Page 110 of De-Witched

“He missed you.” Leah took a beat, unsure she should let the subject drop. “Gabriel...”

“He’ll get used to it.” Gabriel set down his wineglass to pick up his fork again. “Maybe I should stop visiting him. Make the transition easier.”

“No, don’t do that.” They had, after all, only two weeks left with him.

Two weeks. How was it already only two weeks?

Gabriel took a bite of pasta, swallowed. “He’ll only get more attached.”

Too late for that, she thought. For both of them. “You’re sure you wouldn’t want to take him? He loves you.”

“No.”

“You could use a friend when you go back. And he could use a family.”

“Leah, I said no.”

The words were sharp and cut the strings holding her smile in place.

For a lingering moment, the only sounds were Delilah’s soft snores.

“He loves you,” she repeated, a hollow ache setting up camp. “It’ll break his heart when you go.”

“He’ll find someone else to love.”

“He’s getting older. He may only have two years or so left.”

“Exactly,” he bit out, putting down his fork and rising. He carried his plate over to the sink, bracing his now-free hands on the counter. His back was rigid. “I am not setting Melly up to lose someone else. We’ve been through enough.”

She stared at that unbending back. “You’re serious?”

“We’ve lost enough,” he repeated stubbornly, turning to her. His expression matched his voice. “Two years is nothing for a witch. A blip of time. She’ll have him, love him, only to watch him die. Better not to have him at all.” He shook his head irritably, leafing a hand through his hair. “You don’t understand, you’re not of my world.”

She sat back, feeling like she’d taken a punch to the gut. Instead of feeling the hurt, she chose annoyance.

“Maybe I don’t,” she retorted. “I don’t understand why you’d deprive a dog who loves you of a family for the final years of his life.” Or himself of anyone willing to care for him, she admitted quietly to herself. Dog—or person.

A muscle ticked away in his jaw, and he linked his hands behind his back the way she’d noticed he did whenever he was uncomfortable.

Might as well go for broke. Get it all out.

“And maybe it’s being human,” she continued, pressing her hands onto her thighs as nerves tickled in her belly, “but I don’t see why you’re letting your uncle do this to you.”

He frowned. “What?”

“Everything. The whole weird will.” She blew out a breath. “Say that three times fast.”

Her joke fell flat. “He didn’t force me,” Gabriel countered, each word bristling. “He wants me to prove myself, gain respect from the board and show how I can lead them into the future.”

“And you didn’t earn that already by working your way up through the company?” she shot back. She’d loved how that one example demonstrated his willingness to try, his curious mind. It deserved appreciation. And so, she pushed. “Tell me, Gabriel, what exactly do you like about the idea of being CEO? Why do you want it so much? Is it because you actually want it or because...” She stopped before she went too far.

He only lifted his chin. “This is what I was born for. It’s what I’m good at.”

She could quit but that just wasn’t her. “Running things from a distance? Sitting behind a desk? That isn’t you, Gabriel. You told me about going into each department and seeing what made it tick. How you like improving everything, thinking of new ways to do things at ground level. That’s what you’re good at.”

“I could do that as CEO,” he said stubbornly. “My uncle still dips a hand in every so often.”

“But he focuses on the bigger picture, not the minutiae. The details are where you shine.” She paused. “And from the sounds of things, your uncle might like being in charge. Maybe a little too much.”

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