Page 109 of Every Broken Piece
“I don’t know why you bother with me,” I say through a tight throat. “I’m a mess and I don’t know if I’ll ever not be a mess.”
He cups my cheeks and looks deep into my eyes, his gaze filled with an unwavering emotion I’m afraid to believe in. “I’m all in for the messy, Tess. Because you’re worth it.”
He drops his hands and slides out of bed, giving me a moment to blink my blurred vision back into focus. “Eat your blueberry muffin, get dressed, and meet me in the kitchen in twenty minutes. I have plans for you today.”
And he walks out. Like he didn’t just wrap his large hands around my heart and squeeze it so tight that it will never beat the same again.
Fifteen minutes later, one blueberry muffin consumed, dressed as he instructed, I find him in the kitchen, leaning against the counter, sipping coffee, and scrolling on his phone. He’s wearing hiking boots and there’s a cooler next to his feet.
When he hears me approach, he looks up and smiles. And that heart he just squeezed? It’s beating double time.
“No bucket list t-shirt?”
I look down at my shirt because he made me forget what I was wearing. “Is this okay?” I pull at the hem of my simple, gray V-neck shirt. It’s a little dressier than the oversized souvenir shirts I’ve been wearing, but still casual.
He takes a sip of his coffee, his gaze trained on me with some warm, yet unidentifiable emotion swirling in its depths. “You do you, Tess. You want to wear a toga, wear a toga. You want to wear a cocktail dress to go hiking, wear a cocktail dress. Someday I’ll convince you to stop worrying about what people think.”
Chapter forty-nine
Tess
Towering red cliffs rise up against a pristine blue sky that is so breathtaking it almost hurts my eyes. I never knew such a stunning place existed.
How will I ever return to my mundane existence after experiencing this? It’s like God said let me toss some very large rocks around, paint them red, set them close to ginormous, blue and gray snow-capped mountains on a backdrop of brilliant blue skies.
Perfect.
“I don’t get out here much.” Gabe is standing next to me; his head tilted to the sky. “I should make more of an effort.”
“If this were in my back yard, I’d be here every day.” A line of horses with riders pick their way down a path a few hundred yards away. Maybe I could ride a horse one day through these majestic rocks.
“Should we buy you a t-shirt to commemorate this?” He smiles down at me and playfully flicks the end of my ponytail.
“No. The t-shirts are for places I’ve never been.”
“So you’ll retire them once you visit the city?”
“I doubt I’ll get to any of those cities.”
He pauses, his eyes flashing something fierce and determined. “I’ll make sure you go to every city you have a t-shirt for.”
I so badly wish that were true, but let’s be honest. Gabe lives an entirely different existence than normal people. It’s easy for a billionaire to pick up and travel all over the world. Not so easy for a struggling PA with massive mommy issues.
The future scares me.Hemakes me scared of the future by the way he so casually throws things out like he’s going to take me to every city I’ve ever wanted to visit. I can’t let myself dream of such things. If...when...Sandra finds me I’ll need to move on.
“You hungry?” Thankfully his question dismantles my spiraling thoughts. All I want to do is step away from the past for one day to create a memory I can relive when real life returns.
“I could eat.”
“Let’s head back to the car and have lunch.”
We’re about a quarter of a mile from the car when a flash of white high up on a boulder catches my eye. I grab Gabe’s arm and point. “Look.”
Standing on top of a tall rock formation is a woman in a white bridal gown, the wind teasing the ends of her hair and the hem of her dress. She’s facing a man in a dark suit who’s smiling down at her. Another man holding a book speaks to them.
“This is a popular place to get married,” Gabe says.
Besides those of us who stopped to watch, there are no other witnesses. No family or friends. Just the man and the woman, the officiant and, nature. It’s beautifully simplistic and it makes me yearn for things I long since gave up on.
