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Just touching her, holding her close, is like a balm to my anxious nerves. “You’re right. We’re doing everything we can, it just … I don’t want to go through another kind of scandal that is dangerous for my family. We’ve worked so hard for our business, to cultivate something of our own and to see that taken under my watch? It’s one of my worst fears.”
She straddles me, taking my face in her hands as my eyes close with worry.
“I get that. You shouldn’t have to protect it so fiercely, but there are bad people in this world. That’s the case anywhere. You can only control what you can control.”
“Like the fact that a perfect woman is sitting on me half-naked right now?” I want to change the subject terribly, so my hands slide up until they’re toying with her nipples.
“Take this shirt off and she’ll be fully naked,” Gabrielle husks out, her eyelids hooding as I begin winding her up with my fingers.
Her lips sealing over mine is enough to quiet my brain, especially when I do strip her naked and flip her over to devour the taste between her legs. Being inside Gabrielle makes the outside world disappear until it’s just us two inside this bedroom, nothing else existing. When my hands are tangled in her hair, and she’s whispering in my ear about how incredible I make her feel, I don’t have a worry in the world.
It’s not until we’re satiated and about to slip into a dreamlike state, her wrapped up in my arms, that the thoughts of worry filter in. And the preparations I’ll need to take to protect my family at all costs once more.
17
GABRIELLE
The bridge is nearly empty at this time of the morning, and I’m almost thankful that Liam made me get out of bed at the crack of dawn.
“There is nothing like bridging the line between two states when the sun comes up.” He holds my hand as the murky blueish sky becomes lighter and lighter.
“This is gorgeous. We should come out here on a boat sometime.” The morning breeze is cool off the water, even in the summer, but I revel in the way it’s making me feel alive.
“My Nonno used to do that with me when I was a kid.”
“Really … he fishes, too?” I smirk, squeezing his hand.
Overhead, some birds squawk, and a car drives over the bridge next to us. Liam suggested walking the bridge between Pennsylvania and New Jersey when we both woke early this morning, and since it was close to five a.m., I didn’t think we’d be seen by anyone. A date in Hope Crest, if one considers this a date, is a small step to becoming more public like Liam wants. Even if no one sees it.
“Not since he passed. It really wasn’t my favorite thing, but I loved doing it because he did. He’d get so excited to set up our tackle boxes and pick out snacks to bring on the boat. The act of sitting in quiet solitude with him was what I liked best about it.”
A shimmer of compassion passes through my gut. I’m not sure why, but it feels special that Liam is letting me in about someone as close to him as his grandfather.
“Was he a lot like you in that way? Cherished his silence?” Because I can see it without ever meeting his grandfather.
“Yes, I’d say he was the family member most like me. We understood each other, and he made me feel less alone whenever I’d feel or react in a certain way. When you grow up around people who don’t operate like you do, no matter how much I love my family, it can be like you’re some alien who is wrong in your emotions.”
“Damn, does that resonate.” I snort.
“How so?” The question sounds like one of genuine curiosity.
Shrugging, I try to put it into words. “My family and I just … we never see eye to eye. They’re so foreign to me in a way I’ve never been able to comprehend. While I love them, because I know I’d do anything they asked in a crisis, I just … we aren’t the same. They’re cold and unaffected in situations where I openly weep. They brag and boast while I’d rather just sit quietly and enjoy experiences with them. Sometimes it feels like I was born into the wrong place with the wrong people, as bad as that sounds.”
“It doesn’t sound bad, it sounds honest. It also sounds like you finally decided not to attempt turning yourself into one of them?”
Beneath us, the river runs over rocks that look shallow enough to step on. Idly I wonder if Liam would ever want to go tubing with me.
“Finally. Just a little too late. I wish I had more time with Lucy to discover more about her. My ties to my nuclear family kept me from her for a long time.” It’s one of my greatest regrets in life.
“Why wasn’t your family close to your grandmother?” he wonders aloud as we reach the line.
Liam plants one foot in Pennsylvania, the other in New Jersey, and then ushers me to stand in front of him and do the same. Once I do, he pulls me back against his chest as his arms band around my upper half.
“I’m not quite sure. She and my mother never really got along, more of that unlike people being paired together because they’re family. But instead of letting us experience all types of different people, my parents kept us very close. Anyone who had a different type of thinking than theirs was deemed irrelevant or almost like a threat. And my grandmother was apparently part of that group to them. It’s hard not to hold it against them now that she’s gone.”
He nods into the side of my face. “That’s easy to hold on to. But they might have done you a favor. Had you not finally woken up to all that, you might not be here. And something tells me that Grandma Lucy meant for you to be right here, right now.”
His finger directs my attention in front of us, where the sun begins to rise on the river. Orange sunbursts combine with red rays, pink clouds, and hints of purple as they all streak through the sky. The palette before us looks like something no human could ever recreate to the perfection the sky does every day. Nature’s painting steals my breath and has me leaning back into Liam to make sure we’re connected in a moment that feels so special, even though it occurs every twenty-four hours.
