She turned her face up to him and smiled. His head lowered to meet hers, and her eyes drifted close in anticipation. When Gabriel’s mouth covered hers, Leiliana sighed into him. He responded by wrapping her in his embrace. She didn’t know how long they continued to kiss deeply, but when they finally stopped and Gabriel hugged her to him, she could feel their hearts beating in unison against each other’s chest.
She looked up, and her face set ablaze once more. But this time with embarrassment.
She buried her face in his shirt and groaned.
“What’s wrong?” he asked anxiously.
“We’ve been making out in a public park like two horny teenagers. Suppose someone is videotaping us?”
She felt his chest rumble as he chuckled.
“This is Dublin, Leiliana. Not London. No one here cares who we are.”
She shook her head. “You are a very bad influence on me, Gabriel Walsh.”
“And you are loving every minute of it, Leiliana Lamport.”
“Speaking of which. I think I need to spend an extra week here, Gabriel.”
“Really?” he asked excitedly.
She nodded and smiled at him. “It doesn’t look like we will finish in time, given all the extra activities we need to incorporate.”
He threw back his head and laughed. “I love the way your mind works, Leia.”
Chapter 18
G abriel cast a worried look out the window at the ominous dark clouds which had appeared in the northwest and were heading their way. “It looks like rain,” he pronounced. “Maybe you should head off now. I’ll finish up here.”
He and Leiliana were hanging paintings and photographs they had selected from various art galleries in Dublin that morning.
“I’ll leave soon. Let’s finish upstairs first. There are only a few more to be hung anyway.”
But just as they were almost finished the task, the heavens broke, and water crashed down.
“You can’t possibly drive through this,” Gabriel advised, coming alongside her to stare out at the rain falling in sheets. “It’s lashing down, and those mountain bends can be quite dangerous.”
“I’ll have to wait until it stops,” she agreed.
He slanted a gaze at her. “That might be for some time based on my experience with these storms.”
She sighed and reached for the final painting. “Well, I guess I’ll just have to get comfy.”
“I was thinking the same thing.” He took the painting from her hands and hung it on the wall.
“How about I make us some hot chocolate,” he offered. “It’s likely to be a cold night.”
“Sounds great.”
“It’s from a packet. I hope you don’t mind,” he said as he walked towards the kitchen.
“Let me help,” she offered, following him.
“I won’t refuse your help,” he said with a laugh.
He switched on the kettle.
“You’re not going to make it with milk?” she asked.
“Well, I usually just pour boiling water to it.”
“Do you have milk?”
“Yes, I do. Use that?”
She nodded. “It will be loads richer and creamier.”
He found some milk, but a sniff revealed that it was stale, so he threw it out and reached for the UHT milk in the cupboard. He got a saucepan, placed it on the stove, and poured some into the pot.
“Where are the cups?” she asked.
He pointed to an overhead cupboard, and she took down two black and white striped mugs.
He found the hot chocolate sachets and proceeded to tear them open and empty the contents into each mug.
Leiliana swiveled on the barstool. “Don’t you just love these bar stools.”
They were chrome with white leather seats. The design had been her idea. The color, his.
“They are surprisingly comfortable,” he agreed.
“You wanted to get those terrible backless ones at first.”
“That’s why we make a great team,” he said with a smile.
He liked the way her cheeks pinked when he said that. Then she glanced away, gasped, and began waving her fingers at the stove in alarm. He realized the milk had started to hiss and rise to the top. He grabbed the saucepan from the heat and carefully poured milk into the mugs.
In the family room, they sat on the couch in companionable silence, watching the rain pour down. It was soothing and peaceful somehow. Gabriel felt perfectly content at that moment. Sitting next to the woman he loved, in the house he had labored on sipping hot chocolate as nature took its course.
“Would you like to watch a movie to kill time?” he asked after a while.
“Not really.”
“Not a big movie fan?”
She shook her head.
“This, from the daughter of a former movie star? Shocking!”
She laughed. “Actually, how about we play a game?”
~*~*~*~
Gabriel shrugged. “What kind of game?”
“Twenty Questions.”
“What’s the aim?”
“The aim is to find out a little more about your romantic partner.”
Her words reminded him of something important. “Have you told your parents we’re dating?”
He noted with interest how she glanced away from him and busied herself dusting something off her jeans. “Umm…not yet.”
“How come?” he asked.
She turned back to him and shrugged. “Gabriel, we really only started seeing each other romantically two days ago. There’s no need to rush.”
“Fair enough, but I’d like to meet them as soon as possible. Certainly, after we wind up here. I don’t plan on sneaking around behind their back and seeing their daughter.”
She laughed. “You’re so sweet and old-fashioned.”
He chuckled. “What do you expect from a boy raised by his grandparents.”
“I’m not complaining,” she said, leaning over and placing a kiss on his nose. “You’re like a breath of fresh air compared to most men these days.”
