That being said, I was always grateful when she came to collect them at the end of a babysitting day.
We were only two years apart, and yet Krista sometimes seemed like such an old lady with her mothering advice.
“What’s going on?” Krista demanded as my mouth pursed together silently. “Why are you so out of sorts?”
My initial reaction was to become defensive, but I stopped myself, knowing she meant well.
You must learn to see things from other people’s perspective before reacting.
It was a tactic I had learned in school.
I may as well employ it somewhere seeing as I’d never get to use it for work.
You’ve spent so much of your life fighting for yourself and what you want that you don’t even recognize when someone is being kind, I told myself with some shame. You don’t need to fight anymore. You got what you wanted, right?
“Gabriella.”
Her voice was filled with exasperation now, waiting for a response.
I forced myself to answer.
“I don’t know,” I confessed, and that was much more difficult to admit than I thought it would be. “I don’t know what’s wrong.”
To my surprise, Krista nodded wisely.
“It happens to a lot of people,” she replied gently, and I eyed her warily.
“What does? Working full speed for your entire life, only to realize it was all for nothing?”
My sister snorted, likely at my flair for the dramatic.
“First of all, your life hasn’t even begun, so if you think all your effort and payoff since elementary school is indicative of what’s in store for you, sis, you’re in for a rude awakening.”
She was not alleviating my distress in the least.
There is nothing more annoying than someone telling you that your fears don’t count because there’s actually something a lot worse waiting for you around the corner.
But I didn’t bother to explain this to my sister.
“Secondly, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” she said sweetly, “but you are not the only college graduate to not have everything totally figured out the day after graduation.”
A jolt of irritation twitched through my body, and I was instantly tense, crossing my Lululemon shoes at the ankles as my fists clenched.
“Don’t get defensive,” Krista instructed, waving at our server for the bill. “I have a solution for you.”
“Just like that?” I snapped before folding my arms over my breasts. “You have the answer to my pre-life crisis? Have you found a magic lamp? Are you going to grant me three wishes?”
Krista laughed and reached for the check as the waitress approached.
“You wouldn’t even know what to wish for if I had,” she retorted. I hated to admit that she was right.
What would I wish for? Clarity? Money? Bigger boobs?
“I think you should take the summer and go to the cabin in Vermont,” she replied, reaching for her purse. “Colin and I will come up in late August, but you should spend the next three months there. You’ll have the place all to yourself. Do some soul-searching. Become one with nature. Isn’t that the kind of shit millennials are supposed to do these days?”
I let the dig about millennials slip.
Really, how much older does she think she is? If I’m a millennial, then so is she!
“I can’t do that!” I sighed. “I have—” What I did have was no excuse. “I just can’t.”
I couldn’t think of one logical reason not to do it. Not one.
“Why not? It’s not like you have any other plans for the summer. Do you really want to wake up every morning and have a discussion with Mom and Dad about your future?”
I gaped at her, my mouth parting to protest, but the words faded before they reached my lips.
She did have a very valid point.
As I sat there contemplating the idea, Krista slid a set of keys across the table.
“Do you remember how to get there?”
I shook my head. I hadn’t been to our family cottage on Lake Champlain since I was in my early teens—well before I had learned how to drive.
All I remembered was that it was just outside the town of St. Albans.
“I’ll email you the directions. The cell reception and Wi-Fi are good up there, so you’ll have no problem staying in touch, but it’s nice and remote otherwise. I would recommend a good shopping trip before you go. I highly doubt the general store carries chocolate Cheerios.”
Our eyes met again, and I could not stop the slow smile forming on my lips.
My sister knew me so well, no matter how different we might be.
“Thank, Kris.”
She shrugged nonchalantly.
“Don’t forget to stock up on avocado toast,” she replied lightly.
~ ~ ~
It was a three-hour drive from my childhood home in Sarasota Springs, New York, to the cottage I remembered so fondly from my childhood.
I expected the ride to be laced with nostalgia, but truth be told, I didn’t recall any of the roads or landmarks as I passed them.
The trip up I-89 was relatively calm; I left in midday traffic, my trusty Civic leading the way through upstate New York. I had my laptop, a full tank of gas, and enough clothes to last me the summer. I spent the ride trying to readjust my attitude, focusing on this makeshift spiritual retreat.
After all, Lake Champlain had everything I needed to clear my mind—fresh air, trees, wildlife, and a rustic but cozy cottage. Best of all, it was secluded from neighbors for miles around.
It was the isolation that I was most looking forward to; if I was going to recalibrate, I needed to do it without distractions.
If it got to be too lonely or if cabin fever set in, I could always head into St. Albans or down to Burlington.
As long as I was relatively alone, I didn’t care.
I suspected that the key to finding my way back to my path, the answer to my angst, was in the solitude.
Krista gives decent advice, I thought wryly. Maybe I should listen to her more often. And she certainly nags much less than Mom.
