“Eat until you’re stuffed.”
“I’m sure I will…wait a minute. Why are you trying to stuff me?” I studied his nonchalant expression. “You’re planning something. What is it?”
“I’m hurt, Emma. I do something nice for you and you look at it with suspicion. It’s a shame, really it is.”
“Gabriel…”
“Yes?”
“Why are you here so early?”
“It’s not early. It’s the afternoon.” He speared a pineapple chunk and popped it into his mouth. “And I wanted to see you. Do I need any other reason?”
“Ah, I guess not. So do you want to hang out here then?”
“I was thinking something all the lines of a trip to the zoo and dinner. After we get your car.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s all that’s planned.” Gabriel held out a forkful of scrambled eggs. “Here.”
I opened my mouth obediently. The eggs were delicious. “My compliments to the chef.”
“I’ll be sure to pass them along. Now eat up, sweetheart. We have a busy day ahead of us.”
It was strange to have Gabriel in my apartment, but I got used to it quickly. He put me at ease, talking about anything and everything. By the time we finished eating and started cleanup, I was easily moving around him in my narrow galley kitchen as if he’d been there forever.
“May I have a showing of your place or is it too early to begin tours?”
He looked so eager I couldn’t help but laugh. “Sure. Come right this way.”
I stepped into the living room. “Here we have the sitting room, guest room, library, and media room. It’s a forward thinking design for the girl on a tiny budget.”
Gabriel nodded his head sagely, examining the white walls and comfy furniture with an inquisitive eye. “Yes, yes. I believe I’ve seen this done in Japan. It’s quite clever to get so much use out of a compact space.”
We took a few more steps and entered the hallway. I gestured to the half-bath on the right. “And here is the guest bathroom. Equipped with all the necessities while using the minimum square footage and still be up to code.”
Gabriel turned on the light and poked his head inside. “Looks quite unused. Toilet seat down. Very good signs. Yes, I think this is how it should be. I’m claiming this bathroom as mine. No one with dangly parts is allowed to use it except me.”
I raised my brow and continued on. “Duly noted. And this is the Master Bedroom and sole bedroom for this floor plan. It’s large, airy, and gets plenty of sun. A walk-in closet is a surprise, the surprisingly roomy bathroom equipped with garden tub is a joy, and the French door leads to the best part of the apartment.”
Gabriel stepped inside my space. His gaze rested on the rumpled bed for an indecent moment. “Nice sheets.”
I couldn’t help but think of him lazing about those very same sheets. The imagery was quite lovely. “Toile is very in with fans of cottage chic.”
“Really? I’ll have to share that with my decorator.” Gabriel ran his hand across the foot of the sleigh bed as he made his way over to the patio door. “May I?”
I loved how formal he could be. I bowed my head and waved him onwards. “Please do so, Sir.”
“Then I shall, my dearest Madam.”
We walked out onto my patio. Gabriel leaned against the metal railing and scanned the area. “It’s very pretty. I can see why you like it here.”
I considered the patio the best part of my apartment and my personal oasis. I’d decorated it with a couple of thickly cushioned oversized chairs and a wrought iron table I’d spray painted ivory. The outdoor rug beneath our feet brought a cheerful tangerine splash of color to the gray concrete. A large fountain gurgled in the corner, accented by over fifty pavers I carried by hand and set in place. Several ferns were scattered throughout, softening the hard lines and bringing much-needed greenery to the utilitarian space.
“Thank you.” I sat down and waved him to the chair next to me. “Take a load off, Gabriel. Enjoy the day.”
“Don’t mind if I do.” He settled his large frame in the powder blue chair. “This actually fits me.”
“Nice, huh?” I wondered if I should share that I got the pair from a thrift store.
Maybe not.
“Very nice, Emma.”
We soaked in the sun for several minutes, our silence companionable and our hands naturally finding the other. Murmurs of “Forever and always” whispered in my ear. I wondered if they’d ever really left.
Slow down, Ms. Adams. You’re driving way too fast. Somebody’s liable to get hurt.
“I could fall asleep out here,” I murmured. “Maybe I should get a hammock then I can nap all day like a cat.”
“Mmm, I can see why. Speaking of cats, do you have one?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I usually work ten to twelve hour days. It wouldn’t be fair to Constantine.”
“Constantine? That’s a fine name for a cat.”
“I think so too.” I yawned. “Oh, excuse me. As soon as I cut back on my hours, I’m going to get him. He’s a gray tabby with black stripes and big green eyes.”
“Does he live somewhere now?”
“No, but when the time is ready he’ll be waiting for me.”
