“This is going to be amazing.”
“Wednesday morning, you’ll have the revised proposal.”
“Perfect.”
Knox stood first and shook her hand. “Thorne. A pleasure.”
“Likewise.”
Ronan offered the same. “Thanks for coming in.”
Devney’s phone rang. “I have to take this. Gabriel, can you walk Tessa out?”
“Yes.”
Devney stepped into the hallway.
The room emptied.
Gabriel was looking at her like the professional facade had cracked. “Thursday morning was too brief.”
“It was.”
“What about dinner?”
Her hands tightened on her portfolio.
He stayed where he was, hands at his sides, and let the distance between them do the work. “Dinner. An actual date.”
“Gabriel. The last time we tried this, you walked away to Harvard, and your mother told me what I was worth. That’s a lot to come back from.”
“I know.”
“You can’t just?—“
“Thursday. Seven o’clock. I’ll pick you up. We can talk about what I can and can’t do over dinner.”
“I can meet you somewhere.”
“I’ll pick you up.”
“Okay,” she heard herself say.
His face changed. Relief. Want. His eyes dropped to her mouth and stayed there for a beat before he pulled them back to hers.
They walked to the elevator together. Neither spoke. The doors closed between them, and her last image was of him standing in the corridor of his glass-and-steel kingdom, watching her descend.
She’d said yes.
She had three days to decide whether it was the best decision of her life or the worst.
Chapter 7
GABRIEL
The Union SquareFarmer’s Market sprawled across the north end of the park in organized chaos, wooden crates stacked with heirloom tomatoes and canvas awnings shading honey jars that caught the afternoon light. Wednesday meant decent crowds but not the weekend crush, enough space to move without fighting for position at the arugula display.
Gabriel had a list, and the list was in Devney’s handwriting.
