Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Kate
I waited five days before I replied to Gage’s text message.
Part of the delay was because of work. A lot was going on at the boutique including an appointment with the mayor’s daughter. She’s a celebrity in her own right since she landed a prime position as the lead anchor on one of the national morning shows.
We worked out an agreement a few weeks ago that would allow a camera crew access to the boutique to capture the moment she found her dream dress.
It didn’t go as planned.
It took three days and over a hundred dresses to find one that she loved.
Once the segment airs next week, I know business will pick up even more.
I admit that I did look at Gage’s text messages at least a few times a day.
When I finally did text him back this morning, he was the one who suggested we meet at Palla on Fifth after I was done work. It’s a café on Fifth Avenue that makes the best cup of coffee in the city.
I look down at the faded jeans, white blouse and heeled sandals I’m wearing. I stopped at home after work so I could change out of the plum sheath dress I had on. I needed the time to decompress.
Olivia called to check in on me just as I was leaving my apartment. We haven’t talked about Gage since the night he showed up at the boutique.
After he left, she told me that she had given him my number because she could tell that things aren’t completely settled between us.
Today, she followed that up with a stern warning about watching myself when I’m around him.
“Sort your past, Kate, and keep your wits about you whenever you see him. He’s too handsome for his own good.”
I didn’t bother arguing with her.
I swing open the glass door of the café and spot my ex-fiancé immediately. He’s sitting alone at a small circular table, his fingers tugging on the beads of the bracelet on his left wrist.
I take a moment to watch him.
Olivia was right when she said he’s too handsome for his own good. I’ve always thought he was the best-looking man I’d ever seen. The past five years haven’t changed my opinion on that.
The first time he kissed me, I felt something inside of me crack open as if a match had been taken to it.
I lit up. Every cell in my body came alive.
My experiences with intimacy up to that point were confined to kissing and some touching. I’d felt a man’s hands on my skin, but never to the point of an orgasm.
My first kiss with Gage changed everything. I almost came from the taste of his lips and his hands squeezing my ass.
We made love for the first time a month later. It was tender and everything I needed. Gage was compassionate and loving.
After that, some days we’d go at each other like we were starved. Our fucking would be frantic and quick, driven by our desperate need to feel each other.
Other times, we’d take it slow. Hours would pass while we savored each touch and taste.
I craved all of it.
He stands when he sees me, revealing a pair of dark gray pants, a black belt, and a white button-down shirt. The sleeves are rolled up to his elbows.
He raises his hand in the air in a greeting, drawing glances from the women sitting at nearby tables.
I feel the same magnetic pull toward him that’s always been there, so I go to him, sensing that the conversation we’re about to have will change everything.
I sip from the white ceramic coffee mug as I watch Gage watch me.
“What’s the deal with you and Preston?”
His question catches me off-guard. I take a deep breath, trying to mask the surprise in my tone. “Preston?”
“The guy you’re seeing.” Disdain colors his words. “How serious is that?”
I could resort back to my standard that’s none of your damn business response, but I opt for honesty. “That’s over.”
“Over?” He doesn’t bother hiding the wicked grin on his mouth. “Who ended that?”
“You didn’t just ask me that,” I quip.
He doesn’t say a thing as a barista approaches us with a carafe of coffee in one hand and a wicker basket filled with cream cups and sugar packets in the other. “Would either of you like a refill?”
I wave a hand over the top of my cup. “I’m good.”
She turns her attention to Gage. “Sir?”
“Please,” he says to her even though his gaze is pinned to me.
She makes small talk about the weather as she fills his cup. Her eyes linger on his face for a beat too long before she finally walks away, leaving us alone again.
“What’s running through your mind right now, Katie?”
That’s a loaded question. I blurt out the first thing that I can think of. “When did you move to New York?”
“Six months ago.” He taps his fingertips on the table.
I stick with the current line of questioning even though he’s the one who invited me here. “Why did you move to New York?”
“Something inside of me told me that this is the place I needed to be.”
I smile at that answer. It’s something twenty-four-year-old Gage would have said. Back then, he had a vision that included a medical degree, summer weekends spent on his parents’ sailboat, and trips to Paris for our wedding anniversaries.
Neither of us had been to France when he proposed the idea, but he said that something inside of him had sparked an urge to visit the City of Lights with his bride.
We were supposed to celebrate our honeymoon there. The trip was a wedding gift from his mom and dad.
“I like it here.” A beat passes as he takes a sip of coffee. “It’s starting to feel more and more like home to me.”
That says a lot. Gage loved Los Angeles. When we met, he was the quintessential California guy with a surfboard under one arm and glowing bronzed skin.
He studied like mad but always made time to be on the water.
The ocean lured him to its shores. That’s why he loved taking me sailing on Sunday afternoons.
It was a place where we could be alone without the pressures of parents who had plotted out our lives for us.
“Do you like it here, Katie?”
I don’t hesitate before I answer, “I love it here.”
We never spoke about New York City when we were together. The plan was to settle down in California and build a life for two. It’s ironic that we’re sitting across from each other in a coffee shop in the East coast city we both now live in.
“We were both destined to come here.” He sits up straighter.
“This isn’t fate, Gage. It’s a coincidence.”
A cocky smile curls his lips. “Call it what you will, but we’re in the same place now and I believe there’s a reason for that.”