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Her heart started to palpitate. A chill cloaked her body. Her knees went weak.
Gabe slid her a look, then refocused on Ruby, wrapping his arm around her, drawing her and the painting into the curve of his big body. He studied her creation as if it was the most precious piece of art in the world.
“These are the most beautiful flowers I’ve ever seen,” he whispered.
“Yeah,” agreed Ruby solemnly. “They are.”
Father and daughter stayed like that, heads drawn close, staring without speaking at the painting they cradled between them.
Feeling like a voyeur in a private moment that wasn’t hers, Hope crept down the hall to the bathroom, where she busied herself draining the bathwater and setting the tub to rights.
Several minutes later, as she straightened and turned to hang a towel, she gasped in surprise when she caught Gabe nearly filling the bathroom doorway. With arms crossed, he watched her. Silent and assessing.
She pressed her hand to her heart, which was racing, and not only because he’d surprised her. A dull ache lingering there since Ruby had referred to her mother’s death.
“You startled me,” she said quietly, unsure of herself given this new revelation. What was she supposed to say now?
He didn’t move.
And as always, when she was in close proximity to him, the butterflies awakened in her stomach. “Where’s Ruby?” she asked.
Uncrossing his arms, he stepped into the bathroom. He shut the door silently behind them, so they were in the small space together.
Instinctively, she retreated, her calves coming up against the cool tile of the bathtub. Her heart lodged itself in her throat, clogging half her airway, then started to beat there frantically. He watched her, curiosity in his eyes, but he came no closer.
“Ruby passed out on a stack of books on her bed before she could even read them,” he said. “You did a good job burning her energy.”
Hope nodded, not sure what to say in light of the bombshell revelation she’d just heard. She’d given some thought to why a man like Gabe might be single, but she had never considered this. She’d assumed divorce. She’d assumed there’d be an absolutely typical story of two people growing apart and lives moving on in separate directions. She hadn’t expected death.
He was so young. Ruby was a child.
He was a widower. Ruby was motherless.
And she was the square peg trying to fit into the heart-shaped hole in their lives.
Suddenly, the room felt too small. Heat flooded her whole body. Her chest tightened. She couldn’t breathe. Emotions she couldn’t name churned inside her like a storm she could’ve never predicted and wasn’t prepared for. Before Gabe could say or do anything else, she darted around him, intent on getting out of there.
But he had the reflexes of a jackrabbit. She’d barely touched the doorknob when his hand came over her head and pressed against the door, keeping it closed.
“Hope, wait. We need to talk.”
Oh God, he was right behind her. His long torso brushed her back, his heat wrapping around her like a blanket. A warm blanket. A protective one. It had always been that way with him. From the first moment he’d appeared beside her in the hallway, his heat had settled over her like a cloak of peace and soothed her. She felt safe with him. Always.
With a sigh of surrender, she let her forehead drop against the closed door.
Gabe was right. This was a conversation she couldn’t run from. Her brother’s words echoed back to her.When things got hard you just ran away.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured, emotion filling her throat. “I didn’t know. I shouldn’t have been…” She paused, not knowing what to say that could make up for her unexpected invasion of his privacy. “Gabe, I didn’t know,” was all she could offer in the end.
A low sound rumbled from deep in his chest. Was he frustrated? Angry? Confused? Sympathetic?
The warmth of hands enveloped her shoulders and turned her to face him. The inescapable draw that existed between them had her eyes moving to meet his. Standing this close to him, she clearly saw all the different green and golden-brown flecks that collided in the kaleidoscope of his eyes. She let herself drown in them—and paradoxically, this calmed her.
“Talk to me,” he said, his voice deep and steady.
When she dropped her gaze to avoid the request, he curled his fingers around her chin and tilted her face up, so she was forced to meet his gaze. “Hope, what’s going on in that beautiful mind of yours?”
She wasn’t totally sure, so she told him what was hurting her heart the most. “I didn’t know Ruby’s mom had died.”