Gabriel’s clasp pulsed once. “Why do you work such long hours, Emma?”
The sun loosened my tongue. “Because I’m saving every spare penny I can.”
“For what?”
“To buy a house.”
I heard the surprise in his voice. “Really? What kind of house? Something closer to the city?”
“No, not for me. For my mom.”
“You’re buying a house for your mother. That blows me away. I mean that.”
I soaked up his praise like a sponge. “She’s been so good to me and has worked so hard all her life. This is the least she deserves.”
“Does she know what you’re doing?”
I stretched my legs and crossed them at the ankles. “Nope. It’s a surprise. I have about six months left to go before I have the down payment and a year’s worth of mortgage payments. I’m padding it just in case something happens.”
“Like what?”
“Like I get laid off or something.”
Gabriel’s lips pressed against my cheek for a too-brief moment. “You’re the sweetest girl I’ve ever met. Don’t ever change, Emma.”
I cupped my cheek, startled and ridiculously pleased by his kiss. “I don’t know what to say.”
“A ‘thank you’ would work.”
“Thank you.”
We smiled, self-conscious and shy with one another. I could’ve sworn I saw a light flush on his cheeks but it might’ve been a trick of the eye. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. “Do I have to go get ready?”
“No, not yet. Just lay here longer, my sweet kitty.”
I thought it a great idea and told him so. The occasional sound of a car driving by coupled with the steady drone of landscaping equipment created enough white noise to nearly put me asleep.
Then Gabriel spoke.
“So it looks like the apartment next door is empty.”
“Is it?” I opened one sleepy eye. “I wouldn’t know.”
“Emma, you should know what’s going on around you,” he chided with a concerned frown.
“I keep to myself. That’s hardly a crime.”
“No, but it’s definitely not keeping with Safety 101.”
“Gabriel, no offense, but I probably have a lot more street smarts than you do.”
“That is debatable.”
“We’ll agree to disagree, Mr. Billionaire.”
He cleared his throat and said, “The apartment is a mirror of this one.”
“Which one?”
“The one next door.”
How would he know…wait. No.
I kept my relaxed position, treading very carefully just in case I was jumping to conclusions. “How do you know that, Gabriel?”
“Because I just do.”
Way too nonchalant.
“Right. Why do you know?” The suspicion sunk deeper and deeper. He wouldn’t have done what I was thinking, would he?
Gabriel avoided my probing gaze. Instead, he watched the maintenance workers trimming the bushes across the roadway. “How often do they work, Emma?”
“All the time.”
“Hmm. Really early?”
“Not before nine.”
“That’s good to know.”
“Why?”
He turned to me and smiled. “No one likes to get woken up before they’re ready, do they?”
Okay, there’s too much cat-got-the-canary in that grin.
I sat up. “Gabriel, tell me you didn’t rent the apartment next door.”
“I could tell you that.”
“Okay, so do it.”
“If I told you that, then you’d begin to wonder why I was following you home. I’d rather not have that conversation after a long day at work.”
Shocked at his audacity, I shrieked his name. “Are you crazy?”
“Perfectly sane last time I was checked.”
“What are you thinking? You can’t just move into my complex, Gabriel!”
“Why not? You live here. I like you. You like me. It makes perfect sense.”
“No, it doesn’t. It really, really doesn’t.” I let go his hand so I wouldn’t squeeze the life out of it. Leaning forward, hands gripping the metal armrest until I was white-knuckled, I tried to go the calm route. “You already have somewhere you live.”
“I do.”
“So what’s wrong with it?”
“I don’t like it. I never did. That’s why it’s going on the market immediately.”
“Why’d you buy it if you don’t like it?”
Gabriel leaned his head back and closed his eyes, visually succumbing to the perfect spring afternoon. “It was a terrible error in judgment. I’ve only lived there for a couple of months. In a word, it sucks.”
“Why does it suck? Did the designer pick the wrong shade of blue? Or is it not as big as the other billionaires’ places?”
“Emma, that’s not very nice of you.”
“Sorry, sorry.”
“Besides, I would never let the wrong shade of blue enter my home in the first place. My taste is impeccable. And the rest—such a low blow.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry.” I tried to get my point across again with less bitchiness. “Surely you had an idea that your current place wasn’t going to work for you?”
“I did. I settled because I thought I was being unreasonable with what I really wanted.”
“So your answer to living in a sucky, but surely expensive home, is to put it up for sale and move into a 600 square foot terrace level apartment?”
“Yep.”
“Gabriel, how do you have money if these are the kinds of decisions you make?”