Lucky Charm (Lucky 1)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

THE DAY OF FILMING arrived. Gabrielle and Derek stopped for breakfast in town. They’d just finished eating and were going to meet her friend Kayla and the camera crew at the Wave, the chosen place to begin “The Day in the Life” segment.

Derek paid at the register while Gabrielle waited.

Her cell phone rang and she picked it up on the first ring. “Hello?”

“Darling, guess where I am.”

“Maman!”

“Of course it’s me. Turn around.”

Gabrielle pivoted toward the window facing the street and saw her mother waving at her from the sidewalk. Gabrielle flipped her phone closed at the same time she ran outside.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, surprised to see her mother in town.

“Is that any way to greet me?” Her mother cupped Gabrielle’s face in her hands and leaned in to kiss first one cheek, then the next before pulling her into a warm hug.

It didn’t matter if Gabrielle saw her mother a week ago or a few hours, her mother always greeted her the same exuberant way.

“Your friend Kayla called to tell me about your television segment and she asked if she could interview me and your papa. He has summer classes, but I was free, so voilà! Here I am.”

Derek walked out of the restaurant and joined them on the street. “Hello, ladies.”

Gabrielle smiled. “Derek, do you remember my mother, Juliette Donovan?”

“Of course I do.” He extended his hand. “May I say you haven’t changed a bit?” He kissed the back of her hand in the French manner.

Gabrielle bit the inside of her cheek and wondered where he’d come up with that bit of chivalry and whether it was enough to soften her mother’s feelings about—”

“Derek Corwin, the man who broke my daughter’s heart,” Juliette said bluntly.

“Maman!” Gabrielle said, appalled that her mother would go directly for the jugular.

Derek smiled grimly. “That’s okay. I understand how your mother feels. I’d feel the same way about any man who Holly got involved with…” As he spoke, his eyes darkened and his expression closed.

As if he’d just gotten a new, enlightening perspective on his relationship with Gabrielle.

Merde.

“I think we have to be at the Wave,” Gabrielle said, pulling on Derek’s arm. “Kayla, the interviewer, called my mother and asked her to participate in the segment,” she explained quickly, hoping to split the two people she loved apart before her mother gave Derek more motivation to pull away from her.

Since Holly’s departure, Derek hadn’t been the same. Although he’d apologized, Gabrielle sensed he was holding himself back from her, and she didn’t think it was only because she’d jeopardized his custody. In her heart, Gabrielle believed that with his renewed fear of losing Holly, came the reminder of the curse and all the loss he and his family had suffered. He wasn’t about to let himself love—and lose—Gabrielle, too. He didn’t have to spell out his feelings for her to understand them. They were too deeply ingrained for her not to comprehend.

“We’ll leave in a moment,” her mother said. “Derek, I’m so glad you can be honest with me and with yourself. It’s the mark of an honorable man. So can you assure me you won’t hurt my daughter again?”

Gabrielle shook her head, her heart pounding hard in her chest as Derek faced Juliette.

“I can assure you Gabrielle is well aware of my feelings and the situation we’re in,” he said, his explanation vague to her mother.

But crystal clear to Gabrielle.

THE GOOD PEOPLE OF STEWART and Perkins heard that a film crew was in town and turned out in droves for their chance to be on television, even if it was simply local TV and the only people who might see the segment were other locals. Gabrielle was a celebrity and everyone wanted their fifteen minutes of fame, too.

Even Derek’s father showed up for his opportunity.

“Think we should remind him he was one of the people who wanted me gone?” Gabrielle asked, laughing.