“You saved her,” I said.
“I just knew I could get to her first.”
This woman beside me wasn’t just beautiful. And kind. And funny. She’d saved my daughter. I would never be as grateful to anyone else, for anything else, for as long as I lived. “You saved her,” I said again. And by saving Bethany, she’d saved me.
Ten
Autumn
I tried to decide between the racing car and the dog. It was a tough decision. Gabriel had already picked out the top hat, which was just perfect for the surly British gentleman he was. I liked the dog and all, but it would have definitely been Hollie’s first choice. I needed something new. “Okay, I’m going for the car,” I said.
“Fine,” Gabriel said from where he was sitting opposite from me. He was studiously tidying his piles of money, which he’d lined up in front of him on the sturdy oak dining table in the kitchen. “At least you didn’t take long to make that decision,” he grumbled.
I laughed. I wasn’t used to sarcasm from Gabriel. “Oh look, the Strand,” I said, spotting the familiar name on the board. “That’s where you work, right?”
“Near there, yes.”
“I have to try to buy it. Then you can work for me and I’ll reduce your working hours.” I grinned at him and he just shook his head like I was the most irritating person he knew. I was going to win him over and relax him if it killed me, and then I was going to talk to him about Bethany.
“Is there a Smithfield?” People referred to the area where Gabriel lived as lots of different areas. Smithfield. Farringdon. Clerkenwell. But Gabriel always used Smithfield, so now I did too.
“No. We’re not cool enough over this side of town.”
“It’s super cool around here,” I replied. “Especially when we’re actually allowed out,” I said, dropping a hint as subtle as a knee in the balls.
“Do we have to do this?” he asked, ignoring my hint the size of Montana. “I hate Monopoly.”
“Yes, we absolutely have to do this.” It wasn’t my favorite game, but I needed common ground and a way of stopping Gabriel from just stalking off into his private, locked lair, which he had been doing more than usual in the last few days. Anyway, I was used to the New Jersey version of the game. It would be kinda fun to play with the London street names. “Think of it as you giving me a tour around your city.”
“There are plenty of tour buses that have stops a hundred meters away. You could see the real thing.”
I sighed. “It’s warmer to do it like this.”
Gabriel hadn’t been himself since Bethany’s accident. He’d insisted on working from home and she and I hadn’t been allowed to leave the house so Gabriel could check on her regularly. It had been five days. Work seemed to be stressing him out and I knew he’d cancelled drinks with Dexter and his other friends tonight. Enough was enough. I was going to talk to him about getting things back to normal. But I had to get him in the room long enough to be able to bring it up. If Bethany wasn’t around, as soon as I walked into a room, he walked out. Mainly through that locked door to who-the-hell-knew. Tonight I’d insisted on taking him on in a game of Monopoly, and somewhere during the game I was going to tell him he needed to back off. Go back to business as usual or Bethany was going to become a timid little mouse. I also wanted to ask him why he was avoiding me, but that might take a bottle of wine and a win at Monopoly for me to get the courage up. Did he blame me for what had happened? I wouldn’t hold it against him if he did. I was so angry at myself for continuing to take her to lessons despite not being one hundred percent happy with the safety of the classes. I should have said something.
“Ladies first,” he said, nodding toward the dice.
“I vote for equality. Highest throw of the dice goes first.”
“Highest number on any one die or highest number when the results of the two dice are added together?” he asked.
“Wow,” I said, narrowing my eyes and looking at him like he was a fossil in a museum. “Do you ever stop being a lawyer?”
I swear the side of his mouth curved up a fraction. “Details are important.”
I grabbed the dice and tossed them onto the board. They both came up as sixes. I shrugged. “Sometimes they are. And sometimes they’re not.”
He chuckled and threw the dice after me. He got a three and a five.
“And in this instance, they weren’t,” I said, feeling rather smug.
When he didn’t say anything, I looked up to find him gazing at me in that intense way he had for what felt like the first time since the accident. “You know you’re asking for trouble,” he said, his voice so low the timbre reverberated in my knees. “I’m going to have to beat you now.”