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“What about what you want, what makes you happy?”
“I owe him this. And maybe we could, I don’t know, be married but have our own freedoms too.” She glances at me as my eyebrows shoot up my forehead.
“I’m not a fucking cheat.” I lower my voice as heads around the bar turn our way. “If we’re married, then there’s no one else. I’m not messing around behind my wife’s back.”
Gabrielle’s face softens like my answer comforts her. “So there’s not, then?”
“Not what?”
“A girlfriend… Someone you love that you’d be giving up?”
My mouth drops open. “I-I don’t have a girlfriend.”
She lets out her held breath, nodding slowly. “Good. Because I couldn’t even consider doing this if there was. I can’t do that to you.”
“You actually want to do this?” Even as I say the words, a voice inside my head is screaming at me to run. Run and never look back. Or to start hitting things. To just fuck shit up and deal with the consequences later.
“I want to make Dad happy. I want to be a better daughter.” Gabrielle looks deep into my eyes, and the sickening sense of what I now recognize as dread grows in my gut. Because shining in her eyes is something I never expected to see.
Hope.
She’s fucking hoping I will agree to it.
“I never thought you would… I need to think. God, I—”
“It’s okay.” She stands suddenly and wraps her arms around me, her hair pressing against my cheek. “It’s a lot. I get it. I only just started coming round to the idea myself.” She moves back, but stays close, her face hovering in front of mine. “Think about it. We’ll make our fathers happy. We could be a good team.”
Before I can process what’s happening, she presses her lips to mine and kisses me. I sit stunned, not kissing her back, but not pushing her away either.
When she moves back, the earlier hope in her eyes has exploded into a raving parade, dancing with possibilities as she licks her lips. I still can’t move as she presses another kiss to my lips, then gathers up her purse.
“I’ll speak to you soon.”
She lets her hand linger on my shoulder like a lover reluctant to say goodbye. She looks at me one final time, then leaves.
My frozen limbs spring into action minutes too late and I whip my head to watch her go. A man on a table nearby raises his glass. “Lucky man.”
I scowl at him. I feel far from lucky right now. I feel more like I’ve been cursed.
What the hell happened?
Chapter 22
Maddy
“AreyousureI’min the right hotel?” I scour the crowded bar area from the doorway, balancing my purse in one hand and phone in the other.
“Yes,” Chloe confirms down the phone. “Eve said Nate will be waiting in the Grayson bar. That’s where you are, right?”
I read the plaque on the wall.Grayson Bar.Drew and Tanner worked on the design for this hotel. I remember Drew winding Tanner up for weeks after he told the hotel they should use Tanner’s last name for the bar. He wasn’t amused.
“He’s probably not here yet. I’m early.”
I glance at my watch. Nate Black still has ten minutes until our interview. I force down the excited butterflies in my stomach as I walk into the busy bar and find a cozy booth against the back wall. I need somewhere quieter to record our interview. Ideally, we’d conduct it in his hotel suite, or some other place where the recording picks up our voices without too much background noise. But Nate suggested to Eve that I meet him here after work because he's between meetings today and doesn’t have long before a dinner booking tonight. I hope I can get all of Eve’s questions covered and still have time to ask some of my own as well.
The bartender comes over and I order a bottle of sparkling water and two glasses, then pull out my recorder and notebook, placing them on the table. I look around taking in the business crowd that have come in for drinks after work. They’re mostly men in suits. One catches my eye and smiles at me. I look at his forest green tie and smile back politely as the color brings someone else to my mind.
I fiddle with my phone on the table. I’ve not seen Logan since we got back two days ago. Not that I expected to. No texts. Nothing. I told him we were forgetting anything ever happened the minute we got back to London. And he’s done exactly what I asked him to. For the first time ever, Logan Rich has done what I wanted him to. And I should be happy about that.
