The Better Brother

Fifteen minutes later, I stood in front of Nikki’s hotel room door, wondering what was on the other side of it. She was still checked in, according to the front desk, but I had no idea what her mood would be like once she saw me.

I raised my hand to knock, but the door opened before my knuckles could hit the wood. Nikki stood in front of me dressed in a sharp suit. Her fair blonde hair was pulled back from her face, which was stretched in displeasure to see me.

“Just let me explain,” I said, holding up my hands. “Please hear me out, and try to have an open mind, without coming to your own conclusions first.”

Nikki folded her arms across her chest while she propped the door open with her hip. She narrowed her eyes at me.

“Sure,” she said. “I’d love to hear this. By all means, tell me how you ended up with my daughter, who is a good twenty years younger than you.”

I shook my head at her. “Dylan was a lot younger than you. Age is just a number and you know that.”

“She’s a child, Gabriel!”

“She’s not a child anymore, Nikki. She’s an adult who can make her own decisions and do what she wants. She didn’t want to hurt you, and I didn’t want to do that, either.”

“It’s not hurt that I feel,” Nikki said flatly. “It’s concern for my daughter’s well-being, even if you are right about the age thing.”

“I care about Penny,” I said fervently. “I need you to believe that. And you know the type of man I am when I love someone.”

The word “love” slipped off my tongue before I could process it. I swallowed down the tumult of emotions that went through me at that. I loved Penny. That was what drew me in every single time I was around her. We had an indescribable connection, and I realized now that it was because we were falling in love with one another.

“You love her?” Nikki asked, looking skeptical.

“Yes,” I said. “I do. I love her, Nikki.”

Nikki eyed me for a moment and let out a breath. “I can see that I’m not going to dissuade either one of you from this. I swear to you Gabriel, if you hurt my child, I will rain hell down on you the likes of which you’ve never seen.”

I smiled at her and nodded my head. “I would expect nothing less.”

CHAPTER TWENTY – PENNY

I spent the rest of the day pacing around the living room anxiously. There’d been no word from Gabriel and no word from my mother. I wondered if she had actually greeted him at the hotel door with a gun in hand. It was something my mother would do, just to make a statement. Clutching my phone tightly, I kept checking to see if Gabriel had read my text messages yet. It remained unread in his inbox.

No one was picking up the phone in my mother’s hotel room, either.

I tapped a finger against the side of my phone impatiently before Googling the hotel number to check with the front desk.

“It says that Ms. Lewis checked out about thirty minutes ago,” the clerk told me.

The pit of my stomach dropped at that. She had gone back to New York City upset. I sank down to sit on the edge of the couch while tears filled my eyes.

Maybe this wasn’t going to work out after all. It thrilled me to know that Gabriel had developed feelings for me, the way I had for him. But it didn’t feel right if my mother was upset over the two of us being together. She might not be perfect, but she was still my mother. I didn’t want to hurt her.

And even if she ended up accepting my relationship with Gabriel, I knew for a fact that Alyssa would be upset when she found out, too. I didn’t want to hurt her, either. All of that weighed heavily on my shoulders as I sat there numbly for what felt like hours.

After another hour passed with no reply, I called Gabriel’s office. Maybe he had gotten tied up in a meeting somewhere and didn’t have a chance to reply back. I didn’t like the panicked feeling in the pit of my stomach. I needed to hear his voice, to reassure me that everything was indeed all right.

“Mr. Bradley left a few hours ago,” the receptionist told me. “I can take your name and number down to deliver a message the next time he is in the office.”

“That’s okay,” I said, clutching the phone tightly to my ear. “Did he say when he would be back in this afternoon?”

The receptionist sighed into the phone in obvious irritation. “He said that he would not be back in today at all. Are you sure there isn’t a message you’d like to leave? Someone in the office can try to get ahold of him if you need us to.”

“No, it’s fine. Thank you for your time.”

She hung up quickly after bidding me goodbye. I stared out along the city skyline while I played absently with the corners of my phone. The last thing I wanted to do was call Alyssa to see if she could get ahold of Gabriel. I didn’t want to cause alarm, but sheer panic was starting to build in me, given what had happened the past few days.

The front door opened, and I jumped to my feet. My mother followed Gabriel inside with her suitcases in tow. I let out a relieved breath when I saw them. Not caring that there were tears streaming down my cheeks, I rushed forward to wrap my arms around my mother in a tight hug. She returned it, a bit startled.