Page 75 of For Always
“And I’m not dealing with it too well,” he said. “Gabriella, please reconsider.”
“It’s better this way,” she said and sat back against the couch again. “This way, when I come back—because Tyler, I definitely plan to come back to you—I’ll be whole and renewed and completely healed. And then we can start our future, on new and solid footing.”
“I don’t like this idea,” he said with a mock frown. “But I understand that you need to do this for yourself. I respect that you want to do this for yourself.”
“And for us,” she told him. “I want there to be an ‘us’, Tyler. Please don’t doubt that.”
He smiled. “No. I don’t doubt it. I just don’t want you to forget it.”
“I won’t,” she said. “Here, get your phone out.”
She’d slipped her phone into her back pocket and she pulled it out while Tyler released her hand and retrieved his from the side pocket of his sweat pants.
“Pull up your calendar. We’re going to set a date,” she said.
He chuckled. “Okay. But what are we setting a date for?”
“For September the first at three o’clock in the afternoon. That’s when we’ll meet back here at the equestrian center. The place where we first met,” she said after she finished typing it into her phone.
She leaned over to make sure he’d typed the same thing into his phone and smiled when he hit the save button and returned his phone to its locked screen.
“September the first,” Tyler said while gazing into her eyes. “At three o’clock sharp I’ll be at the equestrian center with GG and Brown Eyes waiting for you.”
“I’ll be there,” she promised.
“Don’t make me wait a second longer,” he whispered as he moved in closer.
“Not one second longer,” she stated just seconds before they sealed their deal with a kiss.
Chapter 18
2 weeks later, August 31st
Greenwich, Connecticut
“Atoast,” Alex said. “To Gabriella. A fierce and determined young woman who took no crap from Austin Sterner as he stood in the courtroom and tried to deny all that he’d done to her.”
Although she hated being the spotlight of tonight’s family dinner, Gabriella lifted her glass and accepted the toast to herself. She deserved it for everything she’d endured in the last two weeks.
When she’d returned home from Hobbs Creek, Gabriella hadn’t been certain how she was going to deal with Austin, she just knew that she had to do something. So, after going to the police station and filing a formal complaint for harassment, she’d gone to the office where she used to work with Austin under the pretext of returning some literature that belonged to them which she still had in her home office.
Faran Beulsky, the lead agent at the firm happened to be at the front desk when she’d arrived.
“Hello, Gabriella. It’s such a nice surprise to see you again,” Faran had said.
He’d always been very nice to her and so Gabriella had smiled at him genuinely. “I’m only back in Greenwich temporarily, Faran. Just wanted to drop these materials off to you.”
“Ah yes,” he said taking the stack of pamphlets and papers from her. “I heard that you were working for the Proctor Group now. I’m sure they have you traveling a lot.”
“Yes. As a matter of fact I’ve just returned from a project in Texas.”
“That’s wonderful,” Faran said. “No. That is a lie. It’s not wonderful. I wish you were here still working with us.”
“Why thank you, Faran. I did enjoy my time here with you and the other agents. It just became too uncomfortable after Austin and I broke up,” she told him.
“What? You mean that rumor was true?”
“What rumor is that, Faran?”
