Perfect Fit - Brenda Jackson [60]
Gabe smiled as he met her gaze and took a slow sip of his wine. “Everything you haven’t told me already.”
Sage nodded, and a thoughtful expression appeared on her face. How much should she tell him? How far could she trust him? Then making a decision, she said, “My full name is Sage Simone Dunbar, and I attended public schools in Charlotte. When I decided on a college, I knew I wanted to attend Florida A and M University in Tallahassee, Florida.”
Gabe lifted a brow. “That was a long way from home, wasn’t it?”
Sage chuckled. “Yes, but that was the point. I was the only child and wanted freedom away from my parents’ ever-watchful eyes. I thought Florida would be far enough to serve that purpose.”
“Was it?”
Sage grinned as she took a sip of her own wine. “Yes. I did a lot of growing up while living away from home. I saw a lot and did a lot, and I always had fun. On the flip side of that, I never forgot why I was there and what was expected of me, so I ended up making decent grades and graduating with honors. So in essence, my parents had nothing to worry about and felt it had been money well invested.”
“Did you return home to Charlotte after college?”
Sage nodded again. “Yes. I decided I’d been away from my family long enough and was ready to move back. The Denmark Group interviewed me in my last year of college, and I got the job. I’ve been working there ever since.”
“And how did your fiancé fit into things?”
The unexpectedness of Gabe’s question caught Sage completely off guard. She nervously licked her bottom lip as she glanced up at him. A deep heat settled in her stomach when instead of looking at her, his full attention was plastered to her mouth.
She inhaled deeply, deciding to be completely honest with him. He was an easy person to talk to, just like Malcolm, and for some reason, she felt comfortable trusting him to a certain degree. “I met Erol in college during my sophomore year. But we didn’t start dating until my junior year. I wasn’t ready to talk marriage after graduation, although he was. We compromised and agreed to live together until I felt I was ready to take the plunge.” She smiled slowly. “It took almost three years for me to decide I was ready.”
Gabe shifted his attention from her lips to meet her gaze. “And how long did it take you to decide to end your engagement?”
Sage gazed at him thoughtfully, remembering the day she had discovered all the money missing from her bank accounts. “Only a few seconds.”
Gabe released a low whistle. “He must have done something pretty damn awful.”
Sage swirled her wine around in her glass. “I think so. When I returned from my trip to Anchorage that time I met you, I found out he had taken all the money out of our bank accounts for some sort of an investment opportunity. Needless to say, he didn’t discuss it with me beforehand, and to make matters worse, he lost every penny he invested.”
“Had he done anything that impulsive before?”
Sage shook her head. “No. But I felt I couldn’t trust him again.”
Gabe nodded. “Yes, I can see why. Trust is an important thing between two people. Once it’s been violated, it can never be restored.”
She continued to hold his gaze and noted, “Sounds like you’re talking from experience, Gabe.”
He leaned back in his chair. “I am. I dated a woman for almost a year and had given her anything and everything I thought she could possibly want. The night before I was going to ask her to marry me, she came to me and told me that she wanted to end things because she was involved with someone else.”
Sage breathed in sharply. “Just like that?” Gabe nodded as he glanced down at the liquid in his wineglass. “Yes, just like that.” He decided there was no need to tell Sage that the person Lindsey had gotten involved with was an ex-boyfriend who, although she had claimed otherwise numerous times, she had never completely