Page 21 of The Heiress's First Date

And there’s something about the city glistening outside the windows, the quiet. It feels safe to admit things that have been on my mind and my heart. “I’ve always liked that about you too. I was fourteen that summer when you were on the cover of every finance magazine and half a dozen others.”

He groans, turning toward me and tucking his foot behind his other knee. He slides an arm across the back of the sofa, and I lean into the circle of his embrace.

“I snuck them past my mother and grandfather, devouring all the details I could find.”

“Why?”

I drop my chin and tug Alex’s shirt tighter around me. Is he ready for the truth? Am I? Should we rehash the past? Part of me thinks it doesn’t matter. So much time has passed, and my grandfather is dead. But I also understand the curiosity and the need for closure.

I’ll never get that with my grandfather. If he hadn’t died, would I have ever woken up from the trance they cast over me? Would I have played the game and kept doing what they told me to do?

Gabe tucks a knuckle beneath my chin and lifts it until I meet his gaze. “Why did you read all those articles?”

His blue eyes are dark and watchful, and the intensity of his stare resonates deep in my bones. I want to tell him everything. I want to ask him all the questions that have played through my mind a thousand times. But I’m terrified of opening old wounds. Our relationship feels so new, so tenuous.

But I lick my lips.Be brave, Katherine.

“I wanted to learn about the man my grandfather hated.” It’s the simple truth. A girlish curiosity. Back during a time when I was steeped in family drama. My mother would rail about my father. Grandfather would lose his mind over Gabe. It was like they needed an antagonist in their life and would find one, willing or not.

Puzzle pieces fall into place, and it’s a pattern I’ve never noticed before. Now that I’ve seen it, the blinders fall away and my past looks different. It’s easy to separate myself from the girl who wanted to fit in and be loved by her family.

“And what did you find out?” Gabe’s voice is curious but also trepidatious. Like he’s scared to discover what I found out or how I saw him–I don’t know which.

Are we finally going to talk about it? Will he tell me what happened?

“You’re brilliant. But I already knew that.”

He tugs on my hair, a smile ghosting over his lips. “Yeah?”

“Anyone who intimated my grandfather the way you did? Oh yeah. I didn’t needForbestelling me you had a once-in-a-generation mind.”

I shiver, remembering all the feelings I had a decade ago as I read those words. The awe. The admiration. The confusion.

His hand falls away, and he retreats. But I can’t let him do that. Not again.

“Gabe. . .”

A second ticks by. Then he looks at me again. I scoot closer, sliding a hand over his thigh to anchor us together. “Will you tell me what really happened between you and my grandfather?”

No one likes rehashing their past, I get that. Add in a traumatic experience, and it’s a wonder he didn’t leave me on the sidewalk Friday night. That he talks to me at all.

“You know what happened,” he says.

A typical brush-off, Gabriel style. I squeeze his thigh. “I want to hear it from you. Because I don’t trust my grandfather’s side of things. Not that he ever told me any specifics.”

“What did he tell you?”

I press even closer until I’m practically in his lap. “Like I said, it wasn’t anything specific. It was more of a grudge. Any time you were in the news, he’d scoff and mutter. He was such a bad sport. The one time I asked, I was young.” I swallow, a fresh memory scalding me. “I wanted to know what it was that you’d done to make him hate you. You know how children are. I couldn’t comprehend it. He didn’t give me a straight answer.”

I was too young at the time to put two and two together. To press him on it. And over time, it just became a thing.Wehated Gabriel Rothburn. They did, anyway. I was distrustful because whatever my grandfather’s reasons were, I assumed they were true. Reasonable.

“His voice was like a crack of thunder. Loud. Terrifying. He told me it didn’t matter what had happened. That you simply weren’t to be trusted.” I can’t look him in the eye as I repeat those words. I wish I’d been stronger, more inquisitive. “It was years before I asked him anything again.”

My name is a rough whisper as Gabe pulls me closer, cupping my cheek.

“I’m okay.” I nestle against his palm. “But I hate that he hurt you.”

He tips his forehead against mine. My shoulders drop, and I take a deep, soothing breath.

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