There was a pause. No one moved or spoke for a moment. Not one of them fathomed how to respond. This was not the Gabriel they all knew and loved. Gabriel was happy, cheerful, fun loving. And possibly most of all, Gabriel was superficial. The man before them exhibited none of those qualities.
“Well, I know a cure for that. Come out for a late lunch and a few drinks with us. We’ll make it all better.” Sebastian was eager for Gabriel to be single and wild with them again. “And I won’t take no for an answer. It has been too long since we have done this.”
They began to leave. Ben lingered and motioned that they needed to talk. “I’ll drive Ben,” Gabriel said quickly. “We’ll be right there. I just have to do a few things first.”
As soon as the door closed, Ben spoke. “I’ve never seen you like this before.” He studied his friend worriedly. Gabriel was disheveled, to the point of looking unkempt. His hair was too long and curling slightly around his ears and at the back of his neck. But the most telling sign of the depth of his unhappiness could be found in his eyes which were completely void of emotion.
“I guess I’ve never been in love before,” he responded sadly, running a hand through his messy hair.
“So what’s changed?” Ben stared at him solemnly.
“My father found out. He doesn’t approve. And Isabella is angry that I kept the kids a secret.” He rubbed his face in a tired fashion. “I lied and I lost.”
Ben leaned across the space between them, desperate to offer Gabriel encouragement. “You don’t have to. It’s never too late.”
“Of course it is. I’ve let three weeks pass while I wallowed around in self pity. I can’t call now.” He looked forlornly at Ben.
“No, that’s true; it is too late to call. If you really want Isabella back, you’ll go to her.” His blood raced as he tried to keep his friend from losing the woman he loves.
Gabriel shook his head. “She’ll probably just reject me. She’s probably moved on.” Even as he said the words he looked at Ben, eager to be fed even some dim ray of hope.
“Nah,” Ben said, “I’ve seen the way you two look at each other. You don’t get over that in three weeks. You don’t even get over that in a life time.”
“You think so?” He asked fervently, grasping at even the slightest glimmer of hope.
Ben nodded. “Go to her.”
Dropping Ben off at the pub, Gabriel leaned over to look out the passenger side window as the door closed. “Give them my apologies,” he said seriously.
“What should I tell them?” Ben asked, leaning down to make eye contact.
Gabriel tilted his head to the side, thinking. “Oh, I don’t know.” Then he smiled. “Tell them something they’ll understand. Tell them I had some important business to take care of.”
Ben smiled widely. “I’ll say.”
The drive to the Charmant Estate was not remotely long enough for Gabriel to decide what he wanted to express to his father. He knew he must choose his words carefully for their livelihoods were so closely intertwined. Just another one of the hazards of working with family, Gabriel muttered to himself as he parked the car in front of the steps.
The butler ushered him in and offered to announce him, just as he would any guest, but Gabriel rejected the idea. Instead, he simply asked where he might locate his father, then marched toward the study. The door stood ajar. Mr. Charmant spoke on the phone with his back to his son. When he turned, he discovered Gabriel leaning in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest.
“I’ll have to call you back,” he announced to the voice on the other end of the phone. Hanging up, he addressed Gabriel. “So what brings you here?”
Gabriel walked over to the leather sofa and sat very deliberately, facing his father. “We need to talk,” he explained.
“About what?” Mr. Charmant asked stiffly.
“Bella,” he responded firmly.
Uttering an exasperated sigh, “Now what has she done?”
Gabriel anticipated this. “She hasn’t done anything. I have. I let her down. I knew you would reject anyone I brought home that might have children without even giving them a chance. I didn’t want it to be over with Bella before it had even begun.” He leaned back, half talking half remembering. “I didn’t know I was going to fall in love with her. You remember me back then. She was, I’ll admit, simply a diversion at first. She intrigued me. I had my life here on the weekends, and I had someone there to spend time with during the week. It made my summer pass very quickly, pleasantly and quickly.” He smiled recalling their time together. “But the more I saw her, the more I wanted to see her. I guess it might have been a game at first. You know she wouldn’t even give me her number?” He looked at his father for feedback.
“I didn’t realize that, no.” He still sat stiffly, arms crossed on the desk.
“Oh. Well, she had been hurt very badly, I think, by her husband. She was so cautious. She was so charming, so shy, so...alluring.” He sat up suddenly, breaking the reverie. “I don’t know how it happened. Somehow I just fell in love. It scared the life out of me. It still does. But now,” he said seriously, pausing to make eye contact with his father, “now I’m more afraid that she no longer loves me back.”
He stood now and walked over to the large mahogany desk. Placing his hands on it, and leaning over to make eye contact with his father, Gabriel spoke. “I just wanted you to know that I’m going after her. And if, by the grace of God, she takes me back I’ll never let her go again. And,” his look grew intense, “I want you to give her and her children a chance.” He stood and waited for a response.
