Page 111 of Townshipped
I turn toward the dresser, pulling out each drawer once more to check for any stray items even though I know I won’t find any.
“He saved my life,” I say. “Took me in. I’m grateful. He’s been kind and …”
“And he looks at you with the look,” she finishes for me.
“What look is that, exactly?”
“The look of a man madly in love—possessive, attentive, and grief-stricken that you’re leaving.”
“Aiden’s just like that. You don’t know him. He’s a hero. He just lost his cousin and took in her kids. He sees a need, he fills it.”
Gabriela shakes her head in full disagreement. “He didn’t look like a man filling your needs. He looked like a man who needed you.”
I stare at her, wanting to believe what she’s saying, but knowing she could be reading into this. After all, Aiden never said anything to make me think he wants me to stay, or that he wants more with me once I’m back home.
“I don’t know what to say.”
“White knight,” Gabriela says.
“What?”
“White knight. I used to tease you that you wanted a man that didn’t exist. Your white knight.”
I smile. Those words, in her voice, had come to me more than once over the past month. Only I didn’t know where they fit. Every time they came to me it felt like holding up a piece of a puzzle but not having the surrounding pieces assembled. Now all the pieces lock in place.
I remember my conversations with Gabriela before I broke up with Buck, her reality checks, my guilt over dumping Buck. His kindness. His mom’s rage.
“Well, I guess men like that exist—real white knights,” I tell Gabriela.
She walks over to me, places her hands on each of my biceps and stares at me head-on. I trust her. She knows me. Her dark brown eyes convey the deep love and history we share.
“Are you sure you want to come back to Boston?”
Looking into Gabriela’s eyes, I feel it.Home. She’s home to me in a way nothing else is. Aiden provided me a home and I’ll never forget it—or him. But Gabriela and I have known each other our whole lives. We don’t need words. We’re transparent to one another.
“He didn’t ask me to stay.”
I stare at her letting the reality sink in the same way it’s been threatening to drown me ever since Jesse left yesterday.
“It’s time,” I assure Gabriela.
I take a steadying breath.
A silent understanding passes between us.
“Okay, then,” she says, brushing her hands down her skirt. “Let’s get going.”
“I missed you,” I tell her as I grab my suitcase handle and walk toward the door. “I think, even when I couldn’t remember details, I still had an empty space where you’ve always been. And I knew it. The day I remembered you, I put on Bomba and baked mancenditas.”
I don’t mention how I hand fed Aiden a cookie in the kitchen and what it felt like being the object of his desire and full attention as his lips passed over my fingers while he took the cookie into his mouth. At the time I thought our connection hinted at promises of a future together. Now that evening in the kitchen is flattened to another moment for my mental scrapbook.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” Gabriela sways her hips and hums a little, moving her arms as if the music is playing right now.
I laugh and turn to join her for a few steps.
Gabriela wraps her arms around me and embraces me.
“I missed you, Mal. You’re my person.”
