Kissing Under the Mistletoe (33 page)

“And I have a question,” Gabe said. The chill in his voice was nothing compared to the pure disgust in his expression when Regan turned around.

Gabe stood, bouquet of pink flowers in one hand, stack of papers in the other, and stared down at Regan like she was a complete disappointment and waste of space.

Behind him was an army of DeLucas, one more intimidating than the next. With their chests puffed out and shoulders back, they took up so much space that there didn’t seem to be enough left for Regan.

She wanted to run. Grab Holly, get in her car, and drive until the pressure building in her heart stopped.

She breathed in slowly and tipped up her chin. Letting them know that they scared her wasn’t an option. So she took a step forward, knowing that if she could get Gabe alone things would be okay. She would be okay.

“Don’t.” He held up his hand, the one that was strangling the bouquet, to keep her away. And if that wasn’t painful enough, he looked at Abigail, his face soft and concerned. “Are you okay?”

Regan felt as if he’d slapped her with the trunk of a Christmas tree, the star lodging in her chest and puncturing
her heart. She never expected him to put her above his family. Had hoped maybe one day to be on equal footing with them. But never in a million years would she have imagined him to be purposefully cruel about reminding her where exactly she stood in his life.

Message read loud and clear.

“If you’ll excuse me,” she said, stepping around the precious family discussion. She got two steps before Gabe was in front of her, shoving a stack of papers at her.

“Mind explaining this first?”

“W
hat is this?” Regan asked, cautiously eyeing him and the papers.

Gabe didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer. The pain in his gut made it impossible to breathe, let alone speak.

The last thing he wanted to do was stand there with his family as witnesses and hurt the one person in the room who wasn’t expecting anything from him. But he was out of options. And Regan was going to need one hell of a story to get herself out of this one.

Still, seeing her body tremble, her eyes dart toward the dressing room door, no doubt worried that Holly would come out, tore at him.

“She’s with ChiChi.”

Her face lost all color. Shit. Gabe hadn’t meant to make it sound like this was some big DeLuca plot, where they were going to gang up on her when she was alone and scare her into leaving town. Then again, that’s what this was. But ChiChi wasn’t in on it.

“I see.” Her voice cracked.

Nobody else could tell how close Regan was to tears, or how scared she was, but Gabe could. It was the way she refused to blink those big eyes, which had turned a cloudy blue, and how her hands had all but disappeared under the cuffs of her sweater. Regan was doing what she’d done her whole life, holding it together.

A part of him, the part that felt alive for the first time since his parents died, wanted to forget the whole thing and go back to two hours ago, when all he could think about was her naked in his bed, sleeping in his arms. The other part of him that was the head of his family, the protector of his siblings, the fucking hero of the day, pushed the bank statement into her hand.

Regan looked down and froze. “I don’t understand. How did you get this?”

Not: What is this?

Or even: I’m sorry.

But: How did you get this?

Gabe took a step back, away from Regan, away from his family, away from the pain rushing at him.

“Does it matter?” Frustration tightened his fists, so he rubbed at the back of his neck to keep from punching the told-you-so smirk off Marc’s face. When that didn’t work, he turned his back to his family and faced the woman who had just ripped out his chest. “I believed you. Believed that you weren’t responsible for any of this. I defended you to my family. And you lied.”

“It’s not what you think.” Her voice barely filled the space.

“Really? Because it looks like you opened an account in Holly’s name, transferred all of my sister’s money there,
only to reroute it somewhere else. Jesus, Regan, you put it in Holly’s name. What kind of mother does that?”

“Don’t you
ever
discount me as a mother. Everything I have ever done has been for Holly. Everything.” She looked at the papers and back to him. “You want to know what this is?” She slapped the papers against his chest. And suddenly he didn’t want to know.

Her eyes told him everything. He’d messed up. Big time.

His brothers had come at him, proof of betrayal in hand, emotions on high. He’d listened and then reacted. Not because he thought she was guilty—deep down he knew Regan would never take money she didn’t earn—but because she scared the shit out of him. He didn’t know what to do with a woman who didn’t need him, didn’t want him fixing her life.

So he did what any moron would do: he created a problem. Only this time he wasn’t so sure he could fix his way out of it.

“
This
is what happens when a nineteen-year-old is pregnant and alone. I had no way to take care of Holly. No one would hire me. Then Richard showed up saying he wanted to do the right thing. So when he opened an account in Holly’s name to help pay for diapers and formula, I didn’t ask questions.”

“It was a Swiss account,” Marc accused. “Who the hell opens a Swiss account?”

“It had less than a thousand dollars in it. And he’s Italian,” she defended. “I had no idea what he was doing until I got a call from the bank asking why I had closed out the account. I assumed Abby had finally kicked him out and he’d taken back the money. But when I got the statement showing that twelve million dollars had been deposited and withdrawn only minutes apart, I knew that Richard had played me.”

“Then why didn’t you tell anyone?” Abby accused.

“When the police showed up asking questions about him, I told them everything. At first they saw exactly what Richard had hoped for: the daughter of an illegal immigrant and a teen mother with no job. Thankfully
they
were smart enough to actually check with Interpol and verify that I hadn’t made the transaction.” She shot a look at Gabe.

