Page 53 of Embracing Love

Chapter 23

Tanya stood alone by one of the tables, a distance away from where everyone else was gathered together in the main area outside the conference rooms.

She wasn’t in the mood to mingle with anyone in the fifteen minute break before Nadine’s presentation. Placing her laptop down carefully, she poured herself a glass of water.

She’d come completely undone this morning in a way that she never had before. She was losing her grip, losing her sharpness, getting older and turning into a failure.

“Hey,” her heart soared at the French accent, and she spun around only to have her spirits nosedive.

Luc approached her with a look of concern on his face and placed his hand on her arm. “What happened to you in there?”

She shook her head and clutched the ice cold glass to her chest. “Nerves, I think.” He stood too close for her liking and she instinctively took a step back.

“It’s not like you, Tanya.”

“It’s over now. There’s nothing I can do to fix it.” She tried to nudge his hand away. “What did I tell you?” She hissed.

“Your kiss said something else.” He moved his hand up, gently brushed his fingers against her jaw. “We’re here all weekend…”

She narrowed her eyes at him. The audacity of the man. “Stop it.” She placed her hand over his fingers in order to pull his hand away.

“You’re upset. That was Vincent, wasn’t it?” She’d made the mistake of telling him her woes one lonely, drunken night. She yanked his hand away but he gripped hers in return as their hands dropped lower.

“Will you stop this?” She snarled again.

He leaned in. “I’m trying to be here for you.”

Hurrrrump. Michael Zimmerman chose that particular moment to stroll past, with both Russell and Gabriel in tow.

Oh great. Just great.

She saw disapproval written all over Michael’s face and disappointment all over Gabriel’s. Thankfully, Russell was busy on his cell but that didn’t matter.

She felt the heat rise along the back of her neck and ears, before it crept to her face. She was mortified. They passed by quickly and her attempts to seek out Gabriel’s eyes went unheeded as he closed off, barely acknowledging her as they quickly slipped past.

Tanya closed her eyes and struggled to understand what had just happened. “Don’t you ever do that again. There is nothing, NOTHING, that I want to happen between us and I am so sorry if I ever gave you signs there might have been.” She pushed Luc’s hand away in disgust, slammed down her glass and grabbed her laptop.

She needed a few moments alone, and she rushed back to her room. She didn’t have the heart to show her face at Nadine’s presentation.

But back in her room, she no longer felt the urge to cry, as she had done this morning when the shock of Vincent’s announcement had hit her.

Now, her feelings were of disappointment. Of letting herself down, of letting Gabriel down.

They had kissed last night, no matter how lightly their lips had touched or for how fleeting a second—they had kissed.

He had wanted her, as much as she wanted him.

It wasn’t a figment of her imagination. This was real. And she wanted to see where it would lead.

If she walked away now, if she let Gabriel walk away, she’d never know the answer.

It wasn’t Michael she was concerned about. Her thoughts were with Gabriel. She’d ruined any chances of anything happening between them. She’d caught a glimmer of what something with him might be like. Hope, as nebulous as a wisp of summer, had begun to bloom for her. And just like that, it had vanished.

She could walk away now, or she could fix it. And in that instant she knew exactly what it was that she would do.

She had to try and make him see that he’d been mistaken. And with that thought, she closed her eyes and gave herself a while to recharge her spirit.

There was no way she was going to miss Nadine’s second presentation, so she left her room so that she’d arrive just in time for Nadine’s presentation.

---