I quickly dismissed the idea.
If I had listened to my sister, I would have been prom queen, captain of the cheerleading squad, and lost my virginity in the back of some pickup truck to a guy named Chuck or Chad.
Instead, I had opted for a career. A future of my own making on my own terms.
And look where that gotten me. Not only have I never had a boyfriend, I have no career either.
Deciding to put off pondering where I had gone wrong until I reached the lake house, I blasted the stereo, eventually finding myself singing along until I was screaming along to Modest Mouse at the top of my lungs.
I managed to block out the mocking thoughts hiding in the recesses of my mind as if my own psyche were taunting me.
The music was a good distraction for the time being.
As I made my way across the state line into Vermont, a deep sense of relief seemed to fill me, as if New York had been the cause of my worries all along.
Maybe that’s the key—getting out of New York.
A renewed confidence filled me, and I started to have a really good feeling about the retreat.
Soon, I was on the backroads leading to my family’s long-standing cottage on a nameless laneway, sunlight dripping through the leafy branches of the trees, casting a halo on everything it touched.
Before I do anything, I told myself, I need to send Krista a text, thanking her for this idea. I don’t give her enough credit for—
I slammed on the brakes, my eyes almost popping out of my head in shock.
“What the hell?” I demanded aloud, leaning forward to flick off the radio as if the music was making me hallucinate.
I blinked twice, slowly lowering my foot to the gas, the car inching forward.
If I had not seen our cabin directly on the left, I would have been certain that Krista had sent me to the wrong address. But
I was unmistakably at the right place.
What I could not understand was why a gated fortress had been built directly next door to our property—a looming, gothic house that looked like something out of a Grimm fairy tale.
It was two stories, erected in stone with a Tudor-style entranceway and two jutting wings running north and south.
Someone had thought slate grey was an appropriate color for cottage country, the entire structure enshrouded in a charcoal façade.
Steering my cherry-colored Civic toward my cottage, I gaped at the out of place mansion in disbelief.
Had Krista known about this?
I found it highly doubtful that my sister would have suggested a loner retreat knowing that our neighbor was Count Dracula.
All right, maybe I was exaggerating, but it was still shocking.
It seemed unlikely that such a monstrosity could have been built in under a year, which would have been the last time Krista and Colin had been there, but who could say? Clearly the owner of the house had money, and people with money could get anything they wanted, couldn’t they?
I slowly exited my vehicle, my eyes raking over the wrought-iron gate, which was emblazoned with a crest that seemed vaguely familiar to me. It irritated me that I couldn’t place where I’d seen it before.
I drew nearer, still trying to make sense of how a mini-castle had sprung up out of nowhere, and wrapped my long fingers around the bars, pressing my face to the gate in equal measures awe and annoyance.
There was not a soul in sight, but I did make out a newer Mercedes S Class in the circle driveway parked near the cobalt blue door of the house.
Whether he heard me pull up or sensed me gawking at the property, the entranceway opened, and a man stepped out. I was momentarily taken aback—the entire property looked so surreal that part of me didn’t expect there to be any inhabitants.
Even with the distance between us, I could see that he was remarkably attractive. His blazing eyes, flashing a steely blue-grey, were fixed on me.
His hair was dark and swept back into a fashionable, short style, framing an angular face.
I could not help but notice the broadness of his chest beneath the simple burgundy tee he wore, the color accentuating the bronze glow of his skin and toned biceps.
My initial anger began to fade as I felt my face grow hot.
Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to have a neighbor who looked like that. I could get used to sharing the space with him.
Like the emblem on the gate, there was something elusively familiar about the stranger, as if I had seen him before.
I offered him a tentative smile, lifting my hand to wave at him in greeting.
“Hi!” I called. “I’m—”
Before I could even process what was happening, the door slammed shut. He had retreated into the house before I could finish my introduction, leaving me standing there like an idiot, my hand still in the air, waving at no one.
A cold fury washed over me, and I spun back to my car to retrieve my belongings.
Screw that arrogant asshole! I thought angrily. I hope I never have to see his face again.
But as I hauled my bags inside my dusty, temporary home, I had a feeling that was not going to be an option.
Chapter Two
Mason
I watched from the crescent window as the blonde woman angrily unloaded her two-door Civic. Occasionally she would pause to cast baleful looks in the direction of the house.
My actions had angered her. That hadn’t been my intention, and I felt a small tinge of guilt, but my instincts had kicked in just now.
Her arrival had taken me by surprise, after all.
A small part of me wanted to apologize to her, but I knew better. Instead, I stood inside, watching her like a spy, trying to deny that a part of me kept watching her just so I could see her bend over in those short-shorts she wore. The woman had a set of long legs that did those shorts proud.
I wondered idly if she was flexible, if those long, lithe legs would lock at the ankles when I draped them over my shoulders.
