“Okay.”
“Really?” I asked, my throat going dry. I wasn’t sure what I had expected, but her yes made me dizzy with excitement.
She laughed, a smile filling her full lips. “Yes.”
I stared at her for another moment before I turned back to the steering wheel, containing the whoop that wanted to escape. Clearing my throat, I drove us out of the parking lot, glancing over at her.
Her smile hadn’t faded, and my stomach flipped. I didn’t know what it was about Tori, but she had my hands clammy, my words scattered, and my confidence obliterated. And those things made asking her out necessary.
“Do you like Italian?” I asked her, my focus back on the road. “There’s a place in the city that makes the best gnocchi.”
“Gnocchi alla Sorrentina?”
I snatched a glance at her, unable to hide my surprise. She couldn’t be this perfect.
“The best.”
“Sold.” She shifted in her seat, and I peeked over to meet her eyes. Blue like a summer day. “It’s my favorite.”
Definitely perfect.
Looking back at the road, I hit my brakes, my hand flying out to secure her as I avoided hitting the stopped car in front of me.
“Although we have to make it there first,” she teased.
My hand was still across her stomach, and I pulled it away quickly. “Sorry. I don’t know why I did that.” I scratched my head, trying to figure out where the protective instinct had come from.
“It’s okay. My ribs are only a little bruised.” My eyes jumped to hers, horror coiling in my chest, but her laugh obliterated it. “I’m just kidding. I’m fine. I don’t mind a protective man.”
Rubbing my cheek, I returned her smile, feeling once again like a kid who had just asked a girl out for the first time.
The remainder of the ride back held less excitement, but Tori’s voice filled the space, and I found it was space I hadn’t realized had been so empty.
I tugged my tie off, looking in my closet for something less stuffy but still decent for a date.
“So, your first day,” my sister, Olivia, said through the phone. “That’s one step closer, Gabe.”
“I know, Liv.” I pulled a polo shirt out and threw the tie to the side.
“We’re close. Two years left and then you come home.”
My hands froze on the buttons of my shirt. The expiration date that had been hitting me in the head the entire day. One of several that had ruled my life since I was sixteen. Each date marking another step to our end goal.
“Gabe?”
“Yeah, two years, then I’m stuck working for Dad until we pull this off. Sounds fantastic.” I didn’t mean to sound so sarcastic. This plan had been mine, and Liv had followed me on it for years. But today had offered a diversion in Tori. A step off the path that had been my motivation since the day my mother had died.
“I’ve been stuck here while you’ve been off playing in sunny Florida since you finished grad school,” Liv responded. “Dealing with his rants about how you’re avoiding your destiny and dicking around. So, yeah. Two years and you return so I don’t have to hear about it anymore.”
Sighing, I pulled my button-down off and worked the polo over my head. School was just another lie I’d given Tori. Telling her I’d moved here for grad school when I’d attended school up north, taking an accelerated course load to graduate early and finish my MBA when I was twenty-three. Only then had I moved to Florida, after convincing my father to let me live in anonymity while gaining valuable experience. An excuse to get away for as long as I could. One that had left Liv to deal with the aftermath.
“I’ll be back to take my place just like I promised him. Don’t worry.” Although if things went well with Tori, I wasn’t certain how I could follow through.
“You’re not wavering, are you?”
I squeezed the bridge of my nose, unsure why I was thinking of Tori as something that could undo years of work when I had only met her. “No. Of course not.”
“Good, little brother, because we’re close. Two years until you return, then three more until we’re at the end, Gabe. That’s only five years. How many years have you dedicated to this?”
