“What about Dexter? Has he said anything?”
“About Gabriel? He’s banned from telling me anything.”
I understood why she didn’t want to hear how Gabriel was—she was a loyal secret keeper, and while it was one of the things I loved most about her, I just wish her lips were a little looser when it came to Gabriel.
“You think he’s back with Penelope?” I asked.
When Hollie didn’t respond I assumed the screen had frozen. I held my phone toward my hotel room door. Damn WiFi.
“You know what?” she asked finally.
My heart pounded like I was waiting to hear my fate. She knew something, I knew she did, just like I knew she didn’t want to tell me what it was. “What?” I braced myself to hear the truth. Better to find out here than watch him turn up to Dexter and Hollie’s wedding with Penelope on his arm.
“I think I know you pretty well.” That didn’t sound good. “I’ve seen you go through your fair share of boyfriends.”
We were veering off course. I wanted to know about Gabriel and Penelope. “Where are we going with this?”
“I’m saying that you’ve had lots of other boyfriends and I bet there’s been a few you’d have difficulty recalling a surname for.”
“Enough with the slut shaming, Hollie. You’re supposed to be on my side.” Was she saying I wasn’t good enough for Gabriel?
“Like, you’d just move on, right? You’d leave them in your dust.”
“Jesus, Hollie, you’re making me sound like a monster.”
“Sorry,” she said, grinning into the camera. “I’m just saying that you’ve been through Europe on your own and you haven’t met anyone. No crazy affairs, no Italian boyfriend, no flavor-of-the-week. You’re still pining for Gabriel.”
“Are you recapping all this for any particular reason or are you just testing the WiFi?”
“You’re in love with him.”
Hearing it from my sister was like being presented with evidence of an open and shut case. Of course I was in love with him—that wasn’t new information. But knowing Hollie saw it too proved it wasn’t going to be something I just got over.
“I know,” I said, standing up from the bed and staring out over the city. I was in love with a man who might well be starting a new life with his wife. A man who used to love me and who I hadn’t seen for weeks. A man who was hundreds of miles away, just where I’d left him. “What’s your point, Hollie?”
“My point is that you’ve had the opportunity to spread your wings and you still love him, so you need to get the heck back here and fight for him.”
I spun to face my suitcase. “You think?” Excitement fizzled in my chest before panic pushed past. Did she know something and wasn’t telling me? “Who am I fighting? Is he back with Penelope?”
“Honestly I don’t know. I told Dexter I didn’t want to hear about any of it because it didn’t seem fair. But if you love him, you need to tell him.”
“I’m due to fly to Paris this afternoon. If he’s decided to go back to Penelope, I’d rather stay there and lick my wounds.”
“Fly to Paris,” Hollie said. “If things are going to work out, a few days won’t make much difference. Go distract yourself with the city and make a plan—I know you’re good at those. If you weren’t, Dexter and I wouldn’t be about to get married. Then get your butt back here and fight for him. I’m sure there’s a part of you that’s scared to care about a guy but—”
“I’m not scared of loving him. I just don’t want to get in the middle of him and Penelope if he can make a life with her. He’s not good at giving people second chances.”
“Sometimes they don’t deserve them.”
“That’s not for me to decide. That’s up to Gabriel.”
“Right. It’s up to Gabriel to decide if he wants you or not. Come back. Tell him you love him and then he can decide what he wants.”
Was that what I should have done all along? I’d been so sure that me staying around would have muddied the waters for him and kept him from giving Penelope a second chance, but maybe she didn’t deserve him? And although I wanted Gabriel to be happy, I wanted him to be happy with me. Because I knew he was the only man that I would ever want.
Forty-Two
Gabriel
There had been nothing wrong with the evening. The babysitter had turned up on time. Penelope and I had arrived at the restaurant within a few minutes of each other. We’d been seated at a nice table by the window that overlooked the park. The waiter was friendly when he took our order and the starter had been delicious. There had been nothing wrong with the evening, but it wasn’t right either.