I’ll Be There (12 page)

Zach did his best to get to his feet, but his progress was still slow and it irritated the hell out of him. “No, please don't,” he said with a calmness he didn't feel. “I think it's about time we talked about this. If we don't, things will never go back to—”

“Don't you get it?” she snapped. “We aren't going to go back! We can't! I can't work for you anymore!” She turned her back on him, and if Zach wasn't mistaken, he heard her sniff.

Walking up behind her, he let one crutch fall to the floor before placing a hand on her shoulder. She jumped at his touch before turning her head to look at him. “Let's forget about work for a minute. Talk to me, Gabriella.”

“Why? Why does it even matter?”

How could he even describe it? So many of his decisions for the last several years had been based on this one story and now she was telling him it was a rumor? He couldn't let this go. He had to know—once and for all—what was real and what wasn't. And as much as he wanted to pounce on it and demand the story, he knew he needed to tread carefully.

“Come on,” he said softly, still unwilling to let her run away. “Sit back down. Can I get you something to drink?”

Gabriella shook her head and took a steadying breath. “I really should go.”

“Please. I don't want you to leave while you're upset. I…I feel bad about this. About…everything. I just want to talk to you. It doesn't have to be about this rumor or anything like that. Just stay a little longer.”

She pulled out of his grasp and took a few steps away. “I never was one of those girls in high school who was popular or part of the ‘in' crowd,” she began. “Most of the girls in my class annoyed me and the feeling was mutual. I didn't have a lot of friends and the ones I did have tended to be guys.”

“The girls were intimidated by you, I'd imagine.”

She gave a mirthless laugh. “They had no reason to be. It would have been nice to be accepted for myself, but girls are catty. They look at you and if you're pretty they automatically assume you're a bitch. Or a slut.”

Zach remembered Summer complaining of the same things in her teen years. He nodded and waited for Gabriella to continue.

“I got used to being an outcast. I used the time to study hard and accelerated my grades. I graduated a year ahead of schedule. It was such a relief to be done with the high school environment. College isn't quite so cliquish.” Turning, she walked to the other side of the room and rested a hip against the arm of the sofa. “I graduated at the top of my class in college and got a job with a great company based in Seattle. I loved that job,” she said wistfully. “I became friends with my boss—Alan. He was a couple of years older than me, married, and basically a nice guy.”

Zach hated him already.

“I became friends with his wife, and whenever I was dating someone, the four of us would go out to dinner or to a movie…everyone was just good friends.” She sighed. “Then his marriage fell apart—his wife was having an affair with a coworker—and he just sort of drifted for a while. He was always at the office, we were getting things done, but we didn't hang out or anything.”

When his leg started to twitch, Zach reached for the chair Gabriella had vacated and sat down. A million questions raced through his mind, but he knew she needed to get this out. He needed her to get this out.

“That Thanksgiving, I felt bad because Alan was going to be alone and so I invited him to come to dinner with me and my family.” She looked over at Zach and chuckled. “They were only mildly obnoxious at that point in time. Anyway, he came with me, and my sister just about made an idiot out of herself coming on to him.” She rolled her eyes. “In all my life, I had never seen her act that way. So desperate. By the time Alan left that night, I felt like I had to talk to her and sort of give her a heads-up—Alan was going through a divorce, he hadn't dated in a while, blah, blah, blah.”

Restless, Gabriella began to pace. “I thought I was doing the right thing. Being a supportive friend and sister. And you know what she said to me? She said I was just jealous. That
clearly
I must have a thing for Alan and that's why I was warning her off! After all, how could I
possibly
work with a man like him for all these years without having slept with him, she said. I was stunned speechless. By that time, my mother wandered into the room, heard us, and put her two cents in, claiming it did seem rather suspicious how I was trying so hard to warn my sister off. Things got heated and loud and finally my dad came in, and once he heard what was going on, he laughed and just jumped on board with the rest of them. Honestly, the man's never had a single opinion of his own in his entire life.”

Zach had heard enough. “Why would they just take her word for it? I mean, you're their daughter too, for crying out loud. Why was it so easy for them to believe your sister?”

“Because she's the golden child. I learned a long time ago they aren't the kind of people I would associate with if I weren't related to them. It's not that I think I'm better than them—sort of—it's just that they're very materialistic and judgmental. It was never my thing. They're all cut from the same cloth. I used to joke how I was switched at birth but I look too much like them.”

Zach gave her a minute. “So I take it she started dating Alan.”

Gabriella nodded. “Oh yeah. I tried to discourage him. We talked the Monday after Thanksgiving, and I told him my sister was probably going to either show up at the office or call him and I didn't want him to be caught off guard.”

“That was nice of you.”

She snorted. “It came back to bite me in the butt. They went out on a date—because she did call him—and the day after, Alan came in and told me he thought my sister was a petty, shallow, brainless woman with whom he had nothing in common. I was so relieved I thought I would cry.”

“But she never forgave you?”

“I'm not sure about that. But when she called him again for a second date and he told her he didn't think it was a good idea, she stalked the hell out of him. Calling. Texting. Showing up at the office. I was so embarrassed. I couldn't believe what a desperate, pathetic person she was.” Then she shrugged. “But…she wore him down. They did go out again. And again. And again. Alan would come back to me for advice and I talked to him like I always had. What I didn't know was that he was going back and telling her everything. To this day I swear she was coaching him on what to ask me so she'd have proof of how much I disliked her.”

“Geez, Gabs. That's…unreal.”

“Isn't it? And yet this is my family.”

“How long did they date?”

“They got married a couple of years ago,” she said flatly.

“Wait…
what
? You mean, the guy at your apartment…your brother-in-law…?”

She nodded. “Yup. My ex-boss, my ex-friend, is now my brother-in-law.”

