She didn’t put the frame down. The thought crossed her mind and her fingers didn’t follow.
He appeared in the doorway. His eyes went to the frame first, then to her, and in the second it took him to understand what she was holding, she watched every easy thing about him disappear.
“Tessa. Let me explain.”
“Does your mother know about me?”
He didn’t answer fast enough.
“You called my mother, Gabriel. You called her, introduced yourself, asked her for a recipe because you wanted to get it right.” She set the frame down on the desk, very carefully, because if she had been less careful, she’d have thrown it. “What if I called yours? What would she say when I told her my name?”
“Does she know we’re dating?”
He didn’t answer.
“Gabriel. Does she?”
“No. She doesn’t.”
“I want you to listen to me. I’m only going to say this once.”
“I’m listening.”
“Your family didn’t approve of me then, and your mother made sure I knew it. I broke up with you the next day because I half-believed her. I’ve spent decades trying to prove her wrong.”
“I know.”
“You don’t know. You don’t know the half of it. You went home to your dorm and three years later you signed this.” She gestured at the frame. “You named your company after this. Oath. The thing you built with your friends to make sure you’d never make the mistake of loving a woman like me again. Andthe entire time we’ve been together, this has been sitting in your drawer.”
“Tessa—”
“I asked you about Oath Capital. I asked you what the name meant. You told me it was a marketing line. You sat across the table from me at Marco’s and you watched me believe you.”
“Tessa.”
“That’s the part I’m going to need you to think about. Because your mother told me years ago I wasn’t worthy of a Sterling. And now her son loves me, and I’ve been to his apartment, and the Hamptons, and I’ve said I love you in your bed. And your mother doesn’t know I’m back in your life.”
He stepped toward her. She stepped back.
“Tessa. Please. The Oath is dead. Ronan broke it. It was a stupid college pact?—”
“You named your company after it.”
“Tessa—”
“You named your company after a promise to never love a woman like me. And you let me fall in love with you without telling me that. And she doesn’t know my name.”
“Tessa—”
“And in my bed coming back from the Hamptons, I asked you for no secrets. You stilled for half a second. I saw it. And I told myself it was nothing.”
“I told Knox at lunch yesterday. I was going to tell you the night I called your mother for the recipe.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
