I moved closer to her, remembering the night I’d opened the bag, picturing how stunning she would have looked in it. How I was giving up any chance of happiness because I was leaving her that morning.
“I never opened the bag, Gabe.” She took something from her pocket. “Shelby likes to play dress up, and Reid pretends he’s her judge. I didn’t think they’d get this far into my closet.” I saw the desk chair pushed to the side, thinking it was a precarious way to reach it. “I never found it.”
My eyes flicked to her, then to her hand, where the note sat between her fingers. The one attempt to make what I’d done better. To give her something so I wouldn’t leave her so devastated. As if that had even been possible.
“It wouldn’t have helped,” I said. “Not like I wanted it to.”
“It might have, just a little. I wanted to believe you still loved me, but it was so hard, especially after that phone call.”
Damn Liv for her interference. “You still would have doubted it, even with the note.” My sister had ensured that.
She moved closer to me, her blue orbs misty. “Let’s make a deal.”
I cocked my head to the side. “I’m listening.”
“We leave the past, the mistakes, the assumptions, the pain behind us.”
“Can you?” Because I didn’t think it was that easy for either of us.
“You’ve carried your guilt, suffered in silence for too long, and I’ve carried the pain for too long. We both have wounds that won’t heal if we don’t let go.” Her hand rested on my chest as she crossed the remaining steps between us. “I don’t want to live with it anymore. I’m tired of being sad, of being hurt.” Tears glimmered in her eyes, and it killed me because I was always the cause. “I love you, Gabe. It never went away. Maybe it fadedsome behind the pain, but it was always there, and I knew it would never cease the day I saw you in the lobby. You are my soulmate, and I can’t live without you because it’s like there’s a hollowness that never fills, a piece of me I can’t find because you own it. I don’t want to experience that emptiness anymore.”
Reaching my hand around her neck, I brought her mouth to mine, the kiss burning through me like wildfire that destroyed the echoes of pain and turned them to ash.
“I love you, luna mia. I always will.” My words were a murmur between kisses, the thrumming of my pulse making them distant as my heart healed completely.
Chapter 32
Tori
Gabe stayed true to his word to my father and slept in the guest room. I was ready to have him in my bed again if only to feel his secure hold on me. To wake in his arms and experience the thrill of seeing his lazy smile when my eyes opened.
The tension eased even more the next day, and I could see he had won my family and Cindy over. We spent the morning with Reid opening the belated birthday presents from my parents and celebrating my father’s upcoming birthday at lunch. Gabe surprised me again by adding his present to mine. He hadn’t mentioned it, and I wondered if he’d been waiting to see if he was welcome. My father loved the UConn engraved pen set he gave him, and I elbowed him when my gift got pushed aside.
“This is where you were,” Gabe said, bringing me from my thoughts. We were standing in the main sitting area of the lodge, the fireplace flickering and warming the air. My father had suggested I give him a tour, but it seemed Gabe’s memory was sharp enough to remember.
He dropped to Reid’s level. “I saw your mommy there when she was your age,” he told Reid, pointing to the spot.
“You did?” Reid’s eyes were large as he stared at the rug.
“Yup. She was coloring on the floor.”
“And did you love her then?”
My mouth dropped open, and Gabe nearly lost his balance.
“Why would you say that?” I asked him.
“Because he loves you now. Ti amer? sempre, luna mia.”
Gabe glanced back at me, but I was too stunned to say anything. He cleared his throat. “We were just children, and we didn’t know each other then.”
A simple answer that I hadn’t been able to form.
“But you do now.”
“Yes, we do. We have for a long time.”
Reid’s keen eyes evaluated Gabe. “Are you going to marry my mommy?”
