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“From who?” I asked suspiciously.
He didn’t blink. “From us. Your family.”
I wouldn’t have given it a second thought if I hadn’t heard his mistake earlier. He’d almost said Dante’s name.
Though I hadn’t heard from him... Though we barely spoke his name for fear of upsetting Mama... We just kept telling her he was traveling again. We made up places. He was in the South of France. Tuscany. Anything that came to mind. She didn’t ask too many questions, just the same one, over and over.
“Is Noemi with him?”
When the two of them had first disappeared, I didn’t know what the answer to that question was, so I glared at Gabriel, and he’d just nodded. That knowledge seemed to make Mama happy. She had never said anything, but I suspect it was something she’d wanted all along. Dante and Noemi were together...my best friend and my older brother. I’m assuming it was love or Noemi was headed for an epic letdown, because God knew no one would ever talk about anything that had happened between the two of them.
That was the night I’d slammed the door in Gabriel’s face when no amount of tears or screaming had gotten him to tell me what I wanted to know. Gabriel’s casual response to my mother’s question had set off an epic meltdown because I had been worrying myself to death for days, thinking the absolute worst, and he had known all along that the two of them were together.
So, when Gabriel mentioned a “gift” from my “family” it could have only meant one thing: Gabriel had been in contact with Dante. Joy and agony ripped through me.
I was delighted that my big brother had made such a loving, supportive gesture.
I was absolutely gut-wrenched that Dante was out there in the world, somewhere, with my best friend, and I did not know when, or if, I would ever see them again.
And I was pissed as hell at Gabriel for keeping it all a secret. Another piece of information that he was privileged to know, but I apparently couldn’t be trusted with.
I buried the feelings of loss and betrayal just like I did each time they surfaced, which was often.
I slid the green dress over, then replaced it with the same dress in a lighter shade of teal. I didn’t like the contrast of the two colors together, so I moved them back again. I needed to focus on my work and not go down the same rabbit hole of regret and anger that had sucked up so many wasted hours already. The boutique was the only thing that kept me sane, kept me from dwelling on the losses that consumed me and the loneliness that often kept me awake at night.
Dante. Gone.
Noemi. Gone.
Gabriel.... Busy. All. The time.
The emptiness overwhelmed me more than anything, a void in my life that couldn’t be filled. I couldn’t even compare it to the years Noemi lived in England. Despite the distance between us, we had talked on the phone all the time. It had been weeks since I’d been able to talk to her at all!
But most nights, the tears that slipped down my cheeks and dampened my pillowcase weren’t because I missed my family. Someone else was missing...someone I had no business getting so emotional over.
“Hello, Princess.”
My hand shook with the sound of four deeply spoken syllables. I was imagining things. Too many late nights. I was sleep deprived. Martin’s voice had changed. Or I was too tired. My brain heard what it wanted to hear.
He couldn’t possibly be standing in my shop.
Slowly, my heart thumping in either excitement or dread, I couldn’t tell which, I lifted my head.
I swallowed hard, but I’d be damned if I let him see how his sudden appearance affected me. How the hell had he gotten into the shop, anyway? There should have been three men out there to stop him, including Martin, who should have learned his lesson after the way Gabriel treated him when I had ditched him that night...that night when I had made the biggest mistake of my life.
But like always, the minute Sebastian St. Valentine walked into a room and got anywhere near me, my skin tingled, and my heart rate sped up.
Anger. Desire. A very fine line existed between the two.
I wanted to run to him and throw my arms around his neck.
I wanted to smack that passive expression off his face.
I wanted him to feel every bit of the pain I’d experienced the last three months.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, hoping my voice came out evenly.
I avoided looking into his dark eyes, so I focused on the five o’clock shadow on his square jaw line.
