Letters to Gabriella

by Patricia Paris

  “Gets in your blood,” he said, thinking about how she had gotten into his blood as well. They stood quietly for several minutes, watching the sun drop behind the trees, the last vestiges of pink and orange fading across the water until they disappeared completely.

  “Do you want to go back up to the porch?” Gabriella asked when it started to get dark.

  “I’ve got a better idea,” he said, remembering the hammock he’d seen earlier.

  She just laughed when he stretched out comfortably a minute later and reached out an arm in invitation for her to join him. To his delight, she dropped down beside him, lying down on her back and throwing her arms over her head.

  “Oh God! This is so decadent!” She turned her face toward his. She looked happy. “Just think about it…it’s a Monday night…and what have we done? Drink wine, and at the risk of sounding vain, dined on some amazing pecan-encrusted salmon…lingered over a beautiful sunset, and now, here we are as if neither of us had a care in the world, lazing in a hammock under the stars.”

  He slid an arm under her head and grinned.

  “I mean,” she said as she snuggled against him, “honestly, does it get much better than this?”

  “Well, darling, if you really want to know…” Justin rolled sideways and looked down at her, her eyes looking more black than blue in the shadow of night. He lowered his head, wanting to satisfy the desire he’d been tending all evening, and kissed her. Gabriella slid her arms around his neck and he settled in, covering her body with his, savoring the feel of her against him, under him…his.

  She tasted like the wine they’d been drinking. Justin slid his tongue between her lips, wanting to taste every bit of sweetness that lay within the cavern of that delectable mouth. The blood rushed through his veins, fast and hot. Her lithe body was an invitation beneath him, one he couldn’t ignore. She was heaven in his arms, and he wanted nothing more than to take her to paradise.

  Her hands moved restlessly over his back, down his sides, and when they landed on his backside, he let out an audible moan.

  Justin moved against her, sliding one leg in between hers. Their new position ignited all the passion he’d been corralling these past weeks. He felt a singular quest to claim what he’d been fantasizing about, and all the signals he was picking up from her were a go.

  “Gabriella,” he said against her lips, “you’re driving me crazy, woman.”

  His mouth found her neck, the skin there a silken treasure he wanted to plunder. He lingered, her pulse rapid under his lips. He reached behind her back, in search of a zipper, but found none. Frustration rolled through him. He wanted to explore, to seek out the treasures he knew awaited if he could only expose them. He reached down, further, further, found the hem of her dress and eased it up. Higher, higher, until his hand was on her waist and her bare legs straddled his.

  He might die. If his need were any greater, he’d explode with it.

  She moaned. It ruined him.

  He reached down again, wanting to get rid of her dress so he could give them both a taste of the heaven he knew awaited them. But he was hindered by his own body resting on top of hers. He shifted to her side so he could pull it off easier. He shifted too far, and they started to roll.

  Gab threw her arms in the air. “Ooooh! Oh, oh—”

  Then they were tumbling, arms and legs flying. Justin reached out to try to catch her but came up empty-handed. She landed with a woof, and he fell on top of her, wincing when he heard her grunt. He rolled off her to his back and took a moment to catch his own breath.

  “You all right?” He turned his head to look at her.

  Gab pushed up on her elbows, stomach down and a smudge of dirt on her chin. She nodded, and Justin was relieved to see she didn’t appear to be too worse for the wear.

  “Look, Morrison,” she said, all serious. “I’m not opposed to you falling for me, but next time could you pick a softer landing ground?”

  He started to laugh. She cracked a smile, giving away her own amusement at their ridiculous position. Her face was dirty, her hair rumpled. She looked adorably disheveled, and lying there in the dirt under her hammock, with the moon rising over the marsh, he heard a voice in his head whispering, I love you.

  I’m trying, Gabriella. Some days I feel like I’m getting stronger and think I can beat this awful curse. The days are so long, though, and sometimes it seems they’ll never end. This morning I had to go into town, and I saw a little girl who reminded me of you.

