Page 41 of Scoundrel for Sale
A stag stepped out of the woods. Gabe had never seen such a magnificent specimen. It was huge, its antlers easily three feet long, and its russet coat thick and glossy.
Gabe expected the stag to flee at the sight of them, but much to his astonishment, it strode calmly, majestically, across the path and onto the green, unperturbed by the pair of humans a mere fifteen feet away.
It finally came to a stop just beside Hart’s headstone.
Hart. Suddenly Gabe’s heart was pounding out of his chest.
“Gabe,” Abbie whispered, “it’s—”
“A hart,” he finished for her, his voice strangled. They were clinging to each other’s hands, and… Gabe didn’t know what to think. It was ridiculous. It was impossible.
A hart was standing on his best friend, Hart’s, grave, as tranquil as the surface of a pond. It sounded like some childish fancy to regard it as a sign. And yet even Gabe, hardened soldier that he was, couldn’t help but wonder…
The hart stood perfectly still, regarding them with serene brown eyes. An image flashed through his mind of Hart’s warm brown eyes, crinkling at the corners as he smiled. It looked at Abbie, and then at Gabe.
Then slowly, deliberately, it bowed its head.
It held the pose for sixteen beats of Gabe’s thundering heart before it straightened. Then it strode back across the green and disappeared into the woods, leaving not a trace behind.
Abbie and Gabe stood in stunned silence, clinging to each other. Eventually, Abbie shook her head. “Did I imagine that?”
“If you did, we’re sharing the same delusion.” Gabe ran a hand over his eyes. “I can’t believe I’m about to say this.”
What an understatement. Gabe didn’t believe in this rot. He’d spent nine years in the army. He’d fought in all the bloodiest battles—Albuera, Talavera, Waterloo. He’d buried far too many of his friends to believe in guardian angels.
If Gabe had a guardian angel, he’d done a shit job for the first thirty-one years of his life.
And yet… and yet… what other explanation was there for that hart?
He had nothing. And he suddenly realized that deep down…
… he wanted to believe. That your life wasn’t just chance. That there was something else out there, some purpose to it all.
That the people he’d lost weren’t really gone forever. That he would see Hart again, and his parents, too.
Someday.
Something inside of him shifted. When he glanced down at Abbie, he wasn’t quite as jaded as he’d been the moment before. “I think your brother just gave us his blessing.”
The strangest thing was, he actually meant it.
Tears were pouring down Abbie’s face. “I think so, too.”
Gabe fished his handkerchief out of his pocket. Gravel scattered as Tiago came skidding to a stop behind them. “You have to marry her now!”
Gabe laughed at his friend’s mulish expression. “I’d already decided I would. But now…” He glanced toward the copse into which the hart had disappeared. “Now I won’t feel guilty about it.”
Tiago smiled, delighted. “So you have already proposed!”
“God damn it,” Gabe muttered. “I didn’t actually ask the question.”
Abbie squeezed his arm. “The answer is yes.”
Gabe studied her in the fading light. “Are you sure, Abbie? Let’s face it, I’m a bit of a wreck. I didn’t have the best childhood, and I just spent nine years in the army. I feel like you deserve someone better than me. Someone who’s… whole.”
Her eyes were bright. “What a coincidence. I’m broken, too. It’s why we understand each other so well.”
Gabe rubbed the back of his head. “I suppose that’s true.”
