Chapter One #3
She knew that the past few weeks had been rough for him because he hadn’t physically been able to visit as much as he’d wanted, especially considering his mother’s operation.
But Jennifer knew that he’d kept in touch—not just with her for catch-ups, but over Zoom with his mum and with her consultant.
Which brought her back to the business of his mother and the mysterious reason he had suddenly appeared without warning earlier on.
She would wait until they were seated. She felt his hand on the small of her back as he ushered her ahead of him into the restaurant, which was packed to the rafters.
She had a flashing image of them together. He, so tall, so sinfully beautiful, dressed in the sort of uber-expensive label-free clothes that oozed sophistication, power and wealth.
While she, the very opposite of one of his tiny, Polly Pocket beautiful blonde little things, was in suitably appropriate gear for a date with a biker.
Faded skinny jeans, flat lace-up ankle boots and a burgundy T-shirt that stretched over her abundant breasts.
She’d resisted the temptation to complete the look with a bomber jacket, only because it was way too hot.
Jennifer privately felt that she had the sort of figure that very easily looked matronly if her clothes were too baggy, so she was happy to wear snug tops and damn the consequences.
Occasionally she wondered what Gabriel thought of her when they were together, whether he made mental comparisons to the petite blondes he was always out with, but she never lingered over those thoughts, never felt at all insecure, because they were so comfortable in one another’s company.
‘So…’ she opened as soon as they were sitting. The waiter had somehow magicked up a table for them by the window that overlooked expansive gardens at the back.
‘So…’ Gabriel parroted. ‘Does this mean that the pleasantries are over? There was something a little final about your tone of voice. Is it because you’re annoyed that I interrupted your night of searing romance?’
Jennifer sighed elaborately and decided to ignore his shameless fishing for information. ‘I guess I should be polite and ask you how you’ve been, but if you tell me that all you’ve been doing is working, then I’m going to yawn and talk about too much work and high blood pressure.’
‘How is a guy supposed to run an empire and make money if he takes time off to go for country walks and put his feet up in front of a fire?’
‘You don’t have to work as hard as you do, Gabriel. In fact, you don’t actually have to work at all. You never have.’
Gabriel didn’t visibly react. He was accustomed to her gentle chiding when it came to his pressurised work life. It was a familiar backdrop to many of their conversations, and he knew that he would miss it if it ever disappeared, but for the first time, he really thought about what she’d just said.
Jen saw a lot of him and knew a lot about him. They shared a long history of friendship, but there were things even she didn’t know and never would. Things he kept to himself. Secrets that only his mother could access.
Yes, there was the big house with the land and the family fortune.
But no one knew how that fortune had been ruthlessly depleted by his father, the man who had walked away from his own flesh and blood three decades ago, when Gabriel had been little more than a toddler.
To the outside world, it had been an amicable parting of ways. It was the story his kind-hearted mother had spun to everyone, including him. Retrospectively, he had realised that it had been to spare him the hurt of knowing just how comprehensively they had both been abandoned.
Gabriel had found out the bitter truth about the kind of man his father was when he was thirteen.
But it was only after he had graduated from university, when he had begun to look, in detail, at financial records that went back over the years, that he’d discovered the full extent of what his father had done.
His mother had reluctantly explained the divorce proceedings, and the picture painted had been of a bastard who had manipulated his devastated wife into handing over far more of her personal fortune than she had been legally obliged to.
She had inherited her wealth from her parents, who had long since died, and had naively trusted the running of the estate to her husband.
He, in turn, had squirrelled away money, and when he’d finally cut loose from them had successfully hidden vast assets in overseas accounts.
He hadn’t openly denied it to lawyers and had politely challenged them to find any such sums of money anywhere. They couldn’t.
Gabriel had come from money, yes, but there was no way he could have ever sat back and enjoyed a life of doing nothing, even if he had wanted to.
He’d had to put his nose to the grindstone to make sure his mother was financially secure for the rest of her life, to make sure she didn’t lose her family home, which was the only one she had ever known.
His father had left great gaps in the savings and investments, and between theft, embezzlement and greed, what had been a fortune had been reduced to almost nothing.
His ability to work hard had come at a cost.
