You Will Be Mine (New Horizon Book 3)

Chapter 19: Jeannie

If it wasn’t enough that this whole night already had me feeling unsettled, seeing that woman leaning up against Gabe’s car certainly did me in. I’ve been trying to ignore my instincts and convince myself that I’m just being paranoid about him, but the evidence is stacking up all around me.

He’s not a good guy for me to be getting involved with.

He doesn’t just seem like the type of guy who doesn’t have any trouble charming women, I think he actually is that type of guy. Nora kind of just confirmed it for me. The way she looked and talked to him, alluding to being his “company for the night” as if it wouldn’t be for the first time, that kind of just drove the point home.

He has a mate out there somewhere, but he seems to be fine with living in the moment and not worrying about her in the least. If he wants to have fun in the here and now, he just does it.

I can’t really explain why I did it, but when Nora was standing there giving me whatever nasty look it was that she was giving me, something in me snapped. I felt compelled to wipe that smirk off her face, but I also felt a need to chase her off for the sake of his mate.

And surprisingly, Gabe went along with it. Either it’s because I’m his current conquest and he’s still trying to impress me, so he’ll go along with whatever I say, or he doesn’t really like Nora all that much and really doesn’t care what she thinks.

There’s a part of me that wants to use the fact that I seem to be his current conquest to my advantage and try to keep him distracted for a while. But I don’t know that I’d be all that good at stringing someone along, and it also seems risky. I might let myself forget who he is, or whose he is, and start getting closer to him than I intend, unintentionally setting myself up for heartbreak while trying to save someone else from the same.

But when he gets in the car and sits there trying to laugh it off, it irritates me how casual and unconcerned he seems about the whole thing.

“Well, that was unexpected,” he says, jiggling his keys around and working on getting the car started up.

“Not really,” I grumble at him, not bothering to even look his way.

I’m still mad, though I’m also still figuring out exactly what it is that bothers me so much. I think it’s partly that he’s so disloyal to his future mate, but mostly it’s me I’m upset with. I knew better than to fall for his charms, but I’ve been letting myself do it anyway.

And he couldn’t have chosen a worse way to word that. He might not have expected Nora to show up tonight, but I certainly expected to find out that this is the sort of life he lives.

I suspected it from the moment I met him. From the beginning, he was everything my grandpa used to warn me about – a charming smooth-talker who likes to make eyes at me and try to seduce me with his sweet words and carefully-timed mannerisms.

“What does that mean?” he asks, sounding both confused and hurt. “Do you know her? Has she said something to you?”

I sigh, not really wanting to have this conversation, although I suppose I invited it with my comment.

“No, not her specifically, but I figured someone like her must exist in your world,” I explain, still staring at the window. “Probably multiple someones. Even she didn’t seem surprised to see you with another woman, though she obviously hoped it’d be her you'd choose tonight.”

He’s quiet, not even making any move to put the car in motion, despite the hurry he seemed to be in before.

“If that’s what you think, then why did you say that you want to be my company every night?” he demands angrily, maybe even with a little bit of hurt peeking through.

Is it possible that I have this all wrong? Or is he just mad that I can see right through him despite how hard he’s been working at charming me?

“Because it’s true, first of all,” I point out, finally feeling settled enough to turn and look at him. “She doesn’t need to know that it’s actually Simon who sleeps in my bed, but she did need to go away and leave you alone. She’s not your mate, Gabe, but how do you think your actual mate is going to feel if she happens to come into your life while you still have the stink of someone like her on you?”

He gives me a sort of stunned, dumbfounded look, opening and closing his mouth a couple of times as if he wants to speak but hasn’t found his words yet, and then he turns his head and glares out the windshield. After a moment, he reaches over to shift the car into gear and get us moving.

“You don’t have anything to say to that?” I ask him in disbelief.

