She let it land.
“You’re not very subtle, are you?”
“Not when it matters.”
He turned to face her, and the movement brought his shoulder fully against hers. Her knee brushed his under the table, and she didn’t move it. She could see the stubble along his jaw, the tension in his neck, the way his eyes crinkled at the corners when he was holding back a smile.
He broke off a piece of danish and offered it to her. “Here, taste this, I want to watch you enjoy it.” She took the bite. Almond paste and butter and flaky layers dissolving on hertongue. When she licked the sugar from her thumb, his eyes tracked the movement.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“Have you ever been serious about anyone? Since.”
Gabriel turned the remaining danish in his fingers. “Once. Briefly. I was twenty-eight. She wanted a future. I wanted Oath Capital. She picked first.”
“That’s a clean break for somebody who wanted a future.”
“It was clean for her. I think it was clean for me too. Which is the part I’ve been thinking about the last few weeks.”
“What part?”
“The part where I let her go without a fight, and the only thing I felt was relieved that I could keep working.”
“Relieved?”
“Yes.” He set the danish down. “It scared me when I noticed. So I noticed once and didn’t look at it again until you walked into a wedding and dropped a tray.”
Tessa’s hand stilled on her coffee cup. The words settled into the space between them.
“And now?”
“Now I’m sitting in a bakery with you, wondering why I wasted so much time being careful.”
Her laptop chimed with a calendar reminder for an eleven thirty meeting in midtown. She closed the computer and gathered her things.
Gabriel stood to let her out, and the movement forced them close. His hand came to her elbow, steadying her.
“I have to go.”
“I know.”
“Coffee tomorrow?”
“Can’t. I’m slammed until Wednesday and nowhere near midtown.”
“Wednesday, then. I have a place I go. No one else knows about it.”
“That’s a Batcave.”
“It’s not my Batcave.”
“It’s a lair.”
He laughed. “I’ll send you the address.”
“Already wondering what I’m walking into.”
