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He opens his mouth, then closes it.

I raise my eyebrows.

He scowls. “That is hardly relevant.”

“Oh, I think it’s very relevant.”

He looks away.

I study him.

There’s something there. Something beneath the arrogance and the grumbling. Something he’s not telling me. But I don’t push.

Not tonight.

Because I have a feeling Gabriel Winchester has spent a very long time avoiding whatever happened to him. And I’m not going to fix a hundred and forty-three years of emotional baggage in one evening.

Especially when I’m still trying to figure out how to fix a hundred-and-forty-three-year-old sewer line. I close my laptop.

“Okay. That’s enough for tonight.”

Gabriel looks at me. “You’re giving up?”

“Nope.”

I stand and stretch. “I’m going to bed.”

He glances toward the clock.

“It’s barely eleven.”

“Yes. And some of us require sleep.”

“I don’t.”

“Congratulations.” I start gathering the candles.

Gabriel watches me.

“April.”

I glance at him. “Yeah?”

He hesitates. It’s such an unusual thing for him to do that I stop moving.

“What?”

His gaze meets mine. “Thank you.”

I blink.

“For what?”

He gestures vaguely toward the coffee table. The laptop and all the paraphernalia that I gathered.

“For this.”

Something in his expression makes my chest tighten. He’s serious. Completely serious and completely appreciative.