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“Oh, darling, that’s wonderful! Is it with that marketing firm you interviewed with a while back?” There was a brief silence before she admitted, “Joel mentioned you’d applied.”
Of course he did.
“Um, no.” She sat on her bed, feeling awkward and hating it. She hadn’t yet admitted to anyone in the family that she’d veered off the expected path of business, however temporary it may be. “It’s more in the childcare field. I’m watching a little girl whose single father works late shifts.” She bit her lip and waited for a silence loaded with disappointment to follow. To her ultimate surprise, it didn’t.
“Oh, how wonderful!” Audrey exclaimed excitedly. “You’re so good with children, Hope, a natural.”
She wasn’t sure why this sentiment surprised her. Her mother wasn’t naturally one to judge anyone’s career choices. Still, Hope had always felt a lot of pressure to pursue the family business, and being a nanny was so far removed, she wasn’t sure how her mother would react. She hadn’t expected praise.
It caught her off guard, and before she could think about it, she found herself opening up. “Actually, I really love it. Ruby is sweet and creative. She’s always on board for any project I bring over. And her father, Gabe, well, he’s—” What? Hotter than hell? Sexually potent? Increasingly irresistible? “He’s also been great. He’s been generous and kind to me.” She hesitated for a moment, then admitted, “I feel like I don’t deserve it.”
“Oh, darling, of course you do!” Audrey exclaimed. “You are a gift to any family. Believe me, I know. I—” She broke off and inhaled an unsteady breath. “And I know things between us have been…” Her mother’s voice wavered, making Hope’s heart squeeze uncomfortably. “Strained, but I hope you always know that no matter what, you are a blessing in our lives. So, believe me when I say, you do deserve it. You deserve everything.”
Tears stung her eyes, and she blinked them back furiously. She hadn’t had a personal talk with her mother in a very long time, and she hadn’t realized until this moment how much she’d missed it. She missed the unfailing support and the affirmation, but the hurt from her parents’ deception still burned so brightly. There were so many questions she wanted to ask her mother that she’d never asked at Christmas, like, “Why didn’t you ever tell me?” or “Why did my freaking cousin know I was adopted and I didn’t?” She hadn’t asked them then because she’d been afraid of what the answers might be. Now she avoided asking because she wasn’t ready to confront the emotions those questions, or answers, brought on. Instead, she changed the subject.
“So, Joel said you wanted to discuss the gala?”
“Right.” Audrey cleared her throat. “You’re still coming, aren’t you? You’ve never missed one.”
Hope pressed two fingers to her temple and rubbed at the tension headache she felt coming on. Her mother organized the annual hospital fundraiser, and Hope had always supported both the cause and her family in this regard. The last few years she’d given the opening remarks, and she knew she was expected to do so again.
Except the gala was six weeks away, and she’d been hoping to avoid going this year. More accurately, she hoped to avoid going home altogether. She still needed… space.
“Well, Mom—”
“Hope,” her mother interjected. “You have to come. You simply can’t not be there.”
“It’s just that I started this new job, and it’s not a good time to leave, and…” She paused, remembering Joel’s words. How had she gone from being the one who’d been hurt to the one who was doing the hurting? Her tension headache was now a full-fledged roar in her head. “I’ll get back to you, Mom,” she finally managed. “I promise.”
About two minutes after she’d hung up, her phone buzzed with an incoming message. Turning it over, she read the screen. It was from Joel.
You’re coming to this fucking gala if I have to drag you there myself.
Three bubbles hovered ominously over her screen, then disappeared, taking whatever else he was going to say with them.
Because there was nothing left to say. She already knew how he felt. She had to make the decision: either forgive and move on, or walk away and lose the only family she’d ever known.
Countless times since Christmas, she had wished she could just get over it, that she could will her heart into submission and move on from the fact that her parents had hidden her adoption from her until she’d basically forced them to reveal it. At the very least, she’d wished she could fake it until she made it, so to speak, and just continue on as if it were no big deal until maybe one day it wouldn’t be.
She hated coming across like the villain who was unfairly holding a grudge. But the hurt that she felt whenever she thought of the hundreds of times over the course of her childhood that they could have told her—it was unstoppable, like a train barreling down, and no amount of brakes she applied could stop it. It just freaking hurt her heart every time she thought about it.
Flopping back on her bed, she pulled a pillow over her eyes and groaned. A tumultuous storm of doubt and uncertainty—plus hurt and guilt—churned in her heart.
* * *
At 3 p.m. sharp, Gabe heard a knock on his door and—just like one of Pavlov’s dogs—his heart kicked up a notch and bounced around in his chest like an overly enthusiastic puppy.
Annoyingly, this happened every damn day when Hope arrived to babysit Ruby. He was starting to feel like a sweaty-palmed teenager whose crush was coming over for a private study date. It was sad. And exciting. And, he realized, as he opened the door, he looked forward to 3 p.m. every single day.
As always, she was gorgeous in that subtly regal way of hers, and he had to school his body not to outwardly react. She was perfectly dressed in an outfit he could never dream up, with her sunny-blonde hair falling over her shoulders and her lips glossed with something that made him want to lean in and lick it off. She looked edible.
This afternoon, however, something was off. Her dark-brown eyes were darker than normal, stormy, and she wasn’t smiling. Her brows were knit together so slightly that he shouldn’t have noticed, but since he noticed everything about her, he saw the lines of strain that marred her usually flawless features.
“What’s wrong?” He demanded.
“Nothing.” She sounded normal as she tried to push past him into the apartment.
“Like hell.Whathappened?” If someone hurt her, he was going to—
