Redemption (The Bet) (46 page)

"I know! I don't know! I…
I just feel a little restless. Everything sort has me on edge and I think I'm just stressing."

Maddie
was by her side, "Ellie…"

"I'm fine. I think
I just need to eat something." She left Maddie worrying about her as she entered the kitchen and was greeted by Ronnie and Gabe.

"Hi, Ellie, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, dinner's ready, why don't you guys keep Maddie company while I finish up here?"

"I'll help.
"

"No!" at their surprised glances, Ellie flushed, "I'm practically done, there's no need for you to get your hands all dirty, Ron
. Besides, I asked you guys here for dinner, not to help me clean up."

"Is everything Okay with you?" Gabe prodded.

Ellie nodded. "Uh huh, couldn't be better!" She pushed them out then and quickly grabbed the bottle of Aspirin from the top shelf over her fridge. She dry swallowed two, taking a moment to gather her bearings.

It took Ellie ten minutes to tidy up the kitchen and five more minutes to slide the bubbling pizza from the oven and onto the flat tray before making her way to the dining room.

Bella and Dylan had eaten their own self-made pizza earlier and were now upstairs, playing games within the half hour they had before bedtime. Ellie didn't want them involved in this conversation.

"Oh! You made us pizza!" Ronnie cheered, making room for Ellie to set to tray down on the dining room table.

"Bella and Dylan helped make it, they added extra mushroom, just for you." Making-pizza- with-Mom-night, as they'd called it, had entailed flurries of flour all over the kitchen counter, on freshly laundered clothes and on adorably grinning faces.

They'd created two separate pizza pies and when they'd finished Ellie had shooed them off to get cleaned up. It'd been a f
un, relaxing time with her kids. The only bad thing had been not having Sophie around. Ellie had prepared Sophie her own pie and would bring it to her after she was through with dinner.

She missed her little monster.

They ate in relative silence, which was occasionally filled by random chatter. Maddie cheerfully regaled them with amusing anecdote of her travels. Ellie stopped listening after a while, the pizza, like sawdust in her mouth.

"Ellie!"

She jumped and turned to the pair of eyes curiously fixed on her. "What?"

"I was just wondering if you were okay. You've been very quiet." Ronnie took a sip of her water and waited for Ellie's response. "Did you and Devlin have an argument?"

Ellie settled the slice she'd been munching on and grabbed her glass of water, Ronnie's innocent inquiry taking the moisture from her mouth. Seated across from her godfather, Ellie met Gabe's gaze over the rim of her glass and almost choked on the water at the knowing look she saw there. She set her glass down and coughed into her hand, with eyes downcast she muttered, "Webrokeup."

"Wait…
what?" Gabe asked for clarification.

Knowing the inevitable was finally here, she peered up and said."Dev and I broke up." She felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from her shoulders the minute those words emptied out of her mouth.

The silence that followed however had Ellie on the defensive, knowing the fallout was coming.

"Y
ou broke up?"

She nodded. "Yes."

"What happened? It's so sudden, Ellie, are you sure?"

"I'm sure.
I've been thinking about it for a long time now, it had to be done. I didn't love him, not like I…he needed to know." Not like I love Nicholas. She'd nearly let that one slip and Ellie wasn't stupid enough to think that no one at the table realized what she'd meant. She chanced a glance at her uncharacteristically quiet godfather and wondered at the sudden take of silence.

"Say something." She urged, tension rising.

Gabe rested his elbows on the table and continued to eat, his face swiped clean of any emotion. "What do you want me to say?"

"I don't know, say
 anything, just…just don't look at me like that."

"What look am I giving you?"

"Like I've got shit for brains or something! You're looking at me like I'm the biggest idiot that ever walked the surface of this planet!"

Despite Ellie's rising ire, Gabe remained calm. "You've stopped listening to anything I have to say, so why should my opinion matter now? You'
re a grown woman, Ellie. You've made your decision, and anything I say now would be moot."

"Exactly! I'm a grown woman.
I've made my decisions, so stop punishing me for them!"

"I'm not…
"

"You are! Maybe not
deliberately, but you are, Gabe. You have been since Nicholas came back and I don't know how to make you stop."

"For someone so smart
I don't know how you got to be so dumb when it came choosing men, Ellie. First Tony, then Nicholas, they both fucked you so badly that it's taken all these years just for the scars to heal and now, the one time, the one fucking time, you actually picked a good man, a guy who practically worships the ground you walk on, you decide to throw it all away."

"You think it was that easy for me?" Ellie asked. "You think I just woke up one morning and decided to end my relationship with, Devlin?"

"No, but Nicholas's presence back in your life, sure as hell helped, didn't it?"

"This wasn't a fucking whim, Gabe! And it certainly had nothing to do with Nicholas coming back into my life! He doesn't influence my decisions. My reasons for ending my relationship with Devlin are mine alone. I don't need to explain or defend my actions to you or to anyone else. The way I
 feel for any man, Nicholas or otherwise, should not influence the way our relationship works! You're my godfather; you've been my guardian since I was sixteen. You know me far more than my own parents know me. To have to stand here and feel guilty for something that you should've backed me up on…" She furiously blinked the tears away, hating herself because she allowed them to come.

 
"I needed you to be my guardian again, Gabe. I needed your support in this." Through her hazy gaze, she poignantly regarded her godfather. "You don't know how much it hurts, knowing that I've disappointed you, for nothing less, than loving the father of my children." She pushed the chair back and immediately found the exit, but before she could get too far, Gabe cornered her and gathered her to him.

"I’m sorry. I tried…
I tried not to but I can't help it." Her shoulders shook as she sobbed, her face hidden against Gabe's chest while she babbled between surging tears.

