Arty shook his head. “I don’t think it’s that simple. I think—” His lips thinned. “I think we made a big mistake.”
“Big mistake? In getting married?”
Arty nodded and his shoulders slumped, as if he had all the weight of the world on them.
“But you are great together.”
Arty shrugged. “I sure thought so. But as you know, sometimes that just isn’t enough.”
Gabe’s heart turned over at that. Wasn’t that the truth? But his and Louisa’s relationship had been dealt a tragic blow. He couldn’t imagine what was going on here. “There’s got to be some explanation for how she’s acting, something that has nothing to do with you.”
“I’ve been over and over it in my head, going over everything I’ve said or done in the last few weeks, trying to figure out what the hell happened to make her hate me.”
“She doesn’t hate you.”
Arty hissed a doubtful sound under his breath. “I’m even…wondering if there’s someone else.”
“No way. She’d never do that.”
Arty just shrugged. “She acts like she’s hiding something. But she won’t talk about it.”
Gabe didn’t know what else to say. This was unbelievable. He fully expected these two to be rocking in their rocking chairs side by side in their old age.
It was far into the next inning when Sarah returned, her eyes red and puffy, and her cheeks and collar of her shirt damp as if she’d just splashed water on her face. She seemed to go out of her way not to touch Arty as she sat.
Awkward silence stretched into the rest of the inning. Finally, Sarah sniffled and wiped her eyes with the back of her wrist. “Gabe was asking me about Evan.” She didn’t look at Arty as she spoke to him.
Arty snorted and tossed back his head. “Payne.”
Gabe couldn’t help grinning, despite concern over his friends. “I take it you don’t like him?”
Arty made a face. “It’s not that. It’s just—”
“See, he can’t explain it either,” Sarah said.
“No, I can explain it,” said Arty. “It’s Evan’s political aspirations that concern me. I guess I don’t see Louisa in the role of politician’s wife. I mean, look at how she and mom have clashed over the years. Mom’s perfect in that role, but Louisa…I don’t know. I just don’t see it.”
“What’s he running for?” Gabe asked, curious despite himself.
“Mayor of Seattle.”
Gabe’s eyebrows rose. “Wow.”
“Yeah,” Arty said. “Pretty big-time stuff.”
“What are his chances?”
Arty shrugged. “He’s never held office before, but he owns a high profile law practice here in town, and well, he has a U.S. Senator as a future father-in-law, so…”
Gabe tried not to scowl. It was all pretty convenient for Evan Payne, wasn’t it? Awfully coincidental too, that Louisa’s father just happened to be a powerful politician who could put in a good word and an endorsement for Payne.
He turned to the game, his interest in the score completely dead. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched his good friends. They’d make it work, whatever the problem was. This was just a temporary glitch. It had to be.
“Thanks for coming with me, you two,” Gabe said as they headed into the parking lot after the game.
“Thanks for inviting us,” Arty said, even though Gabe was sure he hadn’t enjoyed himself in the slightest.
Sarah touched Gabe’s shoulder as they walked. “I was worried you’d leave before we got back from our, um, honeymoon.”
“What do you mean? I thought you told me Gabe’s moving back here?” Arty said.
“No,” Sarah said slowly. “If you’d listened, you’d know I said he was
thinking
about it. I’m sure his decision depends on a few…things.”
These little jabs and constant bickering reminded Gabe of when his marriage had started unraveling. He didn’t even want to think along those lines with these two.
“What are you talking about?” Arty asked, a furrow appearing between his dark brows. He leaned forward to glance back and forth between his wife and Gabe. “What kind of things?”
Sarah sighed in exasperation. “I’m talking about Louisa.”
Arty’s eyebrows lifted. “Oh,” he said in a drawn out breath. “Gotcha.”
The couple looked at Gabe, obviously hoping for answers to the myriad of questions in their eyes, but he wasn’t about to tell them anything. Mainly because there was nothing to tell.
He kept walking, following the crowd out to the road. Arty’s car was parked several blocks away.
Sarah took Gabe’s arm. “I suppose Louisa told you about the, um, invitation mix-up to the wedding?” she asked, her voice embarrassed.
