“Hey. Hey, mister.”
Gabriel slowed. “Hi.”
“You’re the McDonald’s guy. From Forty-Second. You gave me a card a week ago, the day it rained. I just wanted to say thank you.”
Tessa stopped walking. She looked at the man. She looked at Gabriel, whose ears had gone visibly red. Then back at the man.
“You’re welcome,” Gabriel said. “How are you doing today?”
“Better today than yesterday.”
“That’s all anybody gets to ask for.”
The man almost smiled. He nodded once and sat back down against the brick.
Gabriel and Tessa kept walking.
She didn’t say anything for half a block. Gabriel didn’t look at her. He looked at the sidewalk like it had personally offended him.
She stopped on the corner of her own street, set her bag down on the curb, and waited until he turned to face her with the expression of a man who knew he had been caught at something.
“Tessa—”
She kissed him. She kissed him on a Brooklyn sidewalk with two bags at their feet and tourists giving them dirty looks for blocking the curb. She kissed him until she had said everything she didn’t have words for yet. Then she pulled back, picked up her bag, and walked the rest of the way to her building without looking back to see if he was following.
She didn’t need to look. She knew he was.
Inside, her apartment felt smaller after the Hamptons house. More lived-in. More hers.
Gabriel set his keys on the counter. It was only his second time here, but he moved without hesitation, setting the bag down without bumping the chair by the window and stepping aside to give her room.
“It’s weird being back,” she said.
“Good weird or bad weird?”
“Different weird. This is no house in the Hamptons.”
“It’s you.” He moved to her bookshelf, scanning titles. “Organized chaos. Nothing wasted. Everything with a purpose.”
“You’re being generous.”
“I’m being accurate.” He turned to face her. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong.”
“You’ve been holding something back all day. I can see it.”
She should deflect. Change the subject. But she was tired of protecting herself from the one person she didn’t need protection from.
“I love you.”
The words came out before she could stop them.
Gabriel went still.
She kept talking, because if she stopped she might lose her nerve. “I know you said it first. I know you’ve been waiting. And I wasn’t ready before. I wasn’t ready for weeks. But this weekend changed something. Watching you with your friends. Seeingwho you are when you aren’t trying to be anything. I love that person. I love you.”
He crossed the room in two steps. His hands cupped her face. His forehead pressed against hers.
