Page 61 of Gabriel's Angel

Alone, she held Michael with one arm and arranged her pillows behind her back with the other. It seemed so normal, so usual, just like any other night. Though there were nights when Michael was restless when her body craved sleep, there were others when she prized these hours in the middle of the night. These were the times she and Gabe would remember years down the road, when Michael took his first steps, when he started school, when he rode a two-wheeler for the first time. They’d look back and remember how they’d walked the floor, half dozing themselves. Nothing could change that.

They needed this, needed the normalcy of it. And, if only for a few hours, they would have it.

When Gabe came back in, he set her glass on the table beside her. Smiling, she lifted a hand to his arm. “Can I smell your brandy?”

Amused, he tilted the snifter for her and let her draw in the scent. “Enough?”

“Thanks. I always loved the taste of brandy late at night.” Lifting her juice glass, she clinked it against his snifter. “Cheers.” He didn’t join her in bed, as she’d hoped he would, but turned to stand by the window. “Gabe?”

“Yes?”

“I’d like to make a deal with you. You tell me what’s on your mind, ask any question you need to ask, and I’ll tell you the absolute truth. Then, in return, I’ll ask you and you’ll do the same.”

“Haven’t you answered enough questions for one night?”

So that was it. Laura set her glass aside before she gently shifted Michael to her other breast. “You’re upset because of the things I told Mr. Quartermain.”

“Did you expect I would take them with a shrug?” When he whirled, the brandy sloshed dangerously close to the lip of the snifter. Laura said nothing as he tossed back half the contents and began to pace.

“I’m sorry it had to be brought up. I’d have preferred another way myself.”

“It’s not a matter of its being brought up.” The words lashed out. He drank more brandy, but it did nothing to soothe him. “My God, it’s killing me to think of it, to imagine it. I’m afraid to touch you, because it might bring it back.”

“Gabe, you’ve been telling me all along that it’s over, that things are different now. I know they are. You were right when you said I compared you with Tony, but maybe you don’t understand that by doing that I helped myself realize that things could change.”

He looked at her then, only for a moment, but long enough for her to see that her words weren’t enough, not yet. “Things are different now, but I wonder why you don’t hate any man who puts his hands on you.”

“There was a time when I wouldn’t have let any man within ten feet of me, but I was able to start putting things in perspective, through therapy, listening to other women who’d pulled themselves out of the spin.” She watched him as he stood in the shadow, his hands thrust in the pockets of his robe and clenched into fists. “When you touch me, when you hold me, it doesn’t bring any of that back. It makes me feel the way I’ve always wanted to feel about myself, about my husband.”

“If he were alive,” Gabe said evenly, “I’d want to kill him. I find myself resenting the fact that he’s already dead.”

“Don’t do that to yourself.” She reached out a hand to him, but he shook his head and walked back to the window. “He was ill. I didn’t know that then, not really. And I prolonged it all by not walking away.”

“You were afraid. You had nowhere to go.”

“That’s not enough. I could have gone to Geoffrey. I knew he would have helped me, but I didn’t go, because I was pinned there by my own shame and insecurities. When I finally did leave, it was because of the baby. That’s when I began to get well myself. Finding you was the best medicine of all, because you made me feel like a woman again.”

He remained silent while she searched for the right words. “Gabe, there’s nothing either of us can do to change things that have already happened. Don’t let it change what we have now.”

Calmer now, he swirled his brandy and continued to look out of the window. “When you talked of lawyers in the gallery today, I thought you wanted a divorce. It scared me to death.”

“But I wouldn’t have— Did it?”

“There you were, standing under the portrait, and I couldn’t imagine what I would do if you walked away. I may have changed your life, angel, but no more than you’ve changed mine.”

Pygmalion, she thought. If he loved the image, he might eventually love the woman. “I won’t walk away. I love you, Gabe. You and Michael are my whole life.”

He came to her then, to sit on the edge of the bed and take her hand. “I won’t let anyone hurt either one of you.”

Her fingers tightened on his. “I need to know that whatever we have to do we’ll do it together.”

“We’ve been in this together right from the start.” Leaning forward, he kissed her, while the baby dozed between them. “I need you, Laura, maybe too much.”

“It can’t be too much.”

“Let me go put him down,” Gabe murmured. “Then maybe we can continue that.”

He took the baby, but the moment he eased off the bed Michael began to cry.

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