Gabe shook his head. "Desk job? That doesn't sound appealing... You are making me more glad I was granted this summer in reprieve." His sister's hospitalization probably helped with that too. Still Gabe was just as glad to be able to spend his summer clubbing and not working.
"I wonder sometimes if he knows you at all." Really, Nico had strengths, that could - should - be played to. Yet Nico's father seemed to just miss with everything.
As for not getting dragged into it, "Toss up as to why I get a reprieve - dad's loss of freedom for so long or my being touched by Death." Either that or the combination. His father, although drilling the importance of family, also supported freedom of choice. And although most people tended to forget about it most of the time, the fact that Gabe was marked by Death gave some superstitious pause. Gabe was just as glad to avoid it all, if he was honest. At seventeen he was a good decade away from being ready to marry and start a family. His father had been in his thirties (although he had spent his entire twenties in prison.)