  When I came home, I sat on the porch, looking out to the road. I don’t know what I expected. You’re never coming down that road, are you? I need to let you go, baby girl. If only I could, if only—

  What curse? Gab set the letter down and picked up another. What curse, or demons, had he been referring to in so many of his letters? Clearly, he had suffered from depression. Maybe it had been brought on when her mother left him, or maybe Mom had left because of it. Or maybe there had been other underlying causes. Whatever he’d suffered from, she knew her absence had made it worse. He seemed so lonely, and so alone. No one should have to be so alone.

  She wondered how she could find out more about him, other than the letters. There had to be people in town who knew him. From the condition she’d found the house in, she determined he must have been something of a recluse, but even so, there had to be someone who could tell her about him. Maybe he hadn’t been as all alone as she imagined. It would be nice to discover he’d had a friend or two.

  Gab sighed. She wouldn’t feel comfortable just asking people if they’d known him. No one knew she was his daughter, and she’d prefer not to advertise the fact. That might just lead to them asking her a bunch of questions she couldn’t answer, not only about her dad, but her mom too. She had no idea what had happened between her parents, but a part of her felt like she needed to preserve their reputations, if only for herself.

  Gab gave the swing another push, kicking her bare foot lightly off the porch floor. She had time to read one or two more letters before she had to leave to go meet with Blake about the remodeling.

  You’re turning sixteen today, my darling Gabriella. I planted a rose for your birthday, next to the porch where I can watch it grow. You were my rose, darling child, but now I can only imagine what a beautiful young woman you must…

  Gabriella caught her breath. A warm breeze blew across the back of her neck. She shifted in the swing. She could hear seagulls crying somewhere out over the bay. A mosquito buzzed nearby. She waved a hand in the air, unconsciously swishing it away. The scent of clove and vanilla enveloped her like a loving embrace.

  MARY O’MEARA was visiting with Delaney when Gab arrived for her meeting with Blake just before noon.

  “Blake’s running about twenty minutes late,” Delaney told her. “One of his electricians got sick on a job, and he had to shuffle some of his guys around. But he’s on his way here now.”

  “That’s fine. I don’t have anything pressing until three, so we should still have plenty of time.” Gab turned toward the table. “Hi Mary, how’s everything at the inn?”

  “Everything is just fine, thank you. And how are you and your pretty little girl?”

  “We’re both good. Chloe is visiting with her grandmother for a couple of weeks.”

  Delaney invited Gab to join them for lunch. She’d made fresh croissants and when she set the basket with the still warm pastries on the table, Gab’s mouth started to water. She took one and filled it with some of the chicken salad Delaney said she’d just thrown together to use up some leftover chicken.

  “Wow!” Gab said around a bite of her sandwich. “This is amazing. What’s the dressing on here?”

  “Just a little honey with lime and mustard, and a bit of tarragon.” Delaney smiled, as if everyone threw together chicken salad with pecans and grapes and cranberries and several other amazing ingredients that Gab would never have thought to combine and then top them off with some honey, lime, mustard, and a bit of tarragon elixir that ma
de all the good stuff in there divine…everyday.

  Gab looked at Mary. “Just!’ she said, rolling her eyes.

  Mary chuckled. “She’s a modest one, isn’t she?”

  Delaney had been entertaining them with a story about Ben trying to teach Hunter how to catch a Frisbee when Blake walked in.

  “Hello, sweetheart,” he said to Mary, giving her a kiss on the cheek. Mary’s eyes danced, and it was obvious the man was a favorite of hers.

  “Sorry you had to wait,” he said to Gab, as he pulled out a chair and dropped a folder on the table.

  “No problem. Delaney’s been keeping me happy with food until you got here.”

  Blake grinned and glanced over at his wife. “Think I could have some of whatever you whipped up to keep me happy, too, while we go over these drawings?”

