hating her. But she’d be wrong. Gabe didn’t hate her, and neither should his family. It was his doing, after all. “This wasn’t her fault.” He pointed a finger at the door Anna had disappeared through. “Don’t you dare blame her for this. If you blame anyone, blame me.”
“No problem,” Jonas said, his acid tone sending a clear message.
“Jonas,” his grandmother warned.
Gabe had to fix things. With his family, yes. But first with Anna, who hadn’t done anything but try to help him. To make him happy. Gabe turned on his heel and went after her, his heart squeezing painfully in his chest. He couldn’t lose her.
17
Oh, she wanted to sink into the earth. It was only a matter of time before someone picked up on Freddie’s comment about the family business. Someone like Gabe, who’d want to know more. She had to get out. What should she bring with her?
They’d bought so many clothes at that boutique before they boarded the plane and none of them seemed like hers anymore. She couldn’t very well fill her suitcases with winter things she would never use again, especially given they technically belonged to Gabe. Props for the play they performed. Miserably.
Anna threw open the closet in their suite and looked blindly at the clothes hung in neat rows. She then ran to the window and wrenched back the curtain with a lump in her throat. Snow was coming down in a light flurry—that had to be a sign the storm was ending. But it didn’t really matter. Anna couldn’t remain at the Elk Lodge anymore. She’d been caught out in a terrible lie, and she didn’t deserve to stay in the family suite any longer. She wasn’t family and never would be, and they all knew it now.
Anna went back to the closet, pulled out one of the smaller suitcases at the bottom, and placed it on the bed. She grabbed a comfortable pair of pants that would be good for travel—the forest-green top an excellent choice. And, of course, the coat she’d worn off the plane. At the dresser, she opened the top drawer and swept her underthings into a ball, tossing them into the suitcase in a haphazard mess. It wasn’t like it mattered. Once she got home, Anna vowed to return the clothes she was wearing and the outfit she’d taken. The suitcase, too. Yes. That would only be right.
The front door of the suite slammed just as she was tipping her toiletries from the bathroom into a plastic bag.
“Anna?” God, his voice sounded so desperate. “Where are you?” Why would he be desperate to find her?
“In here.” Somehow, she managed to make her voice sound even and relaxed, not at all how she felt. Her emotions rolled through her like waves on the ocean, and Anna had nothing but a rowboat to navigate them. A dinghy-size vessel, and all the ways she’d learned to keep her calm through her job. Good thing she’d practiced for so long.
Gabe appeared in the doorway to the bedroom as she unzipped the outer pocket on the suitcase and put the toiletry bag inside. “You don’t have to go.”
“I absolutely do.” It was the hardest thing in the world, standing to face him, but she did it anyway. “There’s no way I can stay here after what just happened.”
Gabe raised both hands in the air. “Now that they know, we don’t have to pretend. We can take some time and figure things out.”
“What is there to figure out?” Heat rushed to her cheeks and she tried to will it away. It clung stubbornly to her skin. She must be red as a strawberry. “I didn’t belong here in the first place, and now it’s obvious.”
“That’s not—you don’t have to worry about that. They’re not going to care if your parents got divorced or didn’t have much money. They’re not going to care if you had an ex-boyfriend who turned out to be a jerk. Those things happen all the time.”
It was too much and the veneer of calm shattered. “Really, Gabe? None of that stuff is a big deal in a place like this?” He looked wounded, but it was too late to stop, much too late. “Your family prides itself on perfection. On high standards. My ex just showed up in the lobby of your luxury resort and made a huge scene. Do you think they want scenes around here? I can promise you they don’t.”
“Anna—”
“And aside from that, you don’t