He nodded. “You mean, how I was mistakenly invited?”
A furious blush lit her face. “It’s not that we didn’t
want
to invite you, just that—” She appeared at a loss for words.
Gabe held up his hand. “You don’t need to apologize. I completely understand. You didn’t want to upset Louisa.” He nodded to Arty. “Not to mention your folks.”
Arty made a face. “I promise you,
that
wasn’t a factor,” he said. “They disapprove of most of what we do. But we’ve never let that stop us before, have we, Sarah?”
She giggled, almost sounding like the Sarah he knew. “Of course, Beverly and Arthur thought it was
my
doing.” They paused at the crosswalk and waited for the light to change. “You should have heard the scolding I got after the reception.”
Gabe grimaced. “Sorry about that. Didn’t mean to get you into trouble with your new family.”
She waved off the apology and started across the street when the “Don’t Walk” sign flashed off. “Trust me, I’m used to it. I think they curse the day I entered Arty’s life.”
Gabe could relate to that sentiment.
She had said the words lightly, but the look she gave Arty just about broke Gabe’s heart. The pain and anguish in her eyes told him she was madly in love with her husband, no matter what Arty might think.
“I’m thinking they’re not the only ones,” Arty muttered. Thankfully, Sarah didn’t seem to hear that remark.
“We figure my computer address book and the guest list somehow got crossed,” Sarah said a few minutes later when they reached the car and prepared to part ways. Gabe’s hotel was within walking distance.
Gabe knew it wasn’t a computer glitch as Sarah suggested. He’d been purposefully invited to that wedding by someone, and he had a pretty damn good idea of whom.
Chapter Six
Monday morning, Louisa scrambled to put the final touches on her presentation.
Harry Appleton himself would be coming by this afternoon to see her work. She’d worked closely with a team from the company for several weeks, and her product was a good mesh of their many discussions. This project, when finished, would definitely help her bid for that art director position.
By lunch time, her nerves were at the breaking point. She’d been working so hard on this project, and her weekend away with Evan hadn’t done anything to help.
Needing fresh air, she walked the few blocks to the glass-enclosed Westlake Mall. After a quick bite at the food court on the top floor, she strolled through the stores, hoping to unwind.
A frown tugged at her lips as she remembered Las Vegas. She and Evan had gambled and golfed during the day, then he’d wined and dined her before they took in a wonderful show. Well, it
would
have been wonderful had Evan not gotten violently ill in the middle of it. The hotel doctor suspected food poisoning.
Instead of the romantic, quiet getaway she’d envisioned, she spent all night listening to Evan throw up and cleaning up after him.
She paused in front of a lingerie boutique, peering through the windows at the scantily and sexily clad mannequins.
After a slight hesitation, she entered the store, wandering around the display racks, her fingers skimming over the delicate silk and lace. Why was she suddenly attracted to sexy underwear? Normally, she didn’t shop at stores like this. She was too budget conscious.
It was Gabe’s fault.
She could admit it. She’d started to feel a certain warmth toward him, a feeling unrelated to physical attraction, which was another problem in itself. He made her so mad sometimes, the way he questioned everything she did and said, but he also had a way of making her feel…special. He looked at her like she was the most beautiful woman on earth. He listened to her as if she were the most brilliant.
She’d even started doubting her relationship with Evan, wondering if it should have the spark she and Gabe used to have. But she wasn’t looking for sparks, she was looking for stability. For predictable. Someone who got along with her family. That wasn’t so bad, was it?
But she supposed it wouldn’t hurt to spice things up a bit with some sexy lingerie. She reached for a sexy red bra and matching panties, if there was enough material to call them that.
By the time she finished shopping, her stress had fled, and everything felt right in her world again. On her walk back to the office, purchase in hand, she conjured up an image of herself undressing slowly for Evan in a room lit only by candles, revealing the sexy lingerie beneath her demure work attire.
By the time she reached her sixth-floor office, she was furious with herself and no longer relaxed. At all. Because in her mind, in her fantasy striptease, her attentive audience of one wasn’t Evan.