“Just what does that mean, ‘you’ll never let her go’?” His father gazed at him intently with narrowed eyes.
“I think you know what that means, father,” Gabriel said quietly.
“You mean to marry her?” He asked in disbelief, dismissing the idea immediately with a wave of his hand. Then he rose from his seat and walked around the desk. Gabriel had not expected this. He pointed to the chair behind Gabriel. “Sit, please, while we talk.” They sat in two leather arm chairs facing each other.
Twiddling his fingers, Mr. Charmant seemed to ponder where to begin. “I loved a woman with children once,” he said much to Gabriel’s surprise. Yet Gabriel knew better than to interrupt his father’s stories. “She didn’t tell me about them until we were engaged. Her husband had been killed in a war. I never even knew she was married before. Well, naturally I broke off the engagement. She begged me not to. Her children needed a father, she said. She needed someone to take care of her. That is when I left, and met your mother in Casablanca. So you see you too will find happiness some day.” He smiled as though everything should be clear now.
Confused, Gabriel blurted, “That has nothing to do with Bella and me.” He threw his hands up in exasperation. “That situation is nothing like ours. And where is your happiness? You and Ava are divorced!” He stood. “I’m going to her now.”
“If you do, I’ll...I’ll.” Mr. Charmant struggled to find something to take away.
“You’ll what father?” Gabriel asked bored.
“I’ll cut you out of the company!” Satisfied, he leaned back in the chair, smirking.
“No, you won’t. You need me. I’m the reason we’re as international as we are. You need my language skills, and my people skills. If you cut me out, I’ll no longer be your asset, but I will become your competition.”
“My what?” Mr. Charmant spat.
“I will go into business for myself. You did it. And you taught me the ropes very well. Oh, and I’m sure I could take several of our largest clients with me. Your choice.”
There was a moment of silence as they stared, measuring each other up. Satisfied that they were at a standoff, Mr. Charmant sighed. Dark eyes blazing, he said through tight thin lips, “I see you have thought this through. Very well. Go to Isabella, though you may grow to regret this decision.”
“My only regret father,” Gabriel replied on his way to
the door, “is that I ever lied to you and Bella.” With a smile on his face and a spring in his step, he rushed to the car.
The plan seemed good in theory. Race to Bella’s barn, apologize, sweep her off her feet, and live happily ever after. But the closer Gabriel came to reaching Bella, the more he realized that he simply wakened himself to the possibility of rejection. And Gabriel had never been rejected. Oh, he had often been the rejecter, but never the rejected. Even more, he realized that in his haste he had brought her...nothing. He toyed with the idea of going first to purchase a gift, any gift that might melt her heart and return her to him, but quickly dismissed the idea. If he was to win her, it would be on his own.
Her car sat in the drive as he pulled up. He inhaled sharply as the front door opened, then the screen. Jane emerged carrying money. She stopped in her tracks when she saw him, caught no doubt between running to tell Bella and running home. She decided to run home, and tried to act as though she hadn’t seen him. The air was fragrant with the unmistakable scent of dirt and the faintest hint of sunshine. Spring had finally arrived in the Adirondacks. He sat in the car, his heart racing, and tried to regulate his breathing before emerging from the car and knocking on the door.
Isabella had been at the spa all day with Jessie. For the first time in weeks she felt relaxed. For the first time in weeks she hadn’t been thinking of Gabriel. Then she chastised herself. Patting herself on the back for not thinking about him just showed that she had been. This would prove to be a long recovery.
The house had been destroyed. Rebecca moped in the bathroom, upset that she must scrub her face since she had been playing in makeup, again. Kyle had been sent upstairs as well, to work on overhauling the bedroom so that Isabella could once again see the floor. They always managed to cause an unimaginable amount of destruction without her watchful eye. Then she remembered wistfully that the only other person she had ever known to handle them as well as she did was Maggie.
A knock sounded on the door. She walked over and opened it without bothering to look. Gabriel stood there. He looked so different from the way she had always seen him. Before he exuded this impregnable air of confidence, but today he looked like any other handsome, ordinary man might look as he walked into a lioness’ den. Unsmiling, she simply regarded him from the other side of the screen.
Clearing his throat, Gabriel began softly, “In my country, it is customary that when a person knocks on a door and the door is answered, he is invited in.” He attempted a feeble smile.
How many days and nights had she dreamed she would open the door and find him standing there? Too many. And still, after all that practice, she didn’t know how to respond.
“I let you in once and ultimately you hurt me.” She looked down and murmured, “I thought you’d never hurt me.”
Her words made him wince. It wounded him to hear her admit that he hurt her. He knew what it must cost her to express that when she couldn’t even allow herself to cry. Stepping closer to the door, Gabriel laid his hand against the screen. “I never meant to hurt you, Bella. You let me into your house and into your heart, and I betrayed you with a lie. A big, monstrous lie. And I am so sorry.”
