to closing time. But today she only wanted to hurry home and get ready to go to Garek’s.
With an effort, she hid her impatience. “May I help you?”
“I am Doreen Tarrington,” the woman announced.
Doreen Tarrington…Garek’s sister?
Ellie smiled, warmth curling inside her. Had he sent his sister to meet her? “Mrs. Tarrington! How nice to finally meet you. I’m Ellie Hernandez, and this is Vogel’s Gallery.”
Doreen did not smile back. Nor did she take Ellