She picked up her briefcase and walked out of the restaurant, head held high. She’d put her last ghost to rest.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
DUSK WAS SETTLING over the Napa hills when Alex parked her car at the De Campo vineyard, ushering in an intimate stillness that made her heart sound even louder in her chest. She sat for a moment, gathering her nerve. If her phone call to her father had been unrehearsed, this visit was positively fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants nerve-racking. She had no idea what she was doing, no idea what she was going to say. She just knew she had to try.
Filling her lungs with a deep breath of the fragrant, sweet-smelling air, she swung her legs out of the car and stood up. Burnt-orange light silhouetted the hills, the staccato chirp of the infamous Napa crickets dancing on the still night air.
She walked unsteadily up the front porch steps. She didn’t even know if Gabe was home. No time for second thoughts, she told herself, forcing her feet to move. Only forward, Alex.
The front door was open. She called out and found Elena in the kitchen. The Spanish woman gave her a surprised but delighted look and a big hug.
“Is he home?” Alex asked, pulling back.
Elena jerked her head toward the terrace. “You’d think he’d be in a good mood. They bottled the first of the Angel’s Share today. But that is one dark man.”
Her heart jumped at the thought that maybe Gabe was as miserable as she was. She quickly stomped that thought out. No communication meant no desire to communicate.
Elena gave her a long look, then set the cloth she was cleaning the counters with down. “I think I’m going to go to bed.”
Alex made her way toward the French doors that led to the terrace, the flock of butterflies in her stomach so frantic she pressed a hand to her tummy. The problem with winging it was you had no idea what was coming. She turned the knob and stepped out onto the terrace. Gabe stood with his back to her, leaning on the railing that overlooked the vineyard.
“I hear you corked the first bottle of the Angel’s Share today.”
He spun around, his gaze narrowing, as if he was confirming it was actually her. Then he frowned. “What are you doing here?”
She dug her nails into her palms. Not promising. “I’ve had a bit of a date with the past today.”
He gave her a wary look. “I expect you’re going to elaborate.”
“Yes.” She forced herself to walk toward him, holding the shattered pieces of her heart together with a bandage she’d somehow managed to fashion. It wasn’t strong, definitely makeshift. And when she stopped in front of him and tipped her head back to look up at him, she questioned whether it would hold. His eyes blazed a conflicted green in the fading light, his hard jaw set tight under a six o’clock shadow. But it was the sensuous, spectacular line of his mouth that affected her the most. The way she needed it on her.
She cleared her throat, rolled her shoulders back. “So I started the day with a phone call to my father. He listened while I reamed him out for not being there for me and I apologized for causing him so much anguish. Then,” she continued, “I called Jordan Lane and told him I would fly down for his RFP meetings today.”
He stiffened, a menacingly dark look crossing his face. “I got your check,” she said evenly. “I got the message.”
“So you walked straight to him?”
“He asked me to a dinner to review the RFP tonight. Fool that I am, I thought it was a business dinner.”
His lips compressed. “You didn’t have a problem working for a thief?”
A stab of pain lanced through her. “I was hurt. You broke my heart on Saturday, Gabe.”
An emotion she couldn’t identify flickered in his eyes. “So you’ve come to tell me you’re working for Jordan Lane?”
She shook her head. “I realized tonight I couldn’t work for him. I couldn’t work for someone who is deliberately trying to destroy the man I love.”
His jaw clenched. “Alex—”
She held up a hand. “Before I told him I couldn’t work for him, Jordan went to the washroom and I went through the contacts on his phone. Sam Withers was in his contact list, Gabe. They’ve made multiple calls to each other over the past week.”
His head jerked back. “Withers?”
She nodded. “You said you weren’t sure about him.”
“Yes, but—” He muttered an oath. “Let me get this straight. You went to dinner with Lane tonight intending on taking a job with him, decided you couldn’t and went through his phone to find my mole?”
“Yes.”
“Maledizione, Lex. Have you lost your mind?”
“Quite possibly.”
A shadow crossed his face. “Why would Withers do that? I’ve given him every opportunity—everything he’s asked for.”
“I expect Lane is paying him a lot of money.”
He rubbed a hand over that dark shadow she was aching to touch. “What did you just say to me?”
She gave him a confused look. “About Lane?”
“You said you were in love with me, Lex.”
“Oh, that.” She took a deep breath. “That’s true.”
There was a silence, a long, tense silence that raked over her nerves like nails on a chalkboard. Emotions slid in and out of those watchful eyes of his until she had to say something, anything. “You told me once I was afraid to be in a real relationship. So I gave myself to you. You told me all I do is run.” She lifted her trembling chin. “Well, here I am. Fighting for what I want.”
Emotion clogged her throat, choking her, but she swallowed and pushed determinedly on. “I want you to get down off that self-righteous high horse of yours, Gabe, and give me another chance. You owe it to me.”
Fire lit his beautiful eyes. “You think so?”
“Yes.” She stepped toward him, every ounce of the frustration zigzagging through her directed at him. “You made me open up to you, Gabe. You told me baby steps. You promised me that was enough. And then you walked away.”
“I have trust issues, Lex.” He moved closer, the heat of his big body vibrating into hers. “You had an affair with the man who is trying to ruin me. The one man I could not tolerate, and you didn’t tell me.”
Frustration turned to rage, surging through her with an uncontrollable force that made her whole body shake. “That’s it, isn’t it? You hate me because it was Jordan. You hate me because Darya left you. But none of that is my fault, Gabe. It’s the past. And I’m through taking the blame for it. Jordan Lane used me.”
He stood there, feet planted apart, the hard lines of his face so forbidding she felt as if she was battling a brick wall. Her shoulders sagged, her stomach dropped as the fight went out of her. “I’ve told you every secret, every last dark thing about me because I trusted you. Because I love you. But trust is a two-way street, Gabe, and I can see you don’t have it for me.”
She found the strength to turn her back on him and start walking. Then she stopped and swung around. “You told me that when someone loves you, you can give your heart to them and they’ll protect it. I believed you. I guess I was a fool.”
She went then, her steps a half run before the warmth gathering in her eyes fled down her cheeks.
“You think I don’t love you, Lex?” His voice froze her in her tracks. “You think this last week hasn’t been hell for me, too?”
Her legs were shaking so much she couldn’t move. His footsteps echoed across the concrete, then his hands settled on her shoulders and spun her to face him.
“You’re right,” he said grimly. “I hate the fact that it was Jordan you were with, and I hate the fact that you had an affair.” She stiffened and would have pulled away, but his fingers dug into her shoulders and held her tight. “I know you couldn’t have known he was married, Lex. I know you. But when Darya left, she ripped my heart out.”
“I can’t change the past,” she whispered. “I wish I could. So many people were hurt.”
She saw something shift in him then, a softening in his eyes, in the hard set of his jaw. It made hope flutter in her chest. He reached up and swiped the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs. “I need you, Lex. I’ve spent the past week trying to convince myself you can’t be trusted because the way I feel for you scares the hell out of me. Has always scared the hell out of me. But every time I tried to write you off, to tell myself I couldn’t be with you, there was this voice inside of me saying you’re the one.”
Her heart stopped in her chest. “You have to trust me,” she whispered. “I will make more mistakes, Gabe. It’s what I do. But I will never lie to you.”
“I know.” He lifted his hands to cup her face. “I’ve spent the whole day trying to look at the wine I’ve invested two bloody years developing and couldn’t because of you. It’s your wine, Lex.”
She shook her head. “It’s your wine. You are brilliant.”
“It’s ours. You named it, tesoro. Every newspaper and blogger in this country is talking about it because of you.”
She smiled. “We’re a good team, aren’t we?”
“Sì.” He bent his head and kissed her. “We are.”