  “Sure thing, shhuggar.” Delaney said as she got up from the table.

  Blake stuck his tongue in his cheek, his lips twitching, and opened the folder he’d brought in with him.

  “Okay,” he said, “let’s take a look at what we’ve got—”

  Gab was excited about what Blake had done. He’d thought of things she would never have come up with, taking her ideas and turning them into a design that captured everything she’d hoped to accomplish, and then some. She scanned the back page where he’d given her two estimates depending on how much she wanted to do.

  “If I decide to move ahead, what time frame would we be looking at?”

  “Well, the first thing we’d need to do is get all the permits. I can handle that for you. I know most of the folks at the county office so I can get them to move their butts a little quicker.” He cupped his hand over his chin, tapping his mouth with his index finger. “If we can get all the approvals we need by the end of August, I could probably get a crew in there the first or second week of September.”

  “I’ve already given this a lot of thought, and this falls within my budget, so I’d like to get started as soon as possible.”

  Blake nodded. “Okay. I’ll write up a contract for the work and bring it out later this week if that’s good for you. I can go over to the county office first of the week and do all the filing, and we’ll go from there. I don’t think we’ll have any problems getting the permits. You’re not going to be increasing the impervious space, and the house sits back more than two hundred feet from the water.”

  “Great!” Gabriella beamed. “I’m so excited.” She rubbed her hands together. “The hard part now will be waiting.”

  “I’ll try to move things along as fast as I can.” Blake stood up, gave Gabriella a wink, and carried his empty plate to the sink.

  “Gotta run,” he said to Delaney, giving her a quick kiss. “When Ben gets back from his friend’s, tell him if he gives Hunter a bath this afternoon, we’ll drive into town and go to Curly Custard tonight for ice cream.” He looked over his shoulder and gave his wife a devastating grin. He looked so much like Justin that Gab could just stare with her mouth open.

  “He’ll do it,” Delaney promised, and Gab got the feeling some private joke had just passed between the two.

  “See you later, Mary. Next time you make my brother a carrot cake, I wouldn’t be offended if you saved me a couple of pieces.”

  Mary chuckled. “I’ll make you one special.”

  Blake grinned. “Now I wouldn’t be offended by that either,” he said, giving his neighbor a wink.

  Not long after Blake left, Gab thanked Delaney again for lunch and started home. Shortly after she got back, Justin called and invited her to go to St. Michael’s for dinner the following evening.

  She’d planned on putting in a full day of work tomorrow, but if she spent the rest of today, and worked late tonight, she could finish all her copy and just proof it in the morning. Then, she could send it out after lunch, a day before her Thursday deadline. Her clients loved it when they got stuff early. It gave them more time to work within their own deadlines. And she would get to spend an evening with Justin.

  JUSTIN UNLOCKED the door to the cottage and went inside, dropping his briefcase on the floor next to the couch before going into the kitchenette for a beer. He hung his suit jacket over one of the dining table chairs and walked to the fridge. Pulling a beer out of the fridge, he twisted off the cap and took a swig. He’d met with three clients today and talked to a couple of more by phone. He’d be glad not to have to work out of boxes with nothing but a laptop and his cell to conduct business. But things were falling into place, and he’d be opening his office doors next week.

  He loosened his tie and pulled it off, dropped it over his suit jacket, and then took his beer into the living area and turned on the TV to watch the evening news.

  Stretching out on the couch, he kicked off his shoes and took another draw on the beer. He’d miss this place. The cottage was small, most of his stuff was in storage, but he’d gotten used to it. He’d miss being on the water, too, but hoped that would be temporary.

  Now that he owned the building in town, it just made sense to move into the apartment above his office. Besides, Mary always did a brisk business in the fall, and a lot of her repeat guests requested the cottage. He didn’t feel right tying it up when she could make more renting it out on a weekly basis than she did charging him by the month. Over the summer, when things were a little slower, the arrangement had worked for both of them, but it was time to move on.

