Mann was gutting, and the adorable round Nate Jr. The last pictures in the book were of her and DeShondra, along with Isiah, having lunch. A picture of passed-out Gabe on the couch made Constance chuckle. The very last images in the book were of the women at the kitchen table for Sunday scriptures as well as one of Cabrina and her parents having dinner with her new husband. She closed the book with a sigh.
“Mom, if he gave me all of that in ten days, imagine the life I am going to live in the next ten years,” she said tearing up.
“I am so happy for you, Darling,” Constance said. “You are going to have a great life.”
Of that, Cabrina had no doubt. Gabriel Neary was flawed, a food addict and a minister with a mission unlike any she’d ever known. His boss, Lester Holtman, had been to the house to introduce himself and gave her the official code name of “the babe.” He wished them a happy life and explained how critical the work Gabriel did was to the nation’s security. She too would be given a stipend to become his confidential informant and second set of eyes once her business opened.
Their life would be unorthodox, slightly disorderly and next week, her husband was going to teach her how to shoot a gun. She never knew when it may come in handy, but the one thing she did know was that whenever the time came and the government called them into action, Cabrina would be ready. To the remainder of the world, she was Cabrina Neary and he was Pastor Gabe Neary. However, to the CIA, they were known as Buckeye and the Babe.
“This is going to be an amazing life,” she said with a smile. Her mother believed her because the scrapbook was proof.
“Hey, what is up with that numbskull friend of yours, DeShondra? She is going to be the last one to get a man and settle down,” Constance said.
“Mother, you will not even start to believe what I’m going to tell you next,” Cabrina said, grinning at the story she prepared to share about Gabriel’s brother, nicknamed Bleu, his grass, and the penchant the man had for Bourbon.
- Fin -
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