Page 35 of The Forbidden

I’m completely caught off guard by her offer to Gabe as Sylvie has been adamantly opposed to riding. It’s been a sore spot with Ethan—he believes every Blackburn has equine DNA in their blood. She’s admittedly been afraid and hesitant but she’s spent a lot of time in the barn lately, so maybe she’s getting used to the idea.

Gabe’s eyes slide to me. “Is your aunt Kat willing to teach us both how to ride?”

I smile at him tartly. “For Sylvie, absolutely. For you, it will cost.”

Gabe chuckles. “Fair enough.”

We head back to the house and Gabe says, “I was just going to order some Chinese food for us. Sound good?”

“Can I swim first?” Sylvie asks.

Gabe looks to me and I shrug. “Sure. Gabe and I can go over winery stuff while you swim, then we’ll eat.”

Sylvie scrambles for the bag she brought in. “I’m going to get dressed in my room.”

I start to correct her but then stop myself. This is exciting to her and I can never forget that Gabe is the closest thing Sylvie has to her mother. And if I were to guess, there will come a day when Sylvie will have full access to her uncle. It’s just not for me to say when.

When Sylvie disappears up the staircase, I turn to Gabe. “I have some good news for you.”

One eyebrow arches high. “Since when does a Blackburn give a Mardraggon good news?”

My lips twitch, but I press on. “Ethan is going to let Sylvie go to France with you as soon as school is out. Our parents will still take her in August, but she’s really homesick and so he thinks this will be great for her.”

“Really?” Gabe exclaims. “I didn’t think he’d ever go for it.”

Neither did I, to be honest. It was a hard sell and tempers rose around the dinner table last night. I waited until after we’d all eaten and Sylvie had gone upstairs to shower and lay out her clothes for the school day. That gave me about half an hour of privacy to get the group’s collective opinion, because I knew Ethan wouldn’t make a decision without running it by everyone.

“Gabe has requested that he be allowed to take Sylvie back to Saint-Émilion when she gets out of school.” Mouths opened and glares formed, but I hastily added, “Obviously, I would go along as a chaperone and it would give me a better idea of how the winery operates.”

Ethan was silent, but that is his way. If he wasn’t in flat-out, one-word denial, he was thinking. Marcie reached over and put her hand on his, showing that she would support his decision regardless. My mom was bothered that she wouldn’t have the first opportunity to take Sylvie to France and immediately started talking to my dad about canceling their other trip they had already planned and paid for which conflicts with their ability to take her now instead of in August. Trey and Wade were the ones who blew up, immediately fueling the flames and, in a way, attacking me.

“There’s no way that asshole is allowed to take Sylvie out of the country,” Wade snapped. “Are you crazy? He’s Mardraggon.”

“He can’t be trusted,” Trey added. “None of them can be. How could you even bring something like this to the table for consideration?”

They raged and cursed, but a sharp look from our mom ended their protests. Still, it didn’t stop them from calling me ten kinds of stupid for even thinking it. Throughout it all I didn’t say a word, just waited for them to run out of steam and when they finished, I reiterated my reasoning. “Gabe has shown his loyalty is to Sylvie, not the Mardraggon family. Sylvie loves him deeply and needs this relationship because he’s the last tie to her mom. She’s homesick and she’s going to be perfectly safe with me along.”

Ethan sat back and pondered it all.

When my bonehead brothers finally shut up, I realized it wasn’t just me I was defending in my reasoning for letting her go but also Gabe. Something in me had softened toward him—not as a man who I had a prior relationship with but a human being who was desperately trying to hold on to a bond with his niece because he cares so much for her.

I continued laying it all out there, mostly for Trey and Wade’s benefit, so I looked directly at them. “I don’t feel like I should have to remind you, but apparently I do because you two are too dense. Gabe turned his father in to the police and is the one person who guaranteed Sylvie’s safety. On top of that, he removed the death clause from the trust agreement, which not only further guarantees her safety, but in case you didn’t figure it out, it removed the winery from the Mardraggon legacy. That business has been in their family for over a hundred years and he basically gave it to the Blackburns. He’s busting his ass to make it better for Sylvie and he gets nothing from that. So quit trying to paint him as a villain when in this instance, he’s not.”

Trey and Wade kept their mouths shut but I could tell they didn’t like those reminders. My parents looked stunned and then pensive.

But they didn’t matter. I turned to Ethan. “What do you think?”

He didn’t answer and I had to suppress a grin when he turned to Marcie. “What do you think?”

She immediately shook her head and held out her palms. “Oh, no you don’t. That’s not my decision.”

“Your opinion matters to me,” he said, taking one of her hands in his. “Give it to me straight.”

Marcie’s eyes softened and she smiled at Ethan. She then glanced around the table at everyone, her gaze holding the longest on my brothers before she said, “I think it’s important to let Sylvie have a relationship with Gabe and not just a surface relationship. I think it needs to be fostered… deepened, even. Everything that Kat said is true and he deserves our trust, I think. But more importantly, Gabe is the last representation that Sylvie has of her mother. You can’t take that from her.”

Ethan nodded and I could tell by the expression on his face that was exactly what he was thinking. “She’s really homesick for France and she deserves some fun and goodness right now.” He glanced over to my parents. “I’m sorry. I know you want to take her and you still should at the end of the summer, but I think it would be great if she went now.” Ethan then brought his attention to me. “But you’d have to go, Kat. You made a compelling argument that Gabe has earned some trust, but he doesn’t have my full level and I’m not sure he ever will.”

I was happy that Ethan decided to let Sylvie go and there was one thing he and I were absolutely aligned on. I wasn’t sure Gabe would ever have my full trust either, and that’s not just because of his last name.

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