“I’d rather not be compared to most men these days. They are not my standard. Christ is,” he said with a grin. What he was thinking was that if she compared him to that idiot she had dated, one Michael Chappelle, he would probably come out looking pretty good, but he didn’t want that to be his standard. He wanted to be the best man he could be.
She nodded thoughtfully. “You are right. Christ should be my standard too. So do you want to play the game or not.”
“Sure. How do you play?” he asked.
She leaned over and placed her empty mug on the coffee table. Then she pulled a throw cushion from behind her and hugged it as she settled down into the seat. “So, first, we each come up with twenty questions that we would like to ask each other.”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“Then, we take turns asking. We’ll need to get some paper to write the questions on.”
“Or we can type out the questions on our phones like people from the 21st century,” he said, picking up his phone and wagging it at her.
“So says the man who has a library filled with real books.”
With a laugh, he began typing on his phone. “Suppose we want to ask the same question we were asked?”
“It doesn’t matter, we can go ahead and ask it when it’s our turn.”
They worked on their questions, and when they were done, Leiliana asked, “Who goes first?”
“Ladies first,” Gabriel offered.
“First question, then.” She looked down at her phone. “What’s the best career advice you’ve been given?”
“Follow your passion, and you’ll always feel fulfilled.”
“Who was it that told you that?”
“My professor in Alternative Energy when I revealed to him who I was and what I was expected to do when I went to work for Walsh Enterprises.”
“What do you mean what you were expected to do? I don’t understand.”
“You are aware that I attended two universities.”
She nodded.
“The reason this happened was that my father insisted I study business at Princeton, his alma mater. I preferred to study engineering, but I acceded to his wishes out of respect. After my first year, my grandfather started having health challenges. I told dad I wanted to go to Ireland to study so that I could be near to him.”
“Did you continue to study business?”
“At first. Then I took some engineering courses, and, finally, I did the full degree.”
“How did your father feel about that?” she asked.
“When he found out he wasn’t too happy. Then I think he made peace with it when I promised him I would still work for Barry Walsh and Company when I returned.” He jutted his chin in her direction. “Now, my turn. What would people be most surprised to know about you?”
She thought about this for a short while. “Probably that I do my own laundry and my own grocery shopping.”
“Really?”
She laughed at his expression. “Why is this news so shocking?”
“Because of who you are and the job you have,” he stated.
“I find washing clothes therapeutic,” she protested with a laugh.
“I never would have guessed that you like doing your own laundry. I wonder if maybe it’s because you’re such a control freak.”
“I’m not a control freak!” she said, pinching his arm.
“Ouch!” he exclaimed. “I take that back. What I meant to say was a reformed control freak. You are getting better, as I’ve observed.”
“I’m still insulted,” she said with a pout.
He leaned over and kissed her pouting lips. “You’re also very adorable.”
She playfully pushed him away. “My turn now.” She picked up her phone and looked at it. “What’s one thing that’s been said or written about you that’s not true?”
He looked off into the corner of the room for a while. Eventually, he met her eyes and said, “That I’m a crook,” he said slowly and very softly. “I’m not. My biggest mistake in the whole affair was returning to Barry Walsh and Company after I had left the first time and getting embroiled in that scandalous affair.”
“I am not really clear about that. I know you went to work for JJ Inc., but what happened to cause that?”
“After College ended, I went to work for Barry Walsh and Company as promised. Dad started me off as a senior trader. It was only in my third year there when I was promoted to associate that I began to realize that the trading partners were not the most honest. In fact, a good few were dictators who were oppressing their people and profiting from social inequalities.”
Gabriel gave a wry smile and shook his head. “Whenever I questioned dad about it, he would brush it off. Finally, with enough evidence in hand, I confronted him in his office late one evening. He confessed that he made his ‘most important and most profitable’ business deals by violating international trade embargoes. He said he had no regrets whatsoever. He told me, ‘I deliver a service. People want to sell oil to me, and other people want to buy oil from me. I am a businessman, not a politician. I don’t get into the politics of other nations.’” Gabriel gave a short, grim laugh. “I tried to accept that, but my principles and conviction about right and wrong would not allow me to. So I quit, and then I went looking for a job.”
“That’s when you got the job with JJ Inc.”
He nodded. “At the interview, Jonas Judd reviewed my resume and asked if I was related to Barry Walsh. I admitted I was his son. Jonas then asked if we’d had a falling out. I said yes, we had a difference of opinion about business practices. JJ asked me if he had to worry about me leaving him over such issues. I told him that as long as he ran an ethical enterprise, I’d be faithful and loyal to him. I remember he watched me shrewdly for about a minute, then gave a laugh and hired me on the spot.” His eyes cleared and he smiled at her.
“Do you think you’ve got unresolved issues with your father?”
He hooked his left ankle over his right leg and absently rubbed a spot as his expression took on a faraway look. “I guess so. I tell myself I’ve forgiven him, yet for the last three years, I have basically distanced myself from him.”
“Do you think that the fact that’s he’s a fugitive has anything to do with it?”
He thought about this for a moment. “Perhaps it does. I see him as an unrepentant coward.”
