Page 5 of Family Bonds- Gabriela & Luca

Brian smiled like she’d just made his day by asking that. “Two girls and a boy.” He pulled his phone out and showed them off. They were cute kids.

“Let me guess their ages,” she said. She eyed them a little longer. “Eight, six and two?”

“You’re good. Close. Eight, five and just turned two.”

“I’ve got the talent,” she said. “Are you divorced?”

Please let him be divorced and not one of those, we don’t need a piece of paper type deals. Not with three kids between them.

“No. I’ve never been married.”

She kept the sigh in. “Not something you believe in?”

He laughed. “I believe in it, but I’d be divorced three times now if that were the case.”

She took another sip to cover her groan. “So... these kids all have different mothers?”

Since they all had the same brown hair, and maybe the boy’s was a bit lighter, she assumed he might have a type.

Kind of like her hair color.

“They do. I’m just unlucky in love. I want it so badly, but it’s hard,” Brian said.

“Do you want more children?” Might as well chat. He came off the list at three kids. It was wrong of her to think that, but it happened in her mind.

She wanted kids one day, but she didn’t want a basketball team of them or more in her household. Whether or not they were hers.

She didn’t even care if the guy in front of her was independently wealthy and had a nanny for each kid.

It was not how she wanted a family and not how she’d raise her kids, plus with her job, adding to three was just not feasible.

Not how she envisioned her life.

You know, like the way it was working out already.

“Definitely. I just love kids. Though my aunt told me I need to stop or I can’t stay with her.”

Her eye was twitching. It had to be. “You live with your aunt?”

“Just temporarily. She has a big house and I help care for her and the property. But the kids get on her nerves when they visit. They aren’t on the same schedule so it’s like one is always there.”

“Is she watching them for you tonight?” she asked, just not able to help herself.

“Actually, she is. My oldest. Brianna. She’s a good girl.”

The bell went off and she wanted to run out the back door rather than change seats, but there were only three more left. It couldn’t get much worse than this.

Only it did get much worse.

“Gabriela,” she said, putting her hand out.

“Joey. Nice to meet you.”

“So, what brings you here?” she asked.

“I lost a bet,” Joey said. “My sister said if I couldn’t go through the night without picking my nose, I had to come here with her. She’s over there.”

She didn’t even want to look where Joey was pointing. She dealt with enough nose pickers in her job, but to have an adult put it out there like that.