“I gather he made a move you didn’t appreciate?”
I snorted. “Yeah. You could say that. I swear I feel like I need a shower. I kind of got weird vibes from him when he started talking about how he’d imagined what it would be like to skim money from his clients’ accounts.” I pursed my lips and nodded when Gabriel’s eyes widened. “Yeah. That. Then he wanted to know why I did what I did. I’m done talking about my past, and even if I ever did want to talk about it, I sure as hell wouldn’t do it with a stranger.”
“Well, he’s not a total stranger. You knew him from a business relationship.”
“Which I’m going to need to change. I’ll have to go to the bank and fix that, I guess.” I heaved out a sigh. “What a day.”
“What a week. That community service must be hard on you.”
Conversation with Gabriel in the rear of a dark Suburban flowed smoother than it had with Seth over dinner and drinks. “It was, and yet meeting the kids was incredible. I can’t stop thinking about Haley and how alone she is. And I want to know why Andy is so angry.”
“Yeah, that was hard to watch. She’s so little yet has been through so much. In the hallway, I heard the nurses talking about her case. They want to help her, but her mother doesn’t have medical insurance. Medicaid and the state insurance are almost used up.”
Horrified, I stared at him. “So what’re they going to do? Throw her out? Send her home to die?”
Gabriel’s hazel eyes glimmered, their golden streaks catching the gleam of the streetlights. “It’s possible. They can only do so much, and hospitals won’t keep patients who can’t afford to pay.”
I didn’t speak for the rest of the ride home, thinking about that little girl lying in a bed by herself, waiting for her mother. I wanted to puke. The loneliness of waking up in a hospital bed alone was devastating.
When the car pulled up at the building, no one was waiting outside to confront me, which was a good thing; I might’ve thrown the first punch if one of them had said a word to me. Once upstairs, I headed straight for the refrigerator and pulled out a beer. My hands shook so, I could hardly open it, but once I did, it was gone in less than a minute. I tossed it into the recycling bin and took out another, but not before seeing Gabriel standing in the hallway, his gaze watchful and intense.
“You can’t imagine what it’s like, knowing your parents are dead, and that it’s your fault because they wouldn’t have been there if they hadn’t come to pick you up from school. I could’ve taken the bus and had my stuff shipped, but my parents loved the drive. I didn’t want to sit on a bus all those hours, so I said yes. You can’t even grieve because you have to go through multiple surgeries not only to fix your broken bones, but for skin grafts as well.” I swallowed my beer. “There was so much blood and screaming when I realized what happened, but the deadly silence was even worse, I think. I kept yelling for them, but they never answered. By the time they pulled me out with the jaws of life, I’d passed out from blood loss.”
“Ronan, come and sit down. It’s been a rough night.”
I started to shake, and the bottle crashed to the floor, spilling beer all over my sneakers. Gabriel sprang at me and took me by the hand, leading me out of the puddle of beer and into the living room. I curled up into a ball in the corner of the couch while he settled on the opposite end.
“You don’t have to talk about it, but sometimes it helps. Confiding in a stranger, someone who’s removed from the situation and ready to listen, can be cathartic.”
“Yeah?” Blurry-eyed, I gazed at Gabriel. “What do you know about it? You didn’t lose your parents in a second and have to live with crushing guilt.”
“No, but I do understand loss.” Grim-faced, Gabriel stared blindly at his tightly clasped hands. “My father walked out on my mother and me when I was a little kid.”
I was shocked that Gabriel had shared such an obviously painful and personal part of his history, opening up to me, and it made me feel closer to him.
“I’m sorry. That’s a terrible thing for a child to have to go through.” We’d had a close-knit family, which was one of the reasons my parents had come to Pennsylvania to pick me up from college, instead of having me take the train.
“I wasn’t trying to one-up you or diminish your loss. I hope you understand that.”
“It didn’t enter my mind.” It hadn’t. “Are you close with your mother?”
His eyes crinkled shut as he gave a hearty laugh, and I wished I could always keep him happy just to see that expression on his face.
“You could say so. She’s great, although a little nosy. Always asking when I’m going to settle down and get married.”
“Do you want that?” Marriage had never crossed my mind, mainly because I’d never found anyone I could stand to be with for an extended period of time. Eventually I grew bored with the sex and the person. Truth be told, I was a moody bastard and hard as hell to live with.
“I don’t know…maybe. When I was younger, I couldn’t see it, but now?” His brow furrowed. “Why not? I can’t do this job forever, and I’d like to have someone to come home to.”
“Have you ever had a serious relationship?”
That hard jaw grew even tighter. “No. Nothing serious at all.”
But I could tell he wasn’t being completely truthful, and I wondered why. What about the senator’s son? Was there someone else? Dammit, even though we weren’t friends and he worked for me, I wanted to know more about the gorgeous Gabriel.
“What about you?” he asked. “Looking for anything serious, or just having fun?”
“Well, tonight was definitely not fun.” Grouchy again with the memory of Seth’s slobbery kiss and groping hands, I frowned. “I’m out of the scene, that’s for sure. I don’t think I could go for those apps everyone is on. I like seeing the person face-to-face.”
