Chapter Five

Gabriel

 

“Yo, bro, what’s up with you tonight?” Gabriel’s brother, Devon, asked as they watched the sun set from their private stretch of beach behind the villa.

“Hm? What do you mean?” Gabriel eyed the tall man who was sprawled out on the chaise lounge beside him. His brother and sister had arrived just an hour earlier after dinner, and it hadn’t taken Devon long to notice his foul mood. It was ironic how he’d come to Hawaii to escape, but he was feeling more bogged down mentally than when he’d been in the office that morning.

Devon bit off a sugared champagne grape, one of several strung onto a metal stick that the staff had prepared for them. “You’re strangely quiet. Does this have something to do with the woman you bumped into today?”

Gabriel shot him a look of surprise. How did he know about Seraphina? “Did Noah tell you about her?”

“Actually, he mentioned her to Laurene who mentioned her to me.” He stretched out his arms and clasped his hands behind his head. “Is this the same girl you were going to ask to prom senior year? I can’t believe she’s the one you bought this place from. Talk about a small world.”

He scoffed. Leave it to his brother to bring up a fact he’d been happy to leave in the past. “Yes, she’s the one. Although, I’m glad the other guy asked her before I could. He probably saved me from a lifetime of heartache.”

Seraphina hadn’t been the only one with feelings outside the friend zone. Gabriel had fallen hard for her as well, maybe even loved her. But he’d only been a kid, so he’d talked himself out of pursuing her. It’d been safer to be enemies instead.

While they’d always egged the other person on, it’d been for fun. Their chemistry together was playful, even flirtatious. Today’s banter, however, had crossed the line. The last words Seraphina said still took him aback. Was she right? Was he a different person than the one she knew back in high school?

“A lifetime of heartache?” Devon smirked. “I thought you just wanted to ask her out, not marry her.”

“Uh, yeah, that’s what I meant,” he mumbled out of the corner of his mouth, hoping his brother would drop the topic.

Gabriel exhaled deeply. He should’ve been happy Seraphina had left his place without a look back, not thinking about how close he’d been to kissing her. One whiff of her sweet perfume—the same one she wore in high school—and he’d been a hormonal teenager again. The only thing that had kept him from claiming her mouth was the niggling feeling in the back of his mind that he still wasn’t good enough for her. He’d never be good enough.

“So, what happened? Did you back her into a corner and try to win every argument?” Devon flashed him a mischievous smile. “Or did you finally come to your senses and let her have the last word?”

Gabriel gritted his teeth. He appreciated Devon’s outspokenness in the office, but it was another matter to have his younger brother call him out on his personal life. Especially when what he said was true. “I didn’t try to win—okay, fine, I did. But I had to stand my ground. I can’t have her thinking less of me because I wasn’t born rich. We didn’t have any of the privileges she had as a kid. We’ve had to work hard to make it in this world. She doesn’t understand any of that. That’s why I’ve always had to prove myself to her.”

Devon lowered his sunglasses onto the bridge of his nose and peered over them at Gabriel. He narrowed his eyes, a smirk curving up one side of his mouth. “But, bro, why does it matter to you anyway what she thinks?”

Gabriel blinked. His brother had a point. Why did he care about what Seraphina thought? Why did her opinion, out of all the women in the world, matter so much to him?

The hair on the back of his neck stood on end as realization crashed down on him like the waves breaking on the shore. Perhaps all this time, he’d been trying to earn her respect. To impress her. Why? Because he wanted to be worthy of her love.

Groaning, he stared up at the pink and orange streaks painting the sky. Instead of impressing her, he’d done the complete opposite. He’d pushed her away. As someone whose own father had passed away from an illness, he, of all people, should’ve been more empathetic to her situation. “I can’t believe I made those insensitive remarks about her and her father.”

Gabriel continued muttering under his breath. “All this time, I’ve been thinking that she thought she was better than me, but I was doing the exact same thing. I thought I was better than all of them. I’ve not only been arrogant, I’ve been a hypocrite.”

“Is this the jet lag talking, bro? Or did you have one too many cocktails at dinner?” Chuckling, Devon pushed his shades up and sank back in his chair. “Because I have no idea what you’re going on and on about. Who are you better than?”

He faced Devon squarely. “No one, absolutely no one. Especially not Sera.”

“All right, now we’re talking.” Devon grinned. “If you want my opinion—which you likely don’t, but I’m going to tell you anyway—you should stop talking to yourself and go find this woman. She obviously means a lot to you to have gotten under your skin.”

His brother was right. Gabriel couldn’t get Seraphina off his mind. She was the only woman he wanted. He was more than ready to surrender to his feelings for her. But he wanted to make amends first. He needed to. His father had raised him to be better than this. Sera deserved an apology—a good one.

He shot to his feet and plucked his cell phone from the pocket of his shorts. With a quick nod to Devon, he called out, “I gotta go,” before taking off for the house.

Gabriel had an idea of how to get on Seraphina’s good side. He was done competing with her. There was a bigger cause to fight for now. He had some calls to make, starting with the Chief Scientist at his company.