Even if I have to face the subway in order to reach him.
I’m no longer the scared and self-destructive young woman who stood at the edge of those subterranean tracks on the lowest day of her life. I’m not afraid to live anymore. I want it more than ever, but especially if I can share some part of it with Gabe.
And not even a lake a fire could keep me from going to him now.
“Your MetroCard would be great, Kelsey. Thanks.”
She runs to fetch it, then returns with the card and places it in my hand.
“Wish me luck with him?” I ask her, my smile shaky on my lips.
She hugs me tight. “Oh, girl. You aren’t going to need it.”
33
~ Gabriel ~
I race back into the city, the Lexus roaring through the morning traffic while my father’s encouragement pounds like a battle drum in my head.
He says maybe I’m due a miracle today. The truth is, I’ve already been granted one. It happened the day I met Evelyn Beckham in the Baine Building garage.
I have to see her now.
Even if she refuses to believe me, I have to tell her what she means to me. That she is the only woman I want. The only woman I will ever need.
That I will spend nothing less than the rest of my life loving her.
All I need now is the chance to show her that. I have to try to regain her trust, if it takes me weeks or months or years to prove myself to her again.
I know I don’t deserve her. And even if she rejects me in the end, right now, I just have to convince her to at least let me try to get her back.
Because in a word, what she means to me is . . .everything.
It is that thought that spurs me as I round the corner onto West 57th Street. I see the gleaming, dark glass tower of the Baine Building up ahead. I punch the gas, maneuvering around a slow-moving sedan.
I left less than two hours ago, and I only hope she’s still there. I’m not sure I would have called, even if her phone wasn’t left in her purse back at my apartment. I don’t want to give her the opportunity to shut me down again before I’ve even started to plead my case.
I just need to see her.
I need to hold her in my arms and pray I haven’t squandered all her affection for me.
Downshifting as I speed to make a light, I nearly rear-end the truck in front of me when I pass Evelyn walking swiftly up the sidewalk several hundred yards in the opposite direction of Baine headquarters.
Holy shit.
Where’s she going?
I glance in the mirror, trying to keep an eye on her while I navigate the river of traffic all around me. She’s soon engulfed in a crowd of pedestrians, all of them heading somewhere en masse.
The subway station.
What the fuck?
It’s the last place I would expect to see her heading. Confused, I veer toward the curb and dial O’Connor’s number on my vehicle’s speaker while I drive.
“Hey, Gabe.” She sounds chipper and a little coy,which confuses the hell out of me.
“Do you know where Evelyn’s going?”