  Unless he heard about a great place on the water that came on the market, he’d probably wait until spring to start looking for a house. He just hoped he’d be able to find a waterfront property within a twenty mile radius that wouldn’t need a major overhaul. He’d be okay if it needed a little work, but he didn’t want a knock-it-down and start from scratch project.

  His cell rang, and he pulled it off his belt clip and answered the call.

  “Justin, it’s Brin. I…can we talk?”

  Justin straightened, surprised. Why would Brin be calling him now to talk?

  “I don’t think there’s anything for us to talk about. If my memory serves me correctly, we said everything we had to say to each other before I left.” He was matter-of-fact. He wasn’t trying to be mean, but he really didn’t feel like talking to the woman.

  “Justin, please, I know you’re probably still angry with me, but I…I made a mistake. One time, Justin, a stupid mistake, and now…I really need to see you and talk to you.”

  She sounded upset, but that wasn’t his problem anymore. And he had no interest in patching things up with a woman he couldn’t trust and whom he hadn’t been in love with anyway. He wasn’t sure what they’d had, but after their breakup, he realized if he’d really been in love with Brin. If he had been, he wouldn’t have been able to walk away so easily. He wouldn’t have felt the sense of relief that he would have made a life-altering mistake if they’d stayed together.

  “Justin,” she said again, almost pleadingly, “things have changed; I’ve changed. And there really is something we need to talk about.”

  “Sorry, Brin, I’ve got another call coming in,” he lied, figuring it was better than bluntly telling her he had no interest in her or her problems. “Gotta go.” He disconnected before she had the chance to suck him into a conversation. He could have told her to go pound sand, but he had no desire to hurt her. It served no purpose, and he just didn’t care enough anymore about what had happened between them.

  A half hour later his phone rang again. This time he checked the caller ID. Brin again. He didn’t answer. If she called a couple of more times with the same response, she should get the message. If he had to guess, things hadn’t worked out between her and their old boss. He could have told her the guy would never leave his wife, but it hadn’t mattered enough.

  He’d discovered her infidelity by chance when he returned home a day early from a business trip and discovered them in his bed, in his condo. He’d calmly told them he was leaving, that he would return in a half hour, and that he expected them both to be gone when he got back.
When he returned, his boss had left, but Brin was still there. She had tried to convince him they could work things out. Swore it was the only time she’d been unfaithful and didn’t know what she’d been thinking, that it had just happened. Justin hadn’t really cared. He’d pulled out her suitcases, threw in all her clothes, and told her that he’d box up the rest of her stuff and she could pick it up on the weekend.

  Justin shook his head. He didn’t even want to contemplate what path his life might have taken had he not broken up with her and moved back to Glebe Point to start his own practice.

  He got up off the couch and went to see what he could rustle up for dinner. There were a couple of frozen steaks and some frozen chicken in the freezer, but he didn’t feel like going to the effort of defrosting and cooking anything. He checked the fridge. There was an assortment of yogurt cups, three disposable plastic containers with leftovers that had started growing things, and some wilted lettuce. Sighing, he pulled the lettuce and the containers of leftovers out and pitched them into the trash can under the sink.

  He didn’t feel like making the trek into town to pick something up now that he’d settled in. He closed the refrigerator door and decided to walk up to the Inn to see if he could sweet-talk Mary into some leftovers that didn’t look like someone’s science project. His neighbor always had plenty on hand, especially when she had guests in residence, as she did now.

  “Good evening, Mary,” he said a few minutes later when he walked into the Inn’s kitchen. He gave her a kiss on the cheek. “How’s my favorite lady?”

  “I’m just fine. Have you eaten yet? I just finished making some chicken pies for dinner, and it would be so nice if you could join me. We haven’t had much of a chance to catch up the last couple of weeks.”

  Justin grinned. “You could probably convince me,” he said appreciatively. “I suppose you made mashed potatoes and gravy to go with them, too.”