The door clicked shut behind them.
Knox turned to Gabriel immediately. “Sterling. You looked at her like you’d lost something important.”
Gabriel said nothing.
Ronan closed his laptop. “We have never heard of any Tessa.”
“It was a long time ago.”
“She’s going to be here constantly now,” Ronan said. “Site visits. Tastings. Coordination meetings. You looked like you were barely breathing through that presentation. And when she made the lemon-tart joke, you looked at her like you had just remembered how to breathe. Which one is it?”
Gabriel stood. “It’s handled.”
“Is it?” Knox asked.
“Let it go.” Gabriel pulled open the door. “I have work to do.”
He left before either of them could say more.
His phone buzzed seconds later.
Knox: Take a cold shower and remember why we signed that oath.
Chapter 4
TESSA
The coffee shopon Seventh Avenue had been Tessa’s Thursday morning ritual for five years. She claimed the same corner table near the window early enough to watch the neighborhood wake up, ordered the same medium dark roast with extra cream and a single sugar, and was greeted by the same barista, who had grown from an awkward high school sophomore into a confident college student during the years Tessa had been building her business one event at a time.
Now she had a warehouse in Sunset Park with industrial ovens and a walk-in freezer the size of her first apartment. She worked with a team of fifteen who trusted her vision. Her contracts were with clients whose names appeared in society columns. Some rituals you didn’t abandon because you could afford better coffee.
Tessa opened her laptop and pulled up the August timeline. Oath Capital’s client appreciation dinner was eight weeks out. She had already locked in the vendors, but the plating specs needed another review. She scrolled through images, made notes, and tried to focus on garnish placement instead of his eyes.
Her phone buzzed.
Jessica: Confirming china rental for Berkowitz bar mitzvah. They want gold-rimmed. Thoughts?
Tessa: Gold rim reads formal. Check if they’re doing candlelight. If yes, gold works. If not, plain white.
She set the phone down.
“Medium dark roast!”
Tessa stood, grabbed her coffee from the counter, and returned to her corner. She wrapped her hands around the cup. The August dinner would be flawless. Flawless was the standard she set, and it had never failed her.
The door chimed. She didn’t look up. Door chimes had been part of the soundtrack of this hour for five years.
“Large coffee. Two sugars, extra cream.”
She knew that voice before she looked up. She looked anyway.
Gabriel stood at the counter in a charcoal suit and a navy tie loosened just enough to suggest the morning had already tested his patience. He hadn’t seen her yet. She had a window of thirty seconds to decide what kind of woman she was going to be in this moment.
A different woman would’ve left. Tessa stayed.
He paid for his coffee, turned, and saw her.
For one beat, she watched something soften in his face that he didn’t bother to hide. Then he crossed the room, coffee in hand, and stopped at the edge of her table.
