Derek’s next text came faster.
Good.
She tossed her phone down on the cushion beside her and turned her attention back to her computer.
The summer before she’d started college, wanting to claim a little independence, she’d moved into the guesthouse house on her parents’ property. She’d always loved the quaint one-bedroom cottage, and it hadn’t taken her long to put her stamp on it and make it home.
But as much as she loved it, she’d already decided after graduating in the summer and finding a job, she would move out. Find her own place. She knew her parents would object. As the baby—and an unexpected yet highly coveted one at that—her parents tended to be a bit overprotective. So much so, at times it was suffocating. And that was before adding Nico to the mix. He’d gotten better since Olivia, and then Angelica, had entered his life, but he still was and always would be the ever watchful, older brother.
Besides, she was an adult now and wanted the freedom to make her own decisions—good and bad.
Her phone beeped, and she glanced at the screen surprised to see Derek texting again. She’d thought their conversation had been finished.
What are you doing now?
She picked up her phone.
Homework.
She’d never been a chatty girl. More than likely because she’d never had close girlfriends to chat with, and she found herself struggling to come up with a better answer or even another topic to talk about. She wasn’t sure why she worried, it wasn’t like she was trying to impress him.
He solved her lost-for-words dilemma but created a new one with his next text.
Is it too soon to ask you a personal question?
Yes. But that’s not what she typed.
I guess it depends on the question.
She wasn’t sure what she expected, but definitely not what he ended up asking.
Who was that guy this afternoon?
She stared at her phone unsure how to answer. Just because she’d agreed to go on one date with him didn’t mean she was ready to unload her life story. Or that she ever would be. She decided to be evasive while still telling the truth.
A guy who works for my dad. He was giving me a ride home.
It took a while for him to reply to that.
Oh, okay. He just seemed a little handsy. I was worried he was a boyfriend or something.
Gabby couldn’t hold back the laugh that burst forth. Handsy was Derek’s nice way of saying bossy and aggressive.
Nah, just late for a meeting. I’d kept him waiting. If I had a boyfriend, I wouldn’t have agreed to a date with you.
Her thoughts drifted to Marco as they always did when the word boyfriend entered a conversation. She wondered if it would bother him that she agreed to a date. She shook her head at her own ridiculousness. Why would it?
Derek texted a few more times, and she supplied hesitant replies. She felt a little awkward, but not as much as had they’d been having their conversation on the phone. Texting at least gave her time to think about her responses.
He’d kept in touch the rest of the week, texting her a couple of times a day. She thought of them as getting-to-know-you texts. She’d learned a lot about him through those texts, and she could happily claim her first instinct had been correct, he really was a nice guy.
Too bad he didn’t make her heart beat a little faster and her stomach flutter.
Too bad she couldn’t stop comparing him to the one who did.
Chapter Three
Friday night arrivedin a blink, and as Gabby stood in front of the mirror applying her makeup, she couldn’t help but wonder what the hell she was doing. The image of a face flashed in her mind, but it wasn’t Derek’s. It was a face with sharp lines and strong features, darkness, and an unyielding fierceness. It was the face she saw in her dreams. The face of the person she’d waited her whole life for. Who she’d saved herself for. Who, she was discovering as she got older, might only stay a dream.