“You don’t feel he deserves your grace.”
He looked at her in surprise. After a while, he nodded slowly. “Aye. I guess so.” Shaking his head, he sighed. “That’s mighty self-righteous, isn’t it?”
She just smiled in understanding.
“Okay, my turn,” he said. “Would you want a big wedding or a small one with just immediate family and a few friends, or an intimate one with just you, the groom and the minister?”
Leiliana tried not to read anything into the question, but it was tough. First, his suggestive comment to the store clerk yesterday and now this. She took a few moments to respond because she was trying to quiet her nerves and come across as blasé.
“Well, I wouldn’t mind an intimate one, but because my family means so much to me, I think I’d like them to be there sharing in my big moment. Plus, the marriage of a Lamport is always an opportunity for all the Lamports and the Fosters to gather. When my brother Liam deprived my family of a wedding when he eloped with his bride, even he had to give way to a reception when he returned home. There is no escaping the gathering. As the next Lamport, I’ll be expected to have a large wedding. I can live with that as long as it’s mainly family and friends.”
He nodded and looked like he was filing that away.
“Now, my question,” she said. “What type of wedding would you want?”
“Me? Oh, I’m easy. Whatever the bride wants is fine with me.”
“What a wonderful groom you’d make,” she said with a laugh.
They continued to ask each other questions until Leiliana began to feel sleepy. Gabriel draped his arm around her, and she laid her head against his chest. As she listened to the rhythmic beating of his heart, she felt wonderfully at ease, as though she didn’t want to leave his side. Ever.
Sometime later, Leiliana awoke in the night and was alarmed to find herself on the couch with a blanket draped around her. Gabriel was lying on the ground beside her, asleep. The rain was no longer falling, and she told herself she should get up and leave. Instead, she snuggled deeper into the couch and promptly went back to sleep.
~*~*~*~
Gabriel sat drinking coffee as he watched Leiliana sleep. He had been so sure after his break up with Dot that he no longer wanted to get married. That his life was full as it was. But now he knew that there was more to life than building castles in the air. Success meant nothing without someone you loved to share it with. Leiliana had become that person to him. He knew this without a shadow of a doubt. He had spent the last hour since he had awoken, thinking more and more about what it would be like to wake up every morning next to her. What it would be like to have someone to talk with at the end of the day who could completely relate to him. It was one thing to live life. It was another to live a rich life. He instinctively felt that such a woman would enrich his life. He wanted to make her his own. He wanted it to be official. But if he proposed to her now would she think it was too soon. Would she get suspicious of his motives because they were still conducting a business negotiation?
The doorbell rang, and Leiliana stirred. Gabriel quickly got up to see who was at his door this early on a Saturday morning.
He peeped through the keyhole and then sighed before reaching for the door handle.
“Good morning, Mrs. MacLoughlin.”
Mrs. MacLoughlin wasn’t the sort of person who could be outright called nosy. A better term might be ‘inquisitive neighbor’. She was a widow who had raised four children who all now lived elsewhere. She had known Gabriel since he was born an
d had been pleased when he had built his home on the land that was formerly the Everdeen Inn. Gabriel respected Mrs. MacLoughlin. She and his grandmother hadn’t exactly been friends but they had maintained a cordial relationship. His grandmother, knowing Mrs. MacLoughlin’s tendency to gossip, had kept her at bay.
Gabriel had sought to maintain that same cordiality. Being private, and having successfully deflected her many attempts to get information about his love life, Gabriel didn’t provide enough fodder for her mill. Until recently.
Ever since Leiliana Lamport had started coming to his house, Mrs. MacLoughlin had been permanently affixed to her window.
So now that Mrs. MacLoughlin had shown up on the pretense of bearing him scones, Gabriel didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
He regarded her with a bemused expression. “Mrs. MacLoughlin, this is kind of you, but as I have told you before, I am on a strict gluten-free diet.”
She waved at him dismissively as her eyes roamed beyond him into the house, trying to catch a glimpse of something, or perhaps someone.
“Well, maybe the pretty lass I saw come over yesterday may like some. I was just taking these out of the oven when I looked out and saw her car was still in the driveway. I thought to myself, ‘it looks like Gabriel’s guest stayed overnight and being a bachelor he will be pleased to receive something warm and buttery to offer her.’”
It was pointless, trying to refuse. Gabriel sighed and took the dish.
“Thank you for your thoughtfulness, Mrs. MacLoughlin.”
“Think nothing of it.” She was still standing there, staring at him. Did she expect him to invite her in?
“Well, have a good morning, then,” he said with a polite smile.
He actually had to close the door in her face, which he felt terrible about doing. Still, the alternative, inviting her into his home, could not be endured.
When he returned to the family room, he saw Leiliana was up. She was running her fingers through her hair when he walked into the room. Her hand dropped, and she looked self-consciously at him. He wasn’t sure whether she noticed the dish or smelled its contents first, but her gaze dropped to his hand, and she sniffed the air in delight.
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