Her brows furrowed. “He let me go.”
“Have you asked him why?”
Of course she hadn’t. Even the thought of asking him made her stomach clench. She wouldn’t open herself up to getting hurt again. Not now, not ever.
She shrugged Gabriel off and returned to the mirror. “I’ve been too busy being fabulous to care why he left. It’s his loss, anyhow.”
“Don’t do that,” he said.
She fluffed her hair. “Do what?”
“Don’t push aside your pain with that nonchalant arrogance.”
She gaped and spun to face him. “I did no such thing. Iwasbusy being fabulous.”
Gabriel sighed. “You’re insufferable.”
“And you’re a pest.”
“Or am I just honest and that rattles you?”
“Dammit, Gabriel.” She grabbed a nearby slipper and chucked it at him.
He dodged it with a laugh.
Someone pounded on the back door. “Dovie, let me in!”
Gabriel’s brows rose. “The spirits must have been listening.”
She rolled her eyes.
Ignacio pounded harder. “I need to talk to you!”
“Take this.” Gabriel opened Esmeralda’s palm and dropped the tin box into it. He wrapped her fingers around the cool metal before moving toward the door.
“Don’t open it!” Esmeralda whisper-shouted.
“You said you didn’t have time to speak to him. Well, now is a perfect time.”
“I have guests to attend to.”
“Let them wait. It’ll make you seem important. I’ll go out there and stir them up by muttering rumors about you. Only the very worst sort, of course.”
The knocking grew more insistent. “Esmeralda. Please, let me in.”
Gabriel cleared his throat. “We are through!” he yelled. “You have broken my heart too many times!”
“What are you doing?” she hissed.
“I’m breaking up with you!” Gabriel winked before he opened the door and exclaimed with dramatic flair, “You were never truly mine and now I see why.”
Esmeralda’s jaw dropped.Oh, Gabriel is a dead man the next time we’re alone.
She watched him sweep out. But her attention quickly shifted to Ignacio as he rushed in, sweat dripping down his forehead. He slammed the door shut and slid the lock in place, then whirled around to face her.
Esmeralda stuffed the tin box behind her back.
“She’s here,” he blurted out.
