Page 3 of For Always
Her suite at the Westwind Resort was lovely. From the gorgeous dark stained real hardwood floors to the heavy cherry oak furniture and the detailed stone fireplace, it was a vacationer’s dream. In fact, from her walk around the interior of the resort, Gabriella saw very little that needed staging, a fact that made her wonder what she was doing here.
“Well, unfortunately, we’ve met a few of them in our lifetime,” her sister, Adriana replied.
“And we’ll probably meet more,” Gabriella chimed in.
A king-size bed was way too big for her because it reminded her that she was in bed alone. A fact that used to be liberating. In the five months that had changed.
“At least you’re at a resort. You can work and play, right?” Adriana asked.
Rubbing a hand over her closed eyes Gabriella took a second to re-focus herself. She spent way too much time doing that, but feared it couldn’t be helped.
“There’s a great outside pool, but the gym is on the small side. There’s no spa. I think adding one would definitely increase the asking price. And there are horses.”
She opened her eyes and stared up to the beige painted ceiling with its thick wooden beams.
“I visited the stables today and the horses there are beautiful,” she told Adriana. “I can’t remember the last time I rode a horse.”
“Senior year of high school when you worked at the Lehigh Summer Camp,” Adriana said. “That’s the year Dad sold the two Thoroughbreds he’d let us ride occasionally. I believe they both went on to win races for several years after that.”
“I never cared about the racing. I just liked riding. There was something really invigorating about it.”
“And you were good at it. So why don’t you book a horse ride while you’re there?” Adriana asked. “I mean it, Gabs, you should take some time to relax.”
Gabriella chuckled. “For the last seven years everyone in the family has been asking, ‘When are you going to get a job?’, ‘What are your plans for the future?’ Now that I have a job that I really enjoy, you’re telling me to take some time off.”
“No, I’m telling you to enjoy your life,” Adriana said. “For the past five years I’ve watched nothing but turmoil erupt around the people I love most. It started with Roland Summerfield and his crazy daughter Larice nursing broken hearts and harboring grudges bringing all kinds of stalking and shoot-out drama to our family. Then Parker’s family deals with their own secret son drama complete with more shoot-outs and murders. And, as if we’re keeping some type of tit-for-tat going on, Rico and Eva were just re-visited by very emotional media coverage about the two-year anniversary of her brother being killed by that cop.”
Gabriella recalled each situation and all the different reactions each incident had stirred between members of her family and by extension, the Donovan, Lakefield and Desdune families. It had been a rough patch of years for all of them, she readily admitted that. Just as she reminded herself that keeping her own little drama a few months ago to herself was still for the best.
“I understand,” she told Adriana. “I haven’t taken a trip since your wedding last year. And I definitely have a nice vacation on the radar. But not until I finish this job. If all goes well I could land an exclusive design deal with The Proctor Group.”
“They’re a trading group, right? Explain to me again, how this works out for you and your interior design career?”
Sitting up now, Gabriella kicked off her sandals and tucked her feet beneath her. She loved talking about her work, especially to her family since it had taken them all so long to see how serious she was about her career choice. Gabriella had known immediately that she didn’t want to work for Bennett Industries, a global communications company, alongside her father, Marvin, and brothers Alex and Rico. Her other brother Renny was a sculptor and her only sister, Adriana, had first gone into modeling, but was now starring in a popular television drama and two new movies next year. Waiting until she was twenty-seven years old to finally decide where she would work had been an ongoing source of frustration for her parents and siblings. But Gabriella knew that she needed to take her time figuring out what career would be best for her. Now, she knew she was doing what she was always meant to do.
“My degree in Design Strategy & Innovation allows me to be flexible in what jobs I take. The Proctor Group specializes in the sale of home/businesses, such as farms, wineries and ranches. My job is to meet with the client to ensure that their ultimate goal is to sell. In that case, I work primarily as a stager, getting the properties ready to secure optimum value for the client. On the off chance that there’s a change of mind and the client decides to stay in their property, I’m still available with an assessment regarding interior design. It’s a win/win situation.”
“Okay, if you say so,” Adriana said with a chuckle. “I’m just glad to hear you sound excited about something.”
“I am excited.” Gabriella admitted. “Even if the client was a rude brute earlier. I plan to wow him with my winning smile and charm tomorrow evening at dinner.”
“You’re having dinner with your client?”
“A dinner meeting, I suppose. He suggested it so I’m just going to show up and play things by ear. Which reminds me, I have to go. I want to do some more research and beef up my preliminary report on the resort.”
“Okay, I’ll let you go. But I want to tell you something first.”
Gabriella stood from the bed and headed to the desk near the window where her laptop was already set up. “Sure. What’s up?”
There was a pause and for a moment Gabriella became nervous. Was something else going on with Adriana and her new family? The Donovans had been through a lot in these last three years and because she was married to Parker, that meant Adriana had been in the thick of things. With the death of Roslyn Ausby, the woman responsible for the blackmail and murders that plagued the family, Gabriella and the rest of the Bennett family had breathed a sigh of relief that now, finally, all would be well.
“I’m pregnant.”
Everything stopped. And then moved with a speed that made Gabriella suddenly lightheaded. The room was spinning and her hands were shaking. So much so, she almost dropped the phone.
“Gabs? You still there?”
“Ah, yeah. Yeah,” she said after all her effort went into holding that phone tightly to her ear. She’d leaned against the desk and hoped her legs wouldn’t totally give out and she crumbled to the floor.
