Chapter 10 #2
Pushing her shirt from her hand, I pulled her into my arms. My lips brushed her bare shoulder.
“I’m being respectful to your parents.” Hands soaking in the softness of her skin, I regretted the decision to touch her.
“And a room lined with UConn pendants isn’t exactly a turn-on.
” Even if I hadn’t noticed them the prior night when she’d taken me to oblivion. I nipped her neck, and she squealed.
Tugging on my scarf, she said, “I’ll convert you, Harvard boy.”
With a laugh, I dipped her body and dragged my mouth down her chest. “We’ll see.” I released her, loving how she stumbled slightly and color filled her cheeks. “And when we get home, I plan to devour every inch of you multiple times.”
Rolling my neck to calm myself, I walked from her, taking a spot against the wall to watch her dress.
Tormenting myself even more. If the ring in my pocket didn’t have me rigid with stress, I may have played more, but the thing had my nerves strained.
She wouldn’t know the true significance of what I planned, how I risked losing everything to keep her.
Especially if I couldn’t convince her to wait five years for the wedding.
Who was I kidding? I didn’t want to wait.
I would have married her that day if I could have.
Screw it all. She was all I wanted, and I knew I was being selfish, that my decision would hurt Liv, but Tori was worth it.
“Hey.” Her voice brought me back, and I realized she had already dressed. “You okay?”
Light fingers drifted over my jaw, worry lining her eyes. I took her hand, kissing her palm. “I’m fine. Just thinking about how lucky I am to have you.”
“Even after meeting my family?”
“Especially after meeting your family.”
Her smile lit her eyes, and I gave her forehead a kiss.
After tugging our boots on and wrapping up in our coats, we walked through the snow.
Holding her hand in mine, I listened as she told me about the property, how Cash would chase her around it, how she’d adopted a turtle she found crawling from the woods until it bit her, and about the snake Cash had put in her sandbox.
Memories of a childhood that had shaped her into the amazing woman she was.
Ones not marred with the things that had shaped me.
I stopped her, turning her body to mine. Eyes the color of a summer day looked up at me brightly with joy that was infectious. Would I destroy that joy? Twist it into something unrecognizable by attempting to hold on to it? The fear made me hesitant.
“Gabe?”
“You’re beautiful, luna mia.”
Her smile returned, adding to her beauty. Snowflakes landed in her hair and on her cheeks as she looked at me with love shining in her eyes. The train had started derailing the moment I met her, and now it cleared its tracks, disaster imminent.
“I love you, Victoria Hent, and I know there will never be anyone but you who fills the space in my heart. Every crevice belongs to you.” The train wheels shook with a last-minute attempt to return to the track, but they lost their fight. “I want to spend every day of the rest of my life with you.”
Tears welled in her eyes, and the train burst into flames as I dropped to my knee and held the ring out.
“Marry me, Tori. Let me spend the rest of my life spoiling you and loving you. I promise you, a day won’t go by when I won’t love and worship you.”
Her tears fell as the ashes of years of planning and building joined them.
“Yes. Yes. Yes. I’ll marry you, Gabe.”
She jumped into my arms, and I rose, lifting her and spinning her around as a jubilation I’d never experienced overtook me.
This felt right, like destiny falling into place, no matter how a voice screamed in the back of my mind that it would all fall apart.
I wouldn’t let it. She loved me, and she was mine.
If I came clean, told her everything, she would forgive the secrets and wait for the wedding.
And if it was too much to ask, then I would give it up. All of it, regardless of the cost.
My plans came crashing around me, and the runaway train that was my life rose from the ashes to explode a second time as we ate Christmas dinner. The excitement over our engagement left me in a chaotic storm of anxiety that only increased the more Tori and her mother talked.
“We’ll have it at the resort,” her mother said. “It’s so pretty in the spring.”
“That would be perfect,” Tori gushed, dashing my hope to delay the ceremony.
“Why don’t you do it this spring?” her father offered. “There’s nothing booked in April.”
My fork dug into my skin as another train derailed to shatter my life.
“This spring?” I croaked.
Tori turned to me, her features twisted in concern. “Is that too soon? It’s so pretty that time of year.”
“He probably needs time to tell his family, Tor,” Cash offered, sending me a sympathetic look.
“My family won’t come,” I blurted, the words short.
An awkward silence hung over the table. Tori turned my face, lifting it from where my eyes focused on a slice of ham.
“We can wait,” she said. “I got excited, and we should have talked about it first.”
She was too good to be true, and I saw then that she would wait if I asked, but did I want to wait?
I wanted her, all of her, completely and unreservedly, to be mine.
Taking her hand, I brushed her fingers with my thumb.
“April sounds fantastic.” Why not go for the kill right away?
Destroy my sister, shatter her hopes, and leave her hating me for the rest of our lives.
Let my father off, never make him pay for what he had done.
Dismantle the LLCs, sell the businesses and live off the profits while I lived the white picket fence life with the woman who would make it all okay.
Her blue eyes studied me. “Are you sure?”
Giving her a smile, I said, “More than sure. As long as planning a wedding in four months isn’t too much to take on.”
A tilt of her head, then a smile that lifted my spirits and soothed the ache.
“April it is,” her father said, bringing us from our private exchange that hadn’t been so private. “And, Gabe, you’re part of our family now, so yes, your family will be there.”
I swallowed back the wave of emotion that threatened to undo me completely and gave him a nod. I’d never known a father so devoted to his family. Mine had only ever shown that to his money. Greed and power drove my father, and that’s all I’d known.
“Catering is on us, and I’m sure our pastry chef can make the cake,” her mother went on as if her husband hadn’t just unraveled years of abuse and cruelty in one sentence.
The talk continued for the rest of the day, and by the time we left Connecticut, all we had left to plan were the invitations and tuxedos. I squeezed the bridge of my nose as the plane took off.
“Was that too much?” Tori asked me, and I looked over to see the worry return to her features.
“No. Your family is a blessing. They’re wonderful.”
She nudged me with her shoulder. “No, I meant the wedding plans.”
“Are you two getting married?” the flight attendant asked as she shut the overhead compartment. She handed Tori a blanket, a perk of the first-class seats I’d gotten us.
“Yes,” Tori answered, excitement bursting over in her voice. “He asked me yesterday.”
I almost rolled my eyes because telling people about my personal business was something I never did.
It was hard enough to make friends, and I only had a handful from college and one from prep school.
They knew I wasn’t a social person, so texts were usually enough, although I knew once I shared this news in the group chat that my phone would start ringing.
After a few minutes of wedding talk that I ignored by keeping my nose in my book, the flight attendant disappeared.
“How did I not realize how antisocial you are?” Tori teased me.
I peeked over my book at her. “I mask it well.”
She snuggled closer to me. “So then, going to meet my parents…”
“A struggle for social normalcy,” I replied, giving her a half grin.
“Damn, you had me fooled, Gabriel Hughes. Maybe I need to rethink this wedding thing.”
I dropped my book and took her chin in my hand. “I don’t think so, luna mia. You already promised yourself to me, and I’m going to hold you to it.”
“There’s my book boyfriend,” she murmured as I brought her lips to mine, giving her a searing kiss to affirm my statement.
That kiss burned away any doubt about my decision to marry her. As the flight continued and Tori curled up against me, I resolved to confess my plans to Liv when we returned.
A vow I didn’t keep, avoiding the conversation as the sense that something waited in the shadows to destroy my imaginary life of happiness grew. And with it, the suspicion that I would never recover if it did.