"No, Ellie, no," Gabe held her impossibly close, his comfort and remorse that of a parent who'd unintentionally wronged his own child. "I'm
 the one who should be sorry. I've allowed my stupidity and anger to blind me to what's important. I just wanted to protect you from getting hurt again. You've been hurt so many times; I wanted you to finally be happy. I never meant to hurt you. I'm so sorry." He gently pulled her away and squatted down a little to peer at her face. “I have been punishing you, Ellie and for that, I am truly sorry."

Ellie sn
iffed, "I'm not sixteen anymore."

Gabe dropped a kiss of on Ellie's head and sadly smiled, "No, you are most definitely
 not sixteen anymore, and it's about damn time I start realizing it. But, you'll always be my daughter, Ellie. I'll never stop caring or worrying about you."

Ellie feebly smiled back. "You're going to have your
work cut out for you when Rina starts dating."

"Whic
h is why she'll be homeschooled." he cheerfully replied and they both shared a laugh.

She wrapped her arms around his waist and settled her head against his chest.
"Thanks for caring so much."

"I'll never stop." Gabe hugged her back just as fiercely.

Having stayed quiet throughout their intense argument, Ronnie and Maddie had exchanged mutual looks of distress, then understanding and now they breathed easier knowing the worse was over. "World War III over?" Maddie quipped.

"We've called a truce." Was Gabe's reply.

The remainder of dinner had a far friendlier and lighter atmosphere than when they'd began. Ronnie and Gabe took their leave a few hours later. Before the evening grew too late, Ellie packed Sophie's dinner and with a promise to return before midnight, she left for Nicholas's home.

"The king is the most important piece, but he is also the weakest. The king can only move one square in any direction. Up, down, to the sides, and diagonally. You must always be careful never to move your king into check, where he could be captured." Nicholas explained patiently to the avidly attentive twelve year old seated across from him.

He set the glass piece back onto the board and moved his fingers to the Qu
een. "Now the Queen, if moved, has the power to shift, in any straight direction-forward, backward, sideways, or diagonally. She can go as far as possible, so long as she does not move through any of her own pieces." He leaned back against his seat and surveyed his young charge.

"What is the first simple rule?"

"Protect your king. Put him to the corner of the board where he is usually safer and castle as quickly as possible...?"

Nicholas grinned, nodding
his approval, "You're a quick learner."

They'd begun their lesson's two nights ago
after Sophie had found Nicholas in his study and confessed how bored she was. She'd then gone on to plead for the silver eyed man to teach her how to play chess. Happy to oblige her, Nicholas had pushed away acquisition and mergers for a later time and called the housekeeper to bring up the chessboard and its matching pieces. Since then, promptly at nine thirty every evening, Sophie limped her way into Nicholas office, sat in one of the leather chairs by the grand fireplace and enthusiastically listened as Nicholas taught her.

"Does that mean we get to play tomorrow?" She asked eagerly.

Nicholas laughed. "We'll see.”

"Sir, Ms. Holbrook has arrived."

"Send her in." Sophie looked about as happy as Nicholas felt at the thought of seeing Ellie again.

"Very good, Sir.
" The minute the butler left, Ellie took his place and grinned at the sight of her daughter, awake and healthy, waiting for her.

"Mom!" She jumped from her seat and practically ran to her mother, embracing her when she reached her. "You came!"

Ellie laughed and held on tightly, bending her head to kiss Sophie's unruly curls. "Of course I came," she gently admonished. "Think anything could keep me away from you? Hey I think you've grown a few inches." Ellie observed, mildly serious.

Sophie grinned and slung her arm around her mother's shoulder. "No, I think you're just short, Mom."

"Keep talking like that and I won't give you any of the pizza your brother and sister helped me make."

"You made me pizza?" Her eyes lit up. "Where is it?"

"One of the maids took it to the kitchen." As though she'd felt the weight of Nicholas's gaze on her, Ellie looked up and met his unwavering glance, perforating her to the spot. "Hey, Nicholas." She said in ways of greeting.

"Hello, Ellie." His voice was smooth, calm and yet managed to conjure inappropriate images.

"How've you been? How are you feeling?" Ellie settled her attention on her daughter instead.

"I'm better, I've been getting help from Dr. Grace, she's the phys
ical therapist, Nicholas hired. She says in another month or so I won't be walking with a limp anymore."

"Well that's reassuring, I'm glad to see
you’re feeling better. You had me worried there for a bit." She confessed.

"You don't need to wo
rry about me so much, Mom. I can take care of myself." It was funny how she'd pretty much said the same thing to Gabe not even an hour ago and here was her daughter, parroting the words back to her.

"Which I have no doubt you can, but you're still my little monste
r and it's always going to be my job to worry about you, I can't stop it and I never will."

Sophie rolled her eyes, but smiled nevertheless, "Well, just don't do it too much. Hey Mom, guess what?" as though she'd just remembered that they weren't alone, she gently tugged her on her mother's hand leading her
to Nicholas. "Nicholas's been teaching me how to play chess."

"Chess? That's pretty cool. How's it going, did you beat him yet?" She teased.

"No, he wants me to learn the rules first before we start playing. I think I almost have it. Do you know how to play, Mom?"

Ellie shook her head, starin
g at the beautiful glass pieces."Nope."

"Maybe, Nicholas can teach you too, so we can play tournaments!"

Ellie reluctantly met Nicholas hawk-like gaze and the very same mischievous grin painted on Sophie's lips was carved out on his own. If she didn't know any better, she could’ve sworn there was something much more sinister behind those matching grins.