It’s actually kind of disappointing because I was hoping he’d tell me I have it all wrong and make some extremely compelling argument to convince me of it. And that’s how I know I’m already too close to him for my own good. Even though my gut instincts seem to be right on target, I’m still allowing myself to be naïve and hopeful.

“Nothing that will sway your opinion of me. Sounds like your mind is already made up,” he grumbles, still staring straight ahead. “I suppose there’s no point in trying to defend myself or make you understand things from my perspective. Not when you’ve already decided what’s true about me before even taking any time to get to know me, and not when you’re just going to be looking for proof of what you think you know, no matter what I say.”

He sounds upset, but I realize I’ve genuinely wounded him by boldly declaring my suspicions the way I did. Maybe I did jump to conclusions a bit quickly, and I’m starting to feel pretty bad about the past five minutes between us. I want to go back and do it over, especially once I start to feel Simon’s distress.

He’s heartbroken and scared, worrying that I’ll push them both away now. More than that, he’s worried that Gabe is going to push right back.

“Gabe, I’m sorry,” I try to apologize, but I can already see from the tension in his jaw and shoulders that he’s not really listening to or caring what I’m about to say. But I say it anyway. “You’re right that I was quick to judge without giving you any chance to explain -”

“It’s fine,” he waves me off dismissively. “If we keep wasting time on this, we’ll be too late, and they won’t let us in.”

It bothers me that he seems to just want to leave things like this and go off to the theater pretending that nothing is wrong, but he’s also made it apparent that not only does he not want to listen to what I have to say, he doesn’t even want me to say it. He’ll probably just cut me off if I try again, so I drop it.

We do manage to make it there on time, even after finding a place to park turns out to be a bit tricky. He’s tense and quiet, but he holds out his arm to me again, and we walk together into the theater.

I’ve seen plenty of shows on television and watched quite a few movies, but seeing a live theater performance is something I never even would have pictured myself doing. There’s a certain energy in the air, even after the lights get turned down and the curtain comes up to start the show. It’s quiet, but the room still feels like it’s vibrating with anticipation.

There must be a little magic in the room too because after Gabe settles in beside me, he starts to relax. I feel his arm come around me at one point, and it’s not long before he starts belly laughing at some of the antics up on stage. Watching the way his face lights up almost becomes more appealing to me than watching the actual show. He loves this.

And then it hits me that I really might have been wrong about him. I thought he brought me here to try to impress me, getting a kick out of telling me that he’s close with the director of this show and snagged some really good tickets from him. But now that I’m sitting here experiencing this with him, I’m realizing that what he was actually doing was inviting me into his world a little.

We’re not here because he expected me to think it’s impressive. We’re here because he wanted to share something he really enjoys with me. That’s even what he told me when he invited me, but I got in my own head about it once Stella convinced me that it was a date.

I’ve never even been on a date before, but I felt like I knew all about what intentions he must have for me if he’s trying to date me. He’s obviously right that I have a bad habit of deciding what’s true and then only looking at the parts that confirm it, ignoring the rest.

“If you don’t quit gawking at me, you’re going to miss the best part,” he whispers lowly, but I can see the smirk he’s trying to hide with his intentionally serious, disapproving face.

“Maybe watching you is the best part,” I shoot back at him, taking pleasure in his surprised expression.

Then I reach up and use my finger to turn his face away from me so he’s looking at the stage again.

“You’re missing it,” I explain, giving him a smirk of my own before taking his advice and turning to face forward myself.

“The best part” turns out to be the moment when the romance between the two lead characters finally climaxes with a passionate kiss, and at that very moment, two squawking, outraged pigeons fly out from under the woman’s skirt. It is a romantic comedy, after all.

I don’t have to look to know he’s smiling. I can feel him shaking with laughter next to me, and his arm comes back around my shoulders.

Though that usually causes mixed feelings for me, I’ve been glad for it tonight. I still feel terrible for everything I said to him earlier, but I’m kind of hoping with how he’s been for the past couple hours that maybe he’ll be ready to finally let me apologize once we leave here.