“They cut us out of the investigation. I only knew that the money was gone and Abby was a suspect. I had no idea who they had talked to or who they cleared,” Gabe said.

“Yeah, well, neither did I. I didn’t know whose money it was until recently.”

“Why didn’t you tell me the other day...”
In my bed, when I was holding you and spilling my guts about how I’d let down my family.

“You mean confide in the guy who ruined six years of my life for
accidently
sleeping with his brother-in-law?” She laughed mercilessly.

“Finding this account has changed the entire direction of our investigation,” Gabe said, needing her to understand just what this meant to his family. “It actually led us to another account Richard had set up for Holly in the Cayman Islands. Now we have a lead, a real chance at catching the bastard.”

“You people really can’t see past your family, can you?” Regan choked out. “All I want is to keep my daughter safe.”

He took a step forward, needing to touch her, make this right. “Regan, I wouldn’t have—”

This time she stopped him. “Don’t go there, Gabe. You already did and you’d do it again. You would do anything to protect your family.” Her eyes went wide and her lips parted on a breath. “Oh, my God.”

She took a step back.

Then another.

“You were asking Holly about Richard.” Her hand covered her mouth and his chest hollowed out as he saw her put everything together. “You came to my house to ask me about Richard, not to help me move. From day one you’ve been asking about Richard. Even when we were...”

She glanced around, as if suddenly remembering that his entire family and a few PTA parents were in the hall, listening to everything. Her face flushed with humiliation.

She dropped her head, and Gabe for the first time saw a glimmer of that little girl who had been teased and discarded and forced to stand on her own—apart from everyone else. Except that when she looked up, he realized that she no longer had a floor to stand on, he’d ripped it out from under her.

“I’m such an idiot,” she said heartbreakingly soft. “You slept with me because...” She pressed a hand to her stomach. “I let you in my house, around Holly, trusted you with my heart, and the whole time...”

Now it was his turn to explain. Only this time he was guilty of everything she had accused him of.

“It started out that way.” He took a step closer, and she backed farther away. “But then I got to know you, and in the end—”

“In the end”—her big blue eyes darkened with sorrow—“you were a jerk just like everyone else. And you want to know the worst part?”

No, he didn’t want to know anything else.

“I really thought this year”—her breath caught—“that this year was going to be a perfect Christmas.”

“Regan, wait.” He grabbed her arm when she turned to leave. “I’m sorry. I am so fucking sorry.”

She looked at him for a long time, the tears finally spilling over her pretty lashes. She opened her mouth and took a thorough inventory of his family. Holly came out of the dressing room then, dragging an apologetic ChiChi with her.

Regan looked back at Gabe and shook her head, sad and slow. “It’s not enough this time.”

With an angry swipe at her cheeks, she pulled herself together for Holly, her strength amazing to witness. Then she met her daughter halfway, hugging her tightly and congratulating her on her part in the musical before clasping her hand and heading toward the exit.

At the doorway Holly paused and turned, looking at him with confusion. Forcing himself to stand there and let them walk around the corner and out of sight was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do.

ChiChi rushed over, demanding to know what was going on. Nate and Trey were trying to explain the events. Marc was apologizing for not digging deeper to get the whole story. And Abby was tugging on his sleeve, asking him if he was okay. None of it mattered.

All he heard was the slamming of the metal theater doors in the distance. Gabe couldn’t remember a time in his life when he hadn’t acted in the best interest of his family. Even when it was the hard choice, he always chose family. So then why did his chest feel like it had been gutted?

Oh, shit. He looked from his family and then to the empty hallway.

Oh, shit. His breath came in fast, panicked bursts. The reality of what he had just done crashed in on him. Sure, part
of his family was standing next to him, loud and bickering and trying to figure out what had just happened. But the other part, the part of his family that he didn’t even know he possessed, had just walked out the door.

“I love her.” When no one stopped yelling, he looked his family square in the eye. “I. Love. Her.”

The hall fell uncomfortably silent. All five sets of eyes that were the exact image of his father’s looked back at him. The only set that was smiling was ChiChi’s.

“I love her,” he said again, this time just to hear how it sounded. It sounded right.

“There are a lot of emotions going on right now. Let’s take a step back and think this through,” practical, level-headed Nate said, making Gabe want to shove him through the wall.

“Listen.” Gabe waited for silence. He was only going to say this once. “I love Regan and Holly with everything that I am, and I will do whatever I have to do to win her back.” He turned to Abby and took her hands in his. “I love you and I am sorry I allowed that bastard in our lives. But I can’t keep punishing myself or Regan. So if it will be too hard on you to see us together, tell me now.”

Abby blinked, sending tears down her cheeks. “You’d still ask her to leave?”

“No, I’d go with her. I’m not willing to give up Regan, but I also don’t want Holly growing up in a place where Regan is an outcast. Understand?” Abby nodded, her mouth quivering. “So if you can’t let this go, tell me now and I’ll leave.”

“Who the hell would run the business?” Marc asked, his kid brother not looking so cocky anymore.

He looked at his family. “I guess one of you would have to figure it out. But wherever my girls go, I’m going. So if you want me around, then we’d better figure out a way to make Regan stay.”