“Dad, who is that?”
I jumped slightly, spinning away from my hiding spot to address my son, my cheeks staining with the heat of being caught.
“Buddy, you have got to stop sneaking up on me like that. I’m an old man. You’re going to give me a coronary.”
He looked at me defiantly.
“Who is that?” he asked again, making me stifle a sigh of resignation.
Sometimes I longed for the days when he was younger and easier to fool, but he was ten now, practically a teenager and smarter than most kids his age.
“I have no idea, Jule, but you need to remember why we’re here, right? Whoever she is, you need to keep your distance from her.”
His mouth puckered into a slight pout, his brown eyes flashing.
“Dad, how long are we going to be here?” he demanded, and I had no answer for him.
“Come on, Julian. This could be so much worse. You have the lake, the forest…”
I trailed off lamely, knowing that wasn’t the answer he wanted, but it was the best I could give him—at least for now.
He sullenly turned away, and I felt a stab of guilt.
“Jule—”
“It’s okay, Dad. I’m going to play with my Xbox.”
He was gone before I could implore him to go outside instead of playing more video games. There was no use fighting with him when he was like that.
He’ll sulk for a bit and then get over it, I thought, but I wondered how much longer he would be able to do that—sulk and forgive. It had to be getting old for him by now.
I locked the front door, my heart still pounding slightly from my encounter with the girl I had seen peering in the gate.
My initial reaction when I saw the car pull up was that she was someone who I didn’t want anywhere near my property, shattering the relative peace we had been living in for the past two months.
I suppose on some level I had known that the owners of the cabin next door would eventually show up, but it was still so early in the season.
And I certainly hadn’t expected the neighbor to be a stunning blonde with inquisitive eyes and a gorgeous smile.
Slamming my door in that face had to be one of the top five hardest things I had ever done in my life. And that was saying a lot, given who I was.
Ignore her, my gut warned me. Keep Julian hidden. You don’t know who she is. For all you know, she could be a friend of the enemy.
For a second, I wondered if I was too paranoid.
But was paranoia such a bad thing, considering everything we’d been through? I wasn’t so sure.
Then again, I wasn’t so sure about anything anymore.
How had it come to this?
It was not a trajectory I wanted to think about, even though I knew exactly how we had gotten where we were.
I pushed my back off the door and sighed deeply, making my way back to my study.
From the sunken living room, I could hear Julian’s video game blasting, and my instinct was to go in and turn it down. But I forced myself to let him continue.
He had been through a lot this past while, and I felt like I was always nagging him.
I knew I was doing this for his own protection, but it was difficult to explain that to a kid who missed his friends and wanted to go back to school.
I’m working on it, kiddo, I promised him silently, pushing my way into the den. I know you don’t think that, but I am.
Julian was on an extended vacation, whether or not he realized it. But I, on the other hand, still had work to do.
My real estate empire wasn’t going to run itself.
I flipped open my laptop and entered my password, immediately opening my e-mails.
There were no updates about Molly, but there were dozens of correspondences that needed my attention.
Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to focus on work and not on the mounting tension building up in my neck and sho
ulders.
I wanted to reach out to my assistant, Kayla, and have her tend to the mundane day-to-day stuff that seemed to be consuming me, but I couldn’t risk it. I didn’t want to explain to her or anyone else where I was.
It was too risky.
I would do it myself.
That was, of course, assuming that any of my staff still existed back in New York. I had been out of the loop so long that I might have been paying rent for an empty building in the financial district, for all I knew.
But that was the least of my concerns.
The lake house was a virtual fortress, equipped with a cutting-edge security system, cameras, and motion sensors.
It had been built in three months by out-of-state contractors while Julian and I were holed up at the castle in England, but that was no place for a boy to live.
He had hated it, and his animosity toward me had grown daily.
Still, I would prefer having him hate me temporarily than knowing the danger we faced.
All my son knew was that we were hiding. From who, he didn’t know.
I had tried to make him understand the importance of lying low, but he was ten. He didn’t understand what the world was all about—not yet.
It was my job to keep him as innocent as possible.
Even if it meant he hated me for it.
My eyes wandered from my Mac screen and fell upon a framed photo on the mahogany desktop.
It was my favorite—Olivia holding Julian when he was not quite a year old, her face bright with happiness.
Every time I looked at it, my heart hurt.
The snapshot had been taken six months before she died.
What would Liv say about all this? I wondered, yanking my eyes away from the photo.
I had no idea. She wouldn’t have been able to foresee this trouble any more than I could have.
“Dad?”
Julian appeared in the doorway of my study.
“Yeah buddy?”
“Can I go out and play?”
Automatically, I thought of the girl moving her belongings in next door, and a tinge of concern slithered through me.
“Why don’t you go out back?” I suggested. “And stay in the back.”
The Virgin’s Dance_Older Man Younger Woman Romance Page 31
