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I wouldn’t say this aloud, but I miss the person I was before tonight.
Gabriel exhales and rubs his chin. “I need to make sure she doesn’t say anything to anyone. Will you be all right by yourself?”
I offer a reassuring smile. “Yeah. You go do what you need to, and I’ll stay here. Bring me a drink on your way back, okay? Preferably something strong.”
“Okay.”
Five minutes after Gabriel leaves, an older woman approaches me. I sense the hostility in her eyes before she opens her mouth.
“I’ve been watching you,” she says.
I groan inwardly. Right. I do have an actual target on my back. “Nice to meet you, too.”
She doesn’t try to mask her dislike for me. “There is nothing nice about our meeting. Why are you with Gabriel Everhart? For the money?”
Money? If this bleached blonde, tacky jewelry-wearing woman knew who I was, she wouldn’t say those words. I let her go on, though. Bringing my parents into the conversation means this might get back to them, and I’ll have my mother to deal with.
“My daughter, Alicia, is a better woman than you will ever be, you gold digger,” she spits, figuratively. “And I have been waiting for the right moment to introduce them, so I don’t know what you’ve done to be with him, but I suggest you undo it.”
I turn to look into the hall. Where is Gabriel with that much-needed drink?
“Look,” I decide to fight my battle when it looks like he won’t be coming to my rescue, “If you promised your daughter that she’d marry Gabriel then I suggest you take it up with him, okay? If he wants her, then that’s that. If he doesn’t, then there is nothing you can do.”
Right now, I don’t care about my feelings for Gabriel to be jealous, I just want to go home.
She regards me with disgust and then storms off. Gabriel appears minutes later and without a drink.
“Is everything okay?” he asks.
I exhale. “Do I have to stay here until the end?”
“Um, no?”
“Good. I want to leave,” I say firmly.
He takes my hand and looks at me with concern. “Something happened, didn’t it? Who was it?”
I shake my head. “It’s nothing. I just want to go home. There’s only so much that someone like me, who isn’t used to being in the spotlight, can take.”
I half-expect him to bring up my childhood, but Gabriel simply nods.
“Okay. Let’s go, then.”
He holds my hand so tenderly that I almost forget about the interaction with the mean woman. Gabriel holds the car door for me and hurries around to get in the other side.
“I’m so sorry that the night went so horribly,” he apologizes, reaching for my hand. His thumb strokes the back of my palm. “If there is anything I can do to make up for it, please tell me. I’ll…throw another party like this one and invite people who won’t ask unnecessary questions or make rude remarks.”
He earns a short laugh from me. “How can you do that? You don’t know if they’ll be mean until they are.”
“Not true. You can tell that some people wear it on their faces.”
“True. Like that woman who talked about giving her daughter to you, like we are still in the eighteenth century. Is that how it is in your social circles?” I raise my brow.
Gabriel laughs. “No. And I don’t have a social circle.”
“Really?” I fix him a look of disbelief. “You are a notorious playboy who attends a different party every weekend and is always spotted at the club. You had a party in your apartment the night I moved in.”
When Gabriel keeps staring at me, I pout. “Until you met me, that is.”
