Once Upon a Marriage

Marie nodded. Had no answer for the question lying there between them. Was she falling for Elliott Tanner?

“He could have suggested that we eat at home and have a meal catered in,” Gabi offered after Marie just stood there, looking at herself in the mirror.

Having the meal catered, at home, where they were safely guarded, sounded like something Elliott would certainly have preferred. “He didn’t suggest any alternatives?”

“No.”

Marie’s grin started with butterflies in her belly and blossomed. Until the butterfly crashed. “Do you think Elliott knows that I’ve...that I would go out with him if he asked? If he didn’t think asking would be a conflict of interest? If Liam said something...”

“He didn’t,” Gabi quickly inserted. “At least, Liam didn’t say anything about you liking Elliott. But we both asked if he’d spoken to you,” she added. “When he picked us up from work. Just because you’d been so worried. But you always worry. He knows that...”

Elliott knew that she always worried about Liam and Gabi. Not about him.

“Don’t be mad at Liam,” Gabi said. Marie looked at her, saw the very real, very tender, concern in Gabi’s eyes and marveled again that her friend was so in love with the man who’d been best friend to both of them for more than a decade. She’d feared that Gabi, who deserved home and family and security more than anyone else she knew, would never give herself a chance to have it all.

Marie was going to do some serious damage to Liam Connelly, business partner and best friend or not, if he ever did anything to take that soft look out of Gabi’s eyes...

“He’s only trying to help,” Gabi continued. “You’re lonely with me moving out so suddenly. We all know that. And you know Liam. He sees a problem and thinks he has to fix it.”

“I’m not mad at him,” she said now, not hiding the hint of peevishness in her tone. Wouldn’t have done any good anyway. This was Gabi. Gabi knew Marie better than Marie knew herself.

“You like Elliott, don’t you?”

Turning so she was facing Gabi, whose tall slender body looked model perfect in the short black dress she was wearing, Marie said, “I don’t know.”

It was the truth.

“I’ve...never...”

“Tell me what you feel when you’re with him.”

“That’s the problem. I don’t feel just one thing. It’s like...he walks into the shop and I feel him. Like he draws me. And it’s exciting. And dangerous. And yet the most compelling thing about him is that he makes me feel...safe.”

Afraid, when she saw Gabi’s frown, Marie said, “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“You think he’s going to hurt me?”

“I’m more afraid that you’re going to hurt yourself.”

“How would I do that?” Marie was a pro at keeping herself, her heart, at arm’s length. She’d been protecting herself from getting hurt by the opposite sex since junior high. Or at least it seemed that long ago.

“Because it sounds like you’re finally falling in love, and I’m afraid you won’t just go with it. Won’t just let it happen.”

She was falling in love?

She and Elliott were friends. And they were that much only because they’d spent a lot of hours chatting in the coffee shop over the past few months he’d been watching over Liam and the building.

They were friends because of proximity. Nothing else.

She didn’t want to fall in love.

Ever.

She’d promised herself she’d never be that vulnerable to any man.

But Gabi knew her...