Chapter 22

Ally

“I’m not leaving.” Gabe glared at me, letting the fists go and stepping towards me with his palms outstretched. “I can’t until you hear me out.”

“Gabe, let’s go,” Faith called from the doorway, holding the glass door back with her palm. “You promised me we’d go to Pacifier and shop for a crib set.”

“Faith …” he warned. “Wait in my car. We can come back and get yours tomorrow.”

“We don’t need to, silly. I used a driver.” Faith rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh, then ambled out of the front door and into the snow, clutching her cloak around her shoulders and pulling the soft fur around her neck.

I licked my lips and stared after her, then shifted my focus back to Gabe. “I told you to leave.”

“And I told you I can’t leave. I need you to listen to me, Allegra. You have to know that what we have is real and that this won’t come between us.”

“Won’t come between us?” I repeated, letting the disbelief drip from my tone. “This isn’t like me finding out you’re a fireman instead of a broker. That you rescued me from a burning building and didn’t let on. This, is a full-fledged relationship with a woman carrying your son.”

“That’s bullshit.” He took a step forward and ground his heel into the floor.

“What? Are you denying it?” I fired the question, incredulous. “Gabe, unless she’s sporting one of those weighted sympathy aprons, I’m pretty sure we can’t argue that Faith is pregnant.”

“I’m not dating her, Allegra. I’m dating you. I care about …”

“Don’t you fucking dare say that to me,” I exploded, shaking from head-to-toe. Doused in anger. And sorrow. And shame. Because they were coming.

Please, God, let them stay away until I’m alone. The tears.

Codsworth gave a disdainful meow and wandered back into the kitchen. He didn’t approve of loud noises or arguments. He was a cat. He didn’t approve of almost anything.

“It’s the truth.”

“So you’re not dating her,” I replied. “She said you’ve been together for years and that you love each other. Is Faith lying? If she is, I guess that means you just knocked her up then. And what now? You’re going to raise the child together? Get married?”

“I know you’re angry at me. I didn’t plan for this to happen.”

I nodded. “Yeah, well. I’m not sure what else you want me to say.”

“Allegra, stop,” he grunted, holding out his palms in surrender. “Please, just listen to me.”

“You can beg and plead until you’re blue in the face. In spite of my humble beginnings, I’m not the kind of woman who would do something like this. You have to know that if you’d only disclosed it, none of this would have happened. We could have avoided that ugly scene in the middle of my place of business.”

The scene I’ll remember every time I help a customer as I wait for the pain of your betrayal to wash over me.

“Would it have made any difference if I’d have told you about Faith?” he retorted. “You’ve been waiting for an opportunity to get away from what we have from the start. You would have just used the information against me.”

“You’re absolutely right.” I sighed and backpedaled, putting as much distance between myself and his magnetic pull as possible. How could I still be physically attracted to a man I now despised? Didn’t trust?

Gabe blinked at me, then shook his head. “Allegra, I …”

“I’m fucking delusional. I thought whatever idiotic attraction I felt for you was more than just a passing phase. I thought it ran deeper.”

“It does,” he insisted, taking a huge step forward to close the gap between us.

I leaned right, towards the empty glass counter where I usually displayed the cupcakes so I could avoid him. I ran my fingertips along the smooth glass, grounding myself in the present so I didn’t dwell on the torment knifing through my gut.

“Actually, it’s nothing. What you and I had is nothing and this entire conversation is pointless. I don’t want —”

The bell over the door tinkled and an old woman stepped into the bakery, clutching her purse in front of her. “Hello dear, I was wondering if I could get my hands on one of your Red Velvets?”

I looked at Gabe, then back at the customer. “I’m sorry, ma’am, we’re closed until further notice. But if you leave your name and number, I’ll contact you as soon as we open up again. You can have a Red Velvet on the house.”

“Oh, well that’s all right,” the woman said, then patted at her grey curls underneath a plastic rain bonnet. She reached for the pen and pad I left handy on top of the counter, near the cash register. Leaving one there was a habit I’d gotten into when taking big orders over the phone. I’d almost lost a wedding cake because of the gaffe and I never make the same mistake twice. Which was why Gabe needed to get the hell out of my bakery.

“Yes, and we won’t be closed for much longer. A huge chunk of my schedule has just cleared up,” I said as I shot Gabe a withering look. “And I intend on using every second of it to get my doors back open as soon as possible.”

“That’s great news, dear. You give me a call when you’re open and I’ll bring my entire bridge club,” the older lady said with a wink.

I nodded and waved her out, smiling as if my insides weren’t the approximate consistency of Vanilla Vixen batter. She shuffled her way out of the bakery in her rubber snow boots. I stared at her retreating down jacket as long as I could. Avoiding.

“Allegra,” he murmured.

The door swung shut behind the sweet lady and the bell tinkled overhead again. Codsworth gave a doleful meow from the kitchen. Maybe he was out of water, or he wanted a kitty treat. Or, he hated Gabe. I turned towards the kitchen.

Gabe hurried around to my side of the counter and blocked my path.

I froze mid-stride, staring past him because I couldn’t look into those perfect blue eyes now. If I did, I’d burst into the tears I’d been trying mightily to hold back for the past thirty minutes. Since Faith had waddled her very pregnant body in here. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of telling her that I cried. Sobbed. Wailed a torrent of black mascara tears.

“Why are you lying to me?”

“I thought my dad would force me to marry her. He’s always had a soft spot for Faith and made it clear that she’s the one I ‘belong’ with. According to the patriarch of the family, I thought we’d end up together because of this. But that’s not what I want. You’re what I want.”

I recoiled from him. His touch. His very presence.

“I don’t care.”

“I truly believed my fate was sealed, even though I’ve never loved her. Not in that way. Faith’s like a sister to me. I was set to marry her anyway and resign myself to a loveless marriage in order to be a good father to my son,” he said, reaching out to clasp my shoulders. I backed out of his reach again. I couldn’t let him touch me. Weaken me. “After I rescued you from the fire and felt our strong connection, I started dreaming and hoping. I realized that I don’t always have to do what’s expected of me. Especially, if it’s not what’s best for me.”

This was the most he’d opened up in all the time we’d known each other. But it was too little and too late.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about or what you mean.”

“Let me explain. Please, can’t we sit down and talk? Just give me ten minutes. I promise I’ll go after that.” He offered me his hand and bobbed his head in the direction of the chair that Faith had vacated. The memory of her sitting there and gloating stabbed at me. “Allegra … if I don’t get the chance to tell you this, I won’t be able to live with myself. I can’t end things this way.”

“Why should I care about what you want, Gabe? What about what I want? What I deserve?” I injected ice into my tone, straightened my spine and glared up at him.

“You don’t mean that,” he replied, raw emotion tearing the words from his chest. He cared for me on some level, but it couldn’t have been that deep if he’d been willing to lie about Faith.

“Yes, I do. It’s over.” I straightened and moved past him, towards the kitchen and the sanctity of my apartment upstairs. The one he’d saved me from, where it had all began. I had to get away from him and the turbulent ball of emotions about to start rolling downhill. I had to protect myself.

“It can’t be over.”

“It is.”

His expression skewered through me, the utter pain which flickered across his chiseled features were the very same ones that graced my own.

I spun on my heel and strode through the kitchen, up the stairs and into my apartment, leaving Gabe and his perfection behind.