She looked at him eagerly. “Can I see her? I’ve Googled it for, like, hours but I can’t find a single photo of her.”
“Your loss.”
“Shut up. You have a photo of her. I’m sure you do.”
He raised a brow. “You’re so sure because?”
“Duh. Because we’ve got a lot of similarities so I’m betting that you don’t want anyone knowing how sentimental you are. So if you don’t have a photo of her on your phone, then you have one in your wallet.”
He said reluctantly, “My wallet.”
She squealed and got up, running to him. “Show me. I want to see what the poor girl looks like.”
“Shut up,” he said mildly.
She laughed, jostling him on the shoulder. “Show me!”
He took out his wallet and flipped it open. The photo he revealed was that of a beautiful girl with long wheat-colored hair and turquoise eyes. If anyone was born looking like a princess, this girl was it.
“Oh my God, she’s beautiful.” She bent closer, her head touching Gabriel’s as she tried to get a closer look at the girl that had unknowingly captured the heart of someone like Gabriel.
“She’s deaf,” he said flatly.
Her eyes flew to him in surprise.
“And that’s why I…left. I don’t want to marry out of duty, but I don’t want her to think it’s because of her handicap that I’ve refused marriage.”
She touched his arm. “I’m sorry.”
Before Gabriel could speak, footsteps crunched behind them. A cold voice asked, “Am I interrupting something?”
Chapter Thirteen
Gabriel said calmly, “I’ve been keeping Keanne company and trying my best to convince her that you’re not worth waiting for.”
Keanne’s head twisted towards him. “Gabriel!” What the hell had gotten into him?
When she turned to look at Jason, his face was cold, making her gulp. “Jason, you know---”
“---I’m about to thump that bastard, so step away from him.”
She shook her head.
He said in a dangerously silent voice, “Remember your promise.”
“But---”
He only looked at her, challenging her to prove that she indeed mean it.
Slowly, she stepped away, knowing that Jason would not forgive her if she disobeyed him so flagrantly now. But if he thought that was it, then he was in for a surprise. Before he could take a step towards Gabriel, who was still the very picture of arrogance – how perverse he was, the jerk! – she said Jason’s name softly.
Jason’s head jerked towards her.
“For me, too, Jason. Surely you know me better than think I’d love anyone but you?”
The words were completely unexpected, and even Gabriel was stunned. The expressions on their faces were so similar it was comical. Maybe, she mused, maybe it wasn’t she and Gabriel who were the same. Maybe it was Jason and Gabriel, both of them so proud that they would rather act selfless than fight for what they truly wanted. Because if they fought and lost – then that would hurt more.
Jason said half-bitterly, “You do not fight fair, ma petite.”
“So do you, mon bebe.”
His lips twisted. “Touche.”
She inclined her head towards Gabriel. “Don’t be jealous of him. He has his own love problem to worry about.”
Jason raised a brow. “Is that so?”
Looking at Jason, she decided that she was indeed wrong. It wasn’t her and Gabriel who were alike. It was Jason and Gabriel, and some of their bad habits just happened to rub off on her.
She smiled at him when their eyes met. “You made it.”
Jason forgot everything about Gabriel at the sight of that smile. He forgot all about his trouble with Davos and his conflicting feelings for Lilac. All he saw then was Keanne, and…
Her love for him.
She really did love him.
How it happened, Jason doubted she even knew. He could see in her gaze that her love was no new thing, that it was a feeling that had matured over the years, rooted in friendship before becoming something so powerful that it colored every aspect of her life.
Was that what true love was?
So powerful it was everywhere you see?
If it was, then that had not been how he felt with Lilac.
The darkening expression on Jason’s face worried Keanne and she asked, “Is there a problem?”
He touched his heart.
Ah.
Her lips trembled, and her voice wobbled as she said without taking her gaze off Jason, “I think you have to go now, Gabriel.”
“Of course.” Gabriel’s voice was kind, as if he instinctively understood that Keanne had just been gifted with something so precious he would have been the most insensitive brute to provoke Jason into another jealous rage.