"Ah. Is that why you've been angry with him?"
"Of course," she said, as if the answer was obvious. He'd noticed her relationship with Patrick had changed a few months ago. She'd seemed fine with him, and then she wasn't.
"He's fae," Gabriel said softly. "I don't think we can expect him to take a normal parental role."
"I don't care. He should have done something."
Her voice was fierce, and if this was secondhand outrage he was getting now, he could only imagine what Patrick must have gotten. The full brunt of her fury. For him.
I love her.
That was hardly a revelation. If he didn't, he wouldn't take the risk of trying to further their relationship. Yet he had never said the words even in his mind, because even there they blew a cannonball through a fortress he'd spent a lifetime erecting. To care about someone was quite enough, and even that was difficult to admit. Only a few minutes ago, he'd been unable to say he valued her friendship.
To say he loved her was like teetering on the edge of a pit, every fiber in him wanting to scramble back from the edge, saying no, no, no. To love her meant that if he didn't win her, if he never got a chance to prove...
His breath seized at the thought, and that pit seemed to rear up, ready to swallow him whole.
Now you know how I felt.
He flinched at Gwynn's voice, and then everything in him truly did rebel, scrambling away as fast as it could. Whatever he felt, it would never lead there. Never, ever--
"Gabriel?"
He snapped back to see Olivia watching him, her face drawn with worry. He found the barest smile for her. "Sorry. I was just...processing. I appreciate that you were concerned. That..."
He cleared his throat and forced the words out as fast as he could. "That means a lot to me. But my own feelings on the matter...? Patrick is fae. He made some effort, and while it would not come near your standard for proper parenting, it exceeds my own experience." He said the last with a tiny smile, but the flash of pain on her face made him wish he hadn't gone there.
She loves me, too, in her way.
"Coffee?" he said.
She smiled. "Yes, I'm finally done, and we may have coffee."
CHAPTER FORTY
We took our coffees into the garden, where we sat on the bench and drank, and Gabriel mentioned the possibility of a backyard stove or fire pit, and we discussed that--types I'd seen at garden parties, and which would work best here.
"Then you will buy one?" he said.
"As soon as you use the fireplace at the office."
"Would you settle for a fire in my wastebasket?"
I mock-glowered at him. "No.
Get yours going, and I'll buy more comfortable seating, too." I shifted and made a face. "Soon. Please."
We sipped our coffees and talked about lawn furniture. There was still part of me that worried he was in shock about Patrick. He'd handled the revelation as if I'd been telling him the weather forecast, and really, it wasn't as if he planned to be out of doors anyway.
When Gabriel's phone rang, I recognized the ring tone, having set it up myself. "The office? It's Saturday night"
"Lydia planned to work this evening in return for a half day off next week." He answered the phone, and I heard uncharacteristic rapid-fire speech from the other end.
Gabriel glanced at me and hit a button. "Olivia's here. I'm putting you on speaker."
"--don't need to put me on speaker, Gabriel," Lydia said. "You need to get over here. Now."
I rose, but Gabriel held out a hand, stopping me.