Perfect Fit - Brenda Jackson [96]
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
For all of her outward display of confidence, Sage felt nervous and sensed the need for a drink after all. “I’ve changed my mind, Gabe, and would like something to drink.”
He nodded, then walked away toward the bar.
Suddenly, the whole idea of telling Gabe how she felt was causing a certain amount of uneasiness to coil up inside of her. Did she really want to get right back into a committed relationship after having recently gotten out of one? And if she wasn’t ready for a committed relationship, would a non-committed one work just as well for them? And what would happen after Eden was completed and they went their separate ways?
She sighed. She could never settle for an uncommitted relationship with Gabe. The thought of him with someone else didn’t sit too well with her.
“Here’s your drink.”
Sage glanced up when Gabe’s low, sexy voice intruded on her reverie. He was handing her a glass of brandy.
“You fell asleep before you could drink it,” he said as he sat down on the sofa beside her. “I kept it warm for you.”
She accepted the glass. “Thanks. I’m not as cold as I was before, but I could still use this.” She didn’t add that it could possibly calm her nerves. It didn’t help the situation when Gabe stretched his arm across the back of the sofa, making her heart skip a beat and making her want to slide closer to him.
But they needed to talk. And then …
“So, how was your trip?”
Sage lifted a brow. He’d already asked her that earlier, before she fell asleep, which could only mean he wanted more details than she had given him. “Erol and I had dinner and talked. I told him that things were over between us,” she said quietly.
“And?”
She met Gabe’s dark stare as she took a slow sip of her drink. “And we agreed that they were.”
Gabe shook his head as if he thought something was missing. “Just like that?”
She shrugged. “No, not exactly. He paid back the money he had taken and thought that doing so would patch up things.”
“But it didn’t?”
“No, it didn’t. I told Erol that I didn’t love him anymore.”
Warm relief spread through Gabe with Sage’s words. He began to feel relaxed, grateful, thankful and happy. “So things are really over between you?”
Sage turned around in her seat to face him, feeling both angry and frustrated that he still doubted her. Tilting her chin up, she met his gaze. “Things were over between me and Erol over seven months ago, Gabe, and I’ve known that. The only reason I met with Erol in Dallas was to make sure he knew that as well. Our families have been trying to keep his hope alive, which was unfortunate as well as unfair to the both of us, but especially to him. They meant well, but it didn’t help the situation, and he had refused to get on with his life, thinking we would one day get back together. I felt he needed to hear it directly from me … again.”
She turned her head and looked at the fire blazing in the fireplace and remembered Erol’s expression when she’d mentioned her involvement with another man.
“Sage?” Gabe reached out, and with the tip of his finger, he guided her chin back to face him. Their gazes met and held. “What aren’t you telling me? There is more, isn’t there?”
His touch felt warm, tender and gentle, and she gave him a small smile, suddenly feeling oddly self-conscious, which when added to her nervousness made her stomach flutter. “I told him about us, about you. I didn’t give him your name, but I did tell him there was another man in my life.”
Sage’s breathing deepened when Gabe’s gaze darkened. “Am I, Sage? Am I the man in your life?”
Sage exhaled a deep, unraveling breath. She’d asked herself that same question several times since last night. Deep down she wanted him to be but … There was something he hadn’t told her, something she needed to know. “That depends, Gabe.”
At his inquiring gaze, she said softly, “All this time you’ve doubted me and my true feelings for anyone after my breakup with Erol. Why shouldn’t I doubt you and your feelings after your breakup