19. Chapter 19
”Who”s that woman?” asked Rose, my cousin.
”Which woman?”
”You know which woman, the one you were sitting with, the one who”s trying so very hard not to look at us,” Rose grinned.
”She”s Aurora.”
Rose raised an eyebrow. ”The Aurora?”
I nodded.
”She”s beautiful…stunning. Who”s the young girl with her? She looks familiar.”
”That”s Nina Davenport”s daughter. Aurora works at Savannah Lace. She”s an architect,” I explained, glad that my back was to Aurora, otherwise I”d be hard-pressed to not stare at her. That fucking dress she was wearing. I could barely stand it. She smelled like lavender, as she always did, and I wanted nothing more than to tug at those bows on her shoulder and see her gorgeous tits under the dress.
”Hmm…she”s not happy about you having lunch with me,” Rose declared mischievously. She got up, leaned, and kissed my cheek.
”What the fuck?” I pulled back.
Rose sat down, rubbing her hands together. ”Oh yeah, she hated that.”
”Rose?”
”What? Rafe told me that you and she broke up. Speaking of which, how”s Sophia doing?”
”Better.”
”And Iris?” Her lips curled with displeasure.
”According to our therapist, she”s devolving now that she has to come to terms with the fact that we are indeed divorced and will stay that way. I need to find a place to live and then put the houses on the market.”
Rose owned and ran a real estate company that bought and sold high-end housing in Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana. She was planning to expand to other states. Her daddy had plenty of money, but she”d turned her back on that and was a self-made woman. I respected the hell out of her. Of all my relatives, Rose was the one in my family I was closest to, maybe because she wasn”t just fooling around with family money and doing something she was passionate about.
”Is that why you wanted to meet for lunch?”
”That and I haven”t seen you in a while.” I was also free this Sunday since my parents were traveling and Rafe was otherwise occupied with a woman, hopefully, not a student.
”I wondered when you agreed to meet here. Not your kind of place.”
No, it wasn”t. But it was Rose”s.
We ordered, and I watched Aurora and Bianca leave the restaurant.
”You look like a hungry dog,” Rose commented.
”What?”
”You have your tongue all but hanging out, Gabe. Are you still in love with her?”
”Madly,” I confessed. I leaned back in my chair, heaved my head back and groaned. ”Fucking hell, Rose, I fucked this up.”
”I think your ex helped,” Rose murmured. ”You want her back?”
I sighed. ”More than my next breath, but I was cruel to her. She told me she forgives me but cannot forget.”
”The woman hasn”t gotten over you either.”
I crushed the small blossom of hope inside my heart. I”d been wishing that she”d come back and tested it by calling her to find that she”d still not unblocked my number. ”It”s my fault. I obliterated every possibility of her giving me a chance.”
I told Rose what happened at the ball, and she smacked my hand. ”That was such a dick move, Gabe.”
”I know,” I admitted. ”I was jealous and drunk. Beau almost punched me.”
”He should have,” Rose muttered.
”So, I don”t think there”s much chance of me getting her back, which means I”m going to die with blue balls.”
Rose chuckled. ”There are other women in Georgia.”
”I don”t want anyone else.” I rubbed a hand over my face. ”I tried when Beau and I were in Miami Beach, and I couldn”t. I want her. I love her. I lost her.”
Rose tapped her fingers on the table. ”What if you could at least give her a chance to forgive you for real?”
”This is the first time I”ve seen her in two months, Rose.”
”What if you could see her more regularly?”
I narrowed my eyes. ”What are you suggesting?”
”Aunt Betsy is friends with Nina Davenport. I”m sure if you used her to push Nina, you could convince her to put Aurora as the lead architect on your Miami Beach hotel project.”
”What if Aurora doesn”t agree?”
Rose waved a hand to dismiss that. ”She will. She”ll tell herself she”s being professional, but she”s not over you either. It”s pretty obvious.”
I let hope blossom a tiny little bit this time. ”Tell me why you think so.”
”She looked like her heart was breaking because you are here with another woman.”
”You”re my cousin.”
”She doesn”t know that,” Rose reminded me.
”You really think there”s a chance in hell I can win her back?”
”Abso-fucking-lutely.”