Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 138522 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138522 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Chapter ninety-two
Abbie
Packing up my apartment on Saturday is surreal in all kinds of ways, as is the funeral for Kenneth that has come and gone now without my presence. A chapter or even ten, of my life, it seems, have closed. For Gabe, too, where his father’s concerned. He and Reid had confirmed the claim this morning by stopping by his apartment to find him gone. Blake confirmed he found a flight out of the country for him as well.
“Any regrets?” Gabe asks as a group of movers leaves with the last of my furniture, which I’ve donated to a charity.
“None,” I say. “None at all.”
He smiles and kisses me. “Then let’s go home.”
Hours later, I’m in his office that we’re sharing now, filing away some of my basic documents, like my birth certificate, when I find a bag with a couple of cellphones in it. Gabe appears in the doorway, looking sexy as hell in a simple white tee and jeans. This man is mine. I am his. Does life get any better?
“You want a glass of wine?”
Apparently, it does. With wine. “I’d love a glass.” I hold up the bag of cellphones. “Do you secretly run a cellphone store and I don’t know it?”
His jaw clenches and looks skyward before he closes the space between us and kneels in front of me. “Rose-colored glasses, Abbie? Is that how you really want to see me and us?”
I inhale and let it out, and I don’t know why, but I know what this is. “You used them when you were planning to ruin Kenneth.” Surprise flickers in his eyes. “I told you. I don’t see you with rose-colored glasses. And you told me you tried to ruin him. Am I right about the phones?”
“Yes,” he confirms. “I hired someone I knew had shit for morals, and told him to dig. Kenneth died before he even got back to me. That’s the honest to God truth.”
He expects me to one day wake up and see the monster inside him because he still sees that monster. I cup his face. “I believe you. I’m not going to wake up one day and hate you, Gabe. One day, I hope you’ll wake up and say the same thing.”
He lowers his forehead to mine, and for long seconds we sit there like that, but as it goes in this house, Dexter has doggy radar. He must be in the middle of all affectionate moments and soon he’s nuzzling our laps and we’re loving on him, smiling at each other. We’re good. We’re the best I’ve ever been.
Sunday morning, Gabe and I enjoy just being home together. We watch movies. We go for a run. We talk. We eat. We find creative ways to make love and it’s wonderful. Even waking up Monday morning to reporters and news of Neal’s confession to killing Kenneth doesn’t mute the wonder of being here with Gabe and Dexter. Once we’re at work, we set the craziness of the press aside, and I dive into learning my way around the office. Lulu is wonderful and it’s clear we’ll be friends. I even get to know Carrie, who also works for the company, actually owns part of the company as her family business merged with the Maxwells.
By Tuesday, the press is already dying down and word of the case closing finally arrives. There will be no interviews. It’s over. Gabe and I celebrate with really hot sex and well-earned donuts. Later, at the office, life moves on. I embrace my new job by spending the morning at a conference table with Gabe, Carrie, and Reid talking through my role, creating their new philanthropy division. “We want you to present your ideas to us in a month,” Reid announces. “And from those, we’ll pick the best of the best, and you’ll present those ideas, your ideas, to the board. That will be roughly two weeks later.”
I perk up with a collision of nerves and adrenaline, but it’s all positive. This is my chance to prove my worth. “What are my boundaries?” I ask.
Gabe slides a folder in front of me. “Your budget. The rest is up to you. You’re the expert on non-profits.”
I’m excited and Carrie shares my excitement. She feeds my eagerness to get started making my time here really count. We chat for a good hour after the men leave to attend to their clients. Carrie and I begin to bond and by the time I sit down behind my desk, alone in my thoughts, planning my presentations, I know that I’m on my way to a new life, a new way. This is not just Gabe’s world. It’s my world.
And hours later, when he steps inside my doorway, to check on me, I amend one part of that statement. This isn’t his world and my world. This is our world.