‘Anyone there?’
Gabriel surfaced to find Jen reminding him of the waiter, who had sidled over to their table and was waiting for them to place their orders.
‘Since when did you start daydreaming?’ she teased. ‘Wait, are you going to start turning into a real man?’
‘Define real man,’ Gabriel said absently. He glanced at the menu and ordered a complicated salad and a bottle of Italian red.
‘Oh, the usual. Someone in touch with his feelings…expressive…knows how to talk about emotions…isn’t ashamed to cry during a soppy romcom…’ she said.
‘Oh, yes, that sounds like exactly the sort of guy I’m turning into. How well you know me.’ He sat back while red wine was poured for both of them and looked at her in silence for a few seconds.
She was so familiar to him and yet, right now, as he gazed at her with his head tilted to one side, he felt as though he was seeing her for the first time.
She might not be the sort he usually went for, because he invariably dated small, blonde, kittenish women who loved nothing more than to please him, but there was an intelligence about her and also…
a strong, assertive attractiveness that was linked to that.
In actual fact, she was really rather beautiful, with all that striking dark hair and dark eyebrows and those cornflower-blue eyes.
‘Have your eyes always been that colour?’ he suddenly asked, frowning.
‘Sorry?’
‘I don’t seem to have noticed the colour of your eyes before. Unusual shade of blue.’
He continued to look at her as she reddened, temporarily flummoxed.
‘Well, Gabriel, believe it or not, they’ve always been this shade of blue. Maybe you haven’t noticed before because, if you recall, I used to wear glasses.’
‘So you did.’
‘Then I had laser treatment six months ago and hey, presto, no more glasses.’
‘That explains it.’
‘We still have to get down to why you’ve shown up out of the blue,’ she pressed.
‘I’ve decided to invest in a vineyard.’
‘Sorry?’
‘All my other business concerns are ticking over nicely, and I’m young enough to think about taking a few risks.’
Not at all what she had been expecting him to say.
Jennifer frowned. Their gazes collided, and her tummy flipped at the thought of him noticing her eyes.
The way he’d said that…not a throwaway compliment or a jokey, teasing observation.
His voice had been a little bemused, as if he was seeing her for the first time instead of the millionth.
‘Ah, I understand. That’s where your mother comes in. You came to tell her first hand about this plan of yours, and then you decided to pay me a visit. Not exactly urgent enough for you to interrupt my date, though…’
‘But you’re not unhappy that I did,’ he returned shrewdly.
‘I suppose,’ Jennifer admitted grudgingly. ‘Hal wasn’t going to get past the first post.’
‘Thought not. You would have eaten him alive.’
‘That’s not very nice!’ Jennifer objected, patches of colour staining her cheeks.
‘It’s actually meant to be a compliment, Jen, but moving on from that, that’s only partially why I’m here.’ He paused and shifted, and for the first time since he’d appeared from nowhere, he actually looked uncomfortable.
Jennifer was suddenly on red alert. Gabriel wasn’t the sort of guy who ever looked uncomfortable. Even as a kid, he’d always had the air of someone who, at a push, could run the country.
She looked at him narrowly. Her heart sped up, and a thousand awful, frightening scenarios flashed through her head.
Was something wrong with him? Was he ill? Why a vineyard? Lord, what if he’d decided to permanently relocate to wherever this so-called vineyard was? What if he was going to completely disappear from her orbit? Selling up the family home and taking his mother with him?
She whitened.
‘Have you actually put money down on this vineyard?’ she quizzed sternly, diving into her glass of wine and gulping down so much that she nearly choked on the mouthful.
‘There’s such a thing as being rash! You’re not a rash person!
In fact, how many times have I told you that you need to be more spontaneous?
But that’s not who you are! Where is this place, anyway? ’
‘Italy, now that you ask, and Tuscany, to be more specific. Rolling hills…cypress trees…warm sunshine…rustic villages by the shedload… Have you ever been to Tuscany?’
‘No,’ Jennifer said shortly.
‘Ever wanted to go?’
‘Why do you ask?’
‘Because I’m going in two days’ time, and I’m asking you to come with me.’
‘Sorry?’
‘My mother will also be coming. I think it would do her good.’