It was Gabe.
****
“You have a visitor,” the receptionist greeted Louisa as she entered the offices of the Daniels & O’Rourke Design Agency. The heavy glass door swung shut behind her. “I had him wait in the conference room for you.”
Louisa sighed and looked at her watch. Harry Appleton wasn’t supposed to be here for another hour, but maybe she’d written down the wrong time. She had been rather preoccupied when she’d set up this appointment last week.
She crossed the plush lobby, past the studio library filled with art books, catalogs, and photo files. She pushed open an opaque glass door and poked her head into the conference room.
“Harry, sorry to make you wait. Let me just—” Her fingers clenched the lingerie bag, crumpling the paper. “Gabriel,” she said on the edge of a breath.
Gabe stood in front of some artwork on the wall opposite the doorway. At the sound of her voice, he turned around. “Hello, Louisa.” He nodded his head toward the outer offices. “Nice office. You’ve obviously done well. You should be proud of yourself.”
“Thank you. I’ve worked really hard to get where I am.” Her shopping bag rustled against her blue sarong skirt, and the sudden vision of her wearing the red lingerie for Gabe swam behind her eyes. She tightened her hold on the bag. “What are you doing here?” she asked with more snap than intended.
“I wanted to apologize for the other night.”
“Gabriel, we already went over this. There’s nothing to apologize for. Nothing happened.”
One of his eyebrows rose. “But I made you uncomfortable.” He shoved his hands into his jeans pockets, stretching the denim taut over the front of his lean hips.
Louisa tried not to notice how good he looked in Levi’s.
“I don’t want you to be afraid I’ll make a pass at you whenever we’re alone together. You’re an engaged woman. I have to respect that. I
will
respect that.”
“Thank you. But like I said, nothing happened that you need to apologize for.”
He rattled the change in his pockets then stepped toward the door, toward her. “I want to talk to you about something else.”
“What?” she said, hands on hips, hoping he’d get the point that she wanted him to leave without her having to say it.
“I’m worried about Sarah and your brother.”
She blinked. Hmm. Not what she’d expected him to say. “Um, why?”
“Have you spoken to either of them since they returned from their honeymoon?”
She shook her head. “Sarah and I have been playing phone tag.”
“We all went to a Mariners game over the weekend.”
“That sounds like fun.” She remembered the games they used to go to together, back when the M’s were really good. Those were fun times. Jealousy prickled her skin over her lack of invitation.
Oh, yeah. She’d been away for the weekend. With Evan.
“It should have been fun, but they were in a fight. At first I thought it was probably over something trivial—remember the stupid fights we used to have early in our marriage?” He grinned.
She returned his smile. “You used to get so mad when I’d take your last clean T-shirt.”
They didn’t speak for a while, remembering. Gabe cleared his throat. “Anyway, I think it’s more than that.”
“What do you mean? I can’t imagine it’s anything serious.”
“That’s what I first thought, too. Maybe Sarah will talk to you. Arty’s really worried about her. It was obvious they were both miserable.”
Louisa nodded absently. Sarah and Arty couldn’t be having serious problems. They were the perfect couple, proving that true love does still exist. For some. “Okay. I’ll call her again on my way home.”
Gabe nodded. “Well, I’ll leave you to your work.”
She moved aside to let him pass then walked him to the reception area. As he started to push through the glass doors, she asked, “How’s the house hunt coming?”
He propped the door open with the toe of his loafer. “I’ve found a few possibilities, but nothing I’m too excited about. But I suppose I’m in no big hurry.”
“You’re probably getting tired of hotel living by now, aren’t you?” she asked.
“Well, I miss sleeping in my own bed, and I miss my darkroom, but other than that, it’s not so bad.”
“You still use a darkroom? Seriously?” The minute she said the words, she regretted them.
Gabe tipped his head, but he didn’t smile. “Call me old fashioned.”
She remembered exactly why he loved the traditional method of photography. In one of his foster homes, the darkroom had been his one safe haven from his abusive foster mother. He and his foster father had escaped there to avoid her wrath.