Isabella studied him standing there. He seemed, truly sorry. She wanted to believe him, but self-preservation mode kicked in. “I don’t know.” She gazed at him warily.
“Look at me, Bella. Look at me.” He implored her now. “I come to you today with nothing to offer but myself.” His arms were outstretched. “I don’t want to win you with money, not that it has ever swayed you. I didn’t bring you flowers that will wilt and die, or jewelry that may tarnish, or food that will decay. All I bring you is myself, flawed as I am. I would delight in being your diamond in the rough, should you wish to have me. And though I may have changed in your eyes, know that my heart has remained steadfast.” He leaned against the screen. “I love you, Bella. Can you possibly love me still, imperfect though I may be?”
His words softened her already weak resolve. “You may not be perfect, but you’re perfect for me,” she murmured with a wistful smile. He smiled, thinking he had won her to him again. Then she stiffened. “But I don’t want to open myself up to be hurt once more.”
He was disappointed, scared even, but he refused to back down, refused to accept defeat. This was far too important. “Aren’t you hurting now? I know I am.”
Her next words were spoken in fear. “What if I let you in and you leave me and I’m miserable for the rest of my life?”
Gabriel smiled a slow smile. They had danced this dance before. “What if you let me in and I never let you go and we live happily ever after?”
“That only happens in fairy tales.”
“Well, then Bella, my princess,” he whispered with his face and palms pressed against the screen. “Let me be your prince.”
Isabella stood there frozen, letting the words sink in, knowing that this might very well be the most challenging decision she had had to make since sending Jack packing. He stood there patiently waiting, watching her struggle. Silently she stepped back. Gabriel did as well. Then the door was flung open as she let him in once more. In a single step, Gabriel crossed the boundary and crushed Isabella to him, an act they had both dreamed about for three weeks. With a smile, and an arm around her, he murmured, “You know I meant it about never letting you go again, right?”
“I hope so,” Isabella said into his chest, never really considering the implications of his words.
Rebecca and Kyle were ecstatic to find Gabriel standing in their doorway. They were even happier to learn he was taking them all out to dinner. “Mom, can he stay the night?” Rebecca pleaded on the way back to the apartment after leaving the restaurant.
Gabriel reached over and grasped Isabella’s hand. “Yeah, Mom. Can he?” Gabriel asked mockingly.
Isabella only stared out the window and smiled.
The kids dropped off to sleep more easily than they had in weeks. It was as though all their worries had dissipated with Gabriel’s re-entry into their lives. Then, it was Isabella’s turn for bed.
“You never answered our question,” Gabriel noted.
“What question?” Isabella asked, genuinely confused.
“May I stay?” He looked at her earnestly, as though she might refuse him. “I mean...I’ve missed us, our closeness.” He looked ashamed to admit his feelings. “I’ve missed tucking you in, Bella.”
Isabella was eager to bring him upstairs and have him all to herself, but at the moment she was torn. “Can you give me one minute?” She asked seriously.
“Of course, darling,” he responded, believing that she was trying to make up her mind.
Practically skipping, Isabella reached the kitchen and grabbed the phone. She knew the number by heart. Her fingers skated over the buttons, deftly punching one after another. The phone rang once, twice, then was answered. She giggled. “He’s back!” She exclaimed into the phone, then hung up and rushed back to Gabriel’s side. He was smiling now, trying to hold back laughter.
“Jessie?” He queried, his eyes twinkling.
“Yup.” She beamed.
Taking his hand, Isabella led him up the stairs. This night she took the lead, knowing that he would be shy with her, afraid of crossing some unspoken line. He stood there, awkwardly, unsure what to do with his hands as he watched her pull back the comforter and sheet. Then she turned to him and slowly unbuttoned his shirt, exposing his muscular chest. She rubbed her hands over his pecks, feeling the light fuzz under her fingertips, then ran her hands straight up to his shoulders and smiled as the shirt fell down his arms.
Next her attention turned to his pants. Effortlessly, as if she had done this innumerable times, she unfastened his belt, then his button, finally the zipper, and happily watched them pool around his ankles. Gabriel stepped out of them and sat on the edge of the bed, pulling off his socks. He seemed to have gained some measure of confidence, as evidenced by the way his hands found their way to her waist.
Within seconds her shirt had been removed and he had buried his face in her throat. “I love the scent of you,” he murmured. “You smell like vanilla. It makes me want to devour you,” he admitted, a lazy smile gracing his face.
A moment later her jeans lay on top of his. Within seconds they were happy and naked together. Only this time felt different from times past. This time their hands searched each other’s body, exploring in a way they never had before. A combination of refreshing and creating memories, until they felt they had reached their breaking points and dared not continue. Happier still, they drifted off to sleep holding each other.
Breakfast in bed appeared almost before she had an opportunity to truly awaken. Gabriel lay next to her and shared the tray of pancakes and fruit. “Bella, darling,” he began quietly as he fed her a strawberry, “would you do something for me?”
Second Chances Page 51