For weeks, he’d sat beside Grace, pouring over applications from prospective adoptive parents and praying they were making the right decision. Grace had been full of remorse and had done a one-eighty. It had been a turning point in their relationship. They'd bonded during those difficult months and had been close ever since despite their almost four-year age gap.
Paige leaned into him, pressing her shoulder against his. "What about you?"
Warmth flooded through him at the contact. The sympathy in her blue eyes eased the tension inside him. "What about me?"
"Who took care of you while you were taking care of everybody else?" Compassion and concern filled her face.
He could have used a friend like Paige twelve years ago when hisworld was in chaos. Someone who could help carry his burden or at least listen when he needed to vent. But then he would have fallen in love with her, and he didn't have time back then to foster a relationship. It wouldn't have been fair to Paige.
What about now?
Never mind that she was his patient and should be off limits. He had even less time now than he did back then. He needed to devote every minute possible to his job and his mom for the foreseeable future.
"I didn't really have anyone, but my boss at the grocery store where I worked at the time was very understanding."
"I'm sorry you had to go through that."
"When our lives returned to normal, I threw myself into my studies again while working part-time at a physical therapy office. I took courses through the summers to make up for the lost time. I eventually got a couple scholarships, but they weren't enough to pay my full tuition, so I had to take out student loans. I was determined to succeed."
"And you did."
He smirked and shrugged. "I'm not sure I'm truly successful yet, but I'm getting there."
That is if I don't screw it up by dating a patient.
Except, he wasn't really dating Paige. This was all fake.
So why did I kiss her? And why am I still holding her hand?
Stomach tight, he pulled his hand from hers to scratch his other shoulder. He continued before he lost his nerve. "I didn't have much of a social life at college because I was so focused on my studies, but at the beginning of my final year of undergrad studies, one of the girls in my physiology class invited me to join a study group. I ended up being the only one to show up. We talked for hours and studied very little. Then we got together again the next evening. The rest, as they say, was history." Gabe rubbed the back of his neck as the old familiar tension filled him. "Except it wasn't."
"Was this the woman who cheated on you with your best friend?" Sympathy again filled Paige's voice.
He nodded. "Except Dirk wasn't just my best friend, he was mybest man. And Harper was myfiancée."
Paige gasped. "Seriously?"
"Harper left me standing at the altar. Literally." He kept his voice as neutral as possible, not wanting to admit how much pain still accompanied memories of that humiliating day. "Her mother handed me a note while I stood in front of a hundred of our closest friends and family members. It said she was sorry, but she'd realized she didn't love me enough to marry me." He gave a rueful laugh as he shook his head. "Then she ran off and eloped with my best man two weeks later."
"Ouch." Paige drew out the word dramatically. "I thought finding out about Phillip's double life the way I did was bad. I couldn't imagine learning the truth in front of all my family and friends."
"I should have seen what was happening." Gabe berated himself. "Should have known she wasn't content. I was so focused on getting into PT school that I neglected her."
"If she truly loved you, she should have been supportive of you. Not running around behind your back." She lowered her gaze. "Except for my cousin, who is my best friend, I haven't told anyone what happened with Phillip and the real cause of my accident."
"Why not?"
She gave him an incredulous look as she poked herself in the chest. "Hello. I was theother woman. I didn’t want everyone judging me for the part I played in Phillip breaking up with Avery."
"No. Phillip is the reason his relationship with Avery fell apart. He should never have asked you out when he was engaged to someone else."
"I keep playing every interaction over in my mind, wondering how I missed the signs." She shook her head in disgust. "I'm so gullible, I believed him every time he canceled our plans because something came up with a client in London or India. And I should have known he didn't need to travel so often on weekends for his business trips."
"Some people can be very convincing," Gabe said to make her feelbetter, but his words made his gut tighten. Had they been convincing enough with his mom?
"You said your mom has stage-four pancreatic cancer.” Paige changed the subject. “Do they have a treatment plan? Or is it too far…?" Her voice died off, but Gabe felt to his core the words she didn't voice.
His chest tightened just as it did a week ago when he first learned about his mother's diagnosis and as it did every time he considered how little time he had left with her. Despite Paige's willingness to help him, he still struggled to draw in a full breath every time he thought about losing his mom.
