The Summer Proposal by Vi Keeland

But Georgia froze. Her laughing abruptly stopped.

“Gabriel? What are you doing here?”



• • •



“I’m sorry.” The asswipe rubbed the back of his neck. “I texted you, but you didn’t answer.”

Georgia shook her head. “My phone was on airplane mode. I must’ve forgotten to turn it back on. But why are you here?”

“I came to talk to you. You weren’t home, and I still have my key. I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”

My eyes zeroed in on a suitcase. I folded my arms across my chest. “It’s New York City. There are hotels on every corner.”

He looked at Georgia. “I just want to talk to you. I’ll go to a hotel after if that’s what you want.”

If that’s what you want. This fucker walked out on her months ago and had the balls to let himself in? He apologized, yet his territorial stance told me he felt like he had every right to come back.

He was taller than I’d expected from the picture I’d seen, and in better shape. But I’d crush him without breaking a sweat, if it came to that. At the moment, I kind of hoped it did.

But instead, the guy took a step toward me and extended his hand. “I’m Gabriel Alessi. I’m sorry if I’ve interrupted your evening.”

I made no attempt to move.

Georgia sized up the situation and put her hand on my arm. “Max, do you think we can talk for a moment?”

I looked over at her, but said nothing. She nodded toward her bedroom. “In my room. Do you think we can talk in there?”

I glared at the guy for a good, long while before nodding. I was pissed. It felt like smoke should be coming from my nose. But when I followed Georgia in and she looked up at me with tears welling in her eyes, the ache in my chest made me bend. I couldn’t handle any woman crying, but especially not Georgia when she hadn’t done anything wrong.

“I don’t know what to do,” she said.

I blew out a rush of air and nodded. “What do you want to do?”

“Honestly, I want to curl up in my bed and just go to sleep.”

“Do you want to talk to him?”

She looked down for a long time. “I’d like to know why he’s here.”

To me, it was obvious. The fucker wanted to put her on ice for more than a year and have his fun. But the minute he found out she was putting herself out there and not sitting at home crying, he’d hopped on the first plane to New York. “Do you want me to leave?”

She was quiet again. “I don’t think I’m in the right frame of mind to be with either of you. You have been nothing but good to me since the moment we met, and I’m not going to disrespect you by having you walk out of my apartment while another man is sitting in my living room, a man you know I have a past with. I’d also rather not spend time with you while my head is spinning and I’m emotional over Gabriel coming back. So I think it’s best if I tell Gabriel I’ll meet him tomorrow somewhere, and he and I can talk.”

While I would have preferred to have her tell me to toss the guy out on his ass, her solution was fair. I’d come into this knowing he was on the sidelines and would come back into play at some point. I just didn’t expect it to be today, that was for sure. But I respected Georgia’s decision, and I also hated that she looked like she was going to break if I did anything but agree.

So I nodded and opened my arms to her. “Okay. Come here.”

She melted into me. I held her tightly for as long as I could, then kissed the top of her head. “Call me if you want to talk, okay?”

She forced a smile and nodded. “Thank you, Max.”

“I’m going to walk out first. But I’m going to wait downstairs to make sure he doesn’t give you a hard time before I leave.”

“He won’t. But I know that will make you feel better. Thank you for being so protective of me.”

Georgia took a deep breath before we walked out of the bedroom. I waited until I got to the door before turning back and pointing to Gabriel. “Don’t make me regret walking out this door first. Be respectful.”

My heart pounded as I left. I knew leaving without a scene was the right thing to do, but that didn’t make it suck any less. Outside, I told the driver we needed to stay a little while, and then I leaned against the car and waited. Not quite five minutes had passed before the door to her building opened again, and Gabriel walked out, wheeling his bag. He took a few steps and faltered, finding me leaning against the car. Our eyes locked, and we continued to stare until he reached the sidewalk. Then he turned without a word and walked on down the block. Guess he was smarter than he looked.





CHAPTER 20




* * *



Georgia



Nervous was sort of a pass-through stage for me.

I hated the churning that happened in my stomach whenever I was anxious about something. I hated not being able to focus on anything other than whatever was freaking me out, and most of all, I hated that no matter how hard I analyzed things, I couldn’t come up with a solution. All of this made me angry—and that was the stage I’d just entered as I sat in the restaurant at eleven fifty-eight the next day and watched Gabriel walk to the table for our noon lunch.

He smiled, but I didn’t reciprocate.