Page 116 of Fierce-Gabe

AFRAID TO SAY

“Iheard you’ve got a boyfriend. Call me.”

Elise listened to the message on her phone a week and a half later. Her mother didn’t normally leave a message. Just called and hung up and kept you hanging on the reason for the interruption to her day.

She always felt if it was important enough someone would leave a message or send a text. Her mother did neither most times. She wished it were the case this time too.

She got up and went into Royce’s office. It was the end of the day. Lately her brother didn’t stop in after he was at a site. He just went home and dealt with things there.

As luck would have it he was here and she was going to bend his ear.

“Got a minute?” she asked him when he noticed her in the doorway.

“Always,” Royce said.

She played the message for her brother. “Do you know how she found out?”

There was a guilty look on Royce’s face. “It was a mistake. I didn’t think she’d say anything to you.”

She let out a sigh. She didn’t want him to feel bad about talking to their mother or saying things. She just expected he would have given her a heads up.

“What did you tell her?”

“I sent her the email link of the wedding pictures.”

“Okay,” she said.

“She saw the pictures at the end of people just standing around talking.”

“Oh,” she said.

There was one right before everyone left of her talking with Royce, Gabe and Zander. It was funny that the exact picture was taken with her staring at Gabe. Anyone with half a mind would see the look in her eyes. One that was showing the love that she was feeling but had been afraid to say.

“Yeah,” he said. “She saw that picture of you looking at Gabe. She asked who he was. She knew Zander obviously.”

“You said I was dating Gabe,” she asked.

“No. I just gave his name and she pressed on about the way you looked at him.” He paused and flushed.

“Finish it. What else did she say?”

“That if you looked like you did that day you might be able to catch his eye in the future.”

“What a bitch,” she snarled.

“Exactly. I told her you’ve been dating Gabe for months.”

“And she wanted to know why no one knew the day of the wedding, right?”

Guess she made a misstep there trying to keep it all a secret.

Nothing she could do about it now.

“She commented on it. I said that was yours and Gabe’s decision and not anyone else’s. I didn’t even know until you made it public.”

Which she’d felt bad about. “You didn’t tell anyone about Chloe,” she reminded him.

“I didn’t. Which is why I can’t judge. But you found out before anyone else.”

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