Gabriel wasn't as comfortable with physical contact as the Petrellis because it was such a foreign concept to him. His mother had been gentle with him always, but she was his mother, and it was something that he expected from her. Anyone else, the only sort of contact that he'd been privileged to was the sort that ended with him shoved to the ground or into a wall or tripped and sprawled out on the ground.
Kind contact from anyone other than his mother would take time for him to get used to, but until then, he struggled to suppress the blush that blossomed on his cheeks as Heidi squeezed his shoulder.
"We should clear out an area," Gabriel said, looking around the lobby. "Move the couches over to one side. That way if they need some space when they get back," Gabriel said, carefully amending his speech not to mention all of the thoughts of the possible injuries the people out there could endure, "they'll have it."