Perfect Fit - Brenda Jackson [49]
Sage shook her head to toss the memories of her breakup with Erol aside. She had been happy at the thought of getting married, and yes, she had cared for Erol deeply. But his actions had changed all that in a way she could not share with Gabe. “Trust me, it won’t.” She took a sip of her drink. “I’m sure there are a number of people hoping that Erol and I will work out our differences and get back together, including my parents and his. But I’ve told them it won’t happen.”
Gabe asked. “What about him? Your fiancé? Erol? What does he think?”
Sage didn’t say anything for a moment, wondering why she was even telling Gabe as much as she was, and why it was important to her that he understood that she had no intentions of getting back with Erol. It’s because you don’t want him to think you would deliberately use his men for your benefit, she reminded herself. But deep down she felt there was another reason, one she wasn’t quite ready to analyze.
“I’m not sure what Erol thinks, but I do know what thoughts I left him with. I was pretty straightforward in letting him know that we would not get back together.”
Gabe nodded. He couldn’t help but think of Lindsey, and what she had told him three years ago was pretty much the same thing that Sage was saying. Yet, within forty-eight hours of her ex-fiancé returning to town, they had miraculously worked out their differences. He would never forget the night she’d showed up at his house to let him know she and her ex-boyfriend were getting back together.
“Why don’t you believe me?”
Gabe blinked when he realized Sage must have read his expression and had spoken to him. He decided to be honest with her. “It’s not a case of me not believing you; it’s a case of knowing how two people who love each other can put past differences aside and move forward regardless, no matter what the situation that caused the breakup, especially if the love they shared is strong.”
He dropped his gaze from hers and picked up his drink. After swirling the contents around in the glass for a few moments, he said, “And like I said earlier, it was easy to see how much you cared for him.”
Sage shrugged. “Yes, but all the things that a relationship is built on were there at the time. At least I thought they were. That’s not the case now, so my feelings have changed. I loved him, yes, and I guess it would be immature to say I don’t still care for him, but not to the point that I can forget what he did. I could never discount how he betrayed my trust.”
He betrayed her trust. Gabe wondered what exactly her fiancé had done to make her sound so bitter, and so utterly convinced that she could not patch things up with him. Usually when there was a question of trust involved, it meant the involvement of a third party—possibly another woman. If that was the case, then she would definitely be hurt and distrustful. But would it be enough to keep a reconciliation from possibly taking place? It hadn’t been for Lindsey, who ultimately forgave her ex for his infidelity. And even if there was no reconciliation, would Sage pigeonhole all men into the same category as her fiancé and become distrustful of the entire male population? He shook his head. Weren’t there women without issues of some kind or another?
“What?”
He lifted his gaze to Sage. “What’s what?”
“Why were you shaking your head?” Sage asked him.
He shrugged. “No reason,” he said, deciding to drop the matter. It meant nothing to him whether or not she and her fiancé worked things out as long