Page 39 of Harrison's Wedding

“It was my pleasure. Seriously. I love doing what I do, and your guitar was fun to work on.”

I take the guitar case, then wrap my arm around her to hug her. She hugs me back and smiles at me again.

“Could we take another tour of the factory?” I ask Xavier, then jerk my thumb at Gabriel. “He wants to see it, too.”

Xavier laughs, “Sure. Felicity can take you if she’s free.”

“Of course, I can do that. You’ll love it, Gabriel,” she smiles at him.

We head downstairs, and Gabriel is as amazed by the factory as Hayden and I were. I find a thousand things to look at that I didn’t see the last time I was here, and we spend more time on the floor because almost every one of the workers wants Gabriel’s autograph.

When we’re walking back to the car, with me carrying my guitar case, I laugh. “Do you have RSI now?”

“Probably.” He grins at me and pretends to shake his hand as though it’s cramped from writing too much.

We drive back to his apartment, and I park my car, taking the guitar case upstairs with me because I’m staying for dinner and I don’t want to leave it in the car. It’s around four in the afternoon when Gabriel gets a call from Ariana.

“Hey, sweetheart. Are you still on track for dinner at seven?”

I don’t hear what she says, but Gabriel’s smile disappears.

“What happened?” He’s frowning deeply; obviously, whatever she’s saying has him worried. “Are you okay, though?” There’s a pause while he listens. “You don’t sound all right. Are you sure you’re okay to drive?” He sighs and nods. “Okay. We’ll see you soon. I’m worried about you.” He listens again. “Well, I’m still worried, Ari. I’ll see you soon. I love you, sweetheart.”

He hangs up and stares at his phone for a second.

“Everything okay?” I ask, even though it’s obvious something is wrong.

“I’m not sure. Ariana said that something happened at work. She’s been in a meeting with her boss, but she’s coming home early. She didn’t want to tell me over the phone what happened.”

Concern for Ariana floods through me, even though I have no clue what’s happened. I hope everything’s okay and it’s nothing too serious.

“Shit. That doesn’t sound good. Do you want me to leave?”

Gabriel shakes his head. “No, no. Stay for dinner. I’m sure Ariana would still want you to have dinner. If, god forbid, it’s something serious, then I guess she’ll tell us. Besides, I need someone to distract me until she gets here.”

I put my guitar away and try to make conversation until Ariana arrives, but it’s obvious that Gabriel is distracted. By the time she walks in the door, he’s wound tighter than a string.

“Hey, Harrison,” she says with a tight smile. She sees Gabriel and says, “Hey, Gabe.”

Her voice cracks, and she breaks into tears as Gabriel strides over and wraps his arms around her. He hugs her for a minute before leading her over to the sofa, where she sits down between us.

She wipes away her tears and says, “Sorry for crying. It was just…” She sighs.

“What happened?” Gabriel asks in a concerned voice.

“So, I have this client that I’ve been showing houses to. He couldn’t pick anything. Nothing was perfect, so I kept looking and finding him options. Today was the third time I’ve taken him out. We’ve seen about fifteen places.” She takes a shaky breath and swipes at her eyes again before continuing. “Anyway, we were talking just like I do with all my clients, and I realized he was asking me a lot of personal stuff. There was something off about it. He was casual and friendly, but he’d started getting more personal. He was a fucking reporter.”

She starts crying again as Gabriel practically explodes, “What the fuck?!”

He looks like he wants to tear the guy to pieces, and I don’t blame him. I feel sick at the thought of someone using Ariana’s job as a way of getting information about her and Gabriel. I can’t even imagine how I would feel if that was Heather.

I say, “Ariana, I’m so sorry. Do you know for sure?”

She wipes away her tears and takes a deep breath before nodding. “Yeah. I got suspicious, so I said I’d let him have a walk through the house on his own and that I had to go take a phone call. We get ID from people when they’re looking at the really expensive places. I Googled him, and he works for The Morning Star.”

“What’s his name?” Gabriel growls.

“It doesn’t matter.” Ariana shakes her head. “I told him that I was very sorry, but I had an urgent matter to attend to at the office and asked if I could cut our visit short. He agreed, and I set up a time for another visit like everything was normal, just so I could get away without him knowing I was on to him.”

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