“But…why…I mean, you never had an affair with the guy. Why didn't he ever set your sister straight?”

“I honestly don't know. I worked for him for another six months after they started dating and she got very jealous of the time we spent together at work. I don't think Alan was really into her in those early months and he used to go out a lot on his own—but would tell her
we
were working late. I caught him more than once talking and flirting with other women. At one point, I actually felt sorry for her and told Alan he either needed to break up with her or quit seeing other women. He didn't take too kindly to the ultimatum and decided it no longer benefited us to keep working together. Personally, I don't think he wanted any witnesses to his affairs. Either way, he fired me, and he told my family he did it to keep the peace between him and my sister. After all, it didn't bode well for his ‘former mistress' to be working for him.”

“
Son of a bitch
!” Zach cursed and in that moment, he wanted to hunt the bastard down and kill him. “What did you do?”

“You've met my family, Zach. There wasn't anything I could do. The more I protested, the guiltier I looked. I stopped spending much time around my family so things could be peaceful and then I got blasted for breaking up the family. I mean, Alan skates along like a prince and I'm looked at like the scarlet woman.”

“And then I added to it by barging in and carrying on about our relationship.”

She nodded sadly. “But if it wasn't you, something else would have come up for them to dump on me for. I don't see them very often—maybe once a year now—but whenever I do, it takes weeks to get over it.”

“Why see them at all?”

“Because they're my family,” she said, looking at him as if he were crazy.

“Gabriella, they don't deserve you! You are so much better than they are. They don't want to see you because you're their family. They're looking for a sick form of entertainment. Don't do it to yourself. You deserve better.”

“Easy for you to say. You come from the perfect family.”

“Believe me, I know I'm lucky,” he said, “but it doesn't change anything. Don't let them come around anymore. If that bastard wasn't man enough to own up to the things he did, then he deserves to have your sister as a wife. She sounds like a handful. You should be thankful you don't have to work for him anymore.”

She chuckled. “You weren't much better, you know.”

He instantly sobered. “Don't compare us, Gabriella. I may have been a bastard in a lot of ways, but I'm trying to make up for it and I certainly would never have allowed you or your reputation to be destroyed to cover up my own indiscretions. Make no mistake there.”

“You're right. I'm sorry.”

Then he cursed himself yet again. He was supposed to be trying to win her over, not make her feel bad. “No. I'm sorry. I'm making this about me and it's not.” He shook his head. “I wish I had known this back then. I would have defended you, Gabriella. I never would have left you alone with them. I would have given them all a piece of my mind and thrown them out. I'm so sorry.”

“It wasn't your battle to fight. It still isn't.”

“But it is,” he said carefully and noted the look of surprise on her face. “I may not have known you when all of it actually happened, but it doesn't mean it's over and done with. It's still with you. It's still affecting you. Affecting us.”

She shook her head. “There is no us, Zach.” Her voice was a mere whisper.

He wanted to shout out how there could be, how he wanted there to be, but then he knew he'd be rushing things. And after the way he had majorly messed things up, he knew it was going to take some time to make them right. “Just…promise me you're going to think twice before seeing them again. Or you'll let me know when they're coming around so you don't have to face them alone.”

For a minute he thought she was going to pass out—she paled and her eyes went wide. “Why? Why is this so important to you?” she finally asked.

“Because you're important to me.”

Gabriella opened her mouth and then shut it. Then without a word, she stood and walked toward the kitchen. Zach watched her and a small smile crossed his lips when he saw her halt in her tracks. “What…what's that I smell?”

Reaching for his crutches, he stood and followed her into the kitchen. “Steamed dumplings from Lin's. I wasn't sure if you'd eaten dinner and I know how much you like them.”

She spun around and looked at him. “I…um—” She cleared her throat. “I had a big lunch.”

He looked at her doubtfully. “You have a salad every day for lunch and you rarely finish it. Come on, I ordered double and then I got an order of the crispy duck and the lemon chicken.” He smiled and shrugged. “I thought I'd cover all the bases.”

Gabriella returned his smile. “Zach, you really didn't have to do all of this. Like I said, I had a late lunch and I'm still kind of full.”

He looked at her and quirked a brow. “Seriously? On lettuce?”

“Actually, I didn't have a salad. I went to lunch with Summer and she forced me to have a burger.”

“Forced?”

“Okay, maybe not forced, but she strongly suggested it.”

He smirked. “Strongly?”

“Fine. She mentioned she was having one. There. Happy?”

The smile that spread across his face felt good. “You have no idea.” He walked around her. “Come on, let's get some plates, everything's been staying warm in the oven. We can eat here in the kitchen or out in the living room. It's up to you.” Looking over his shoulder, Zach could tell she wanted to argue with him, or flat out turn him down, but he knew her weaknesses. And Chinese takeout was at the top of the list.

“Whichever is more comfortable for you,” she said as she turned and began gathering plates and utensils.

“Let's sit in here so we can spread everything out on the table and share.” It was something they used to do when they were working late. Zach would order the takeout and they'd set up in the conference room back at the office and share their dinners. He didn't realize how much he'd missed that until just this minute.

When he tried to help her, she playfully swatted him away and told him to sit down. In less than two minutes, she had the entire table set and all of the food containers out of the oven with their lids off. “Sometimes I forget how efficient you are with stuff like this. It's like I blink and you've got everything done.”

“That's me. Efficient,” she mumbled and turned to grab them something to drink from the refrigerator.

“What's wrong with efficient? Did I miss something?”

She shook her head as she placed bottles of water on the table and took her seat. “It's my own mental thing. Forget about it.” She looked over all of the food, and Zach sat back and just enjoyed being able to watch her. For far too long he had done his best to hide his feelings for her—his attraction to her—and right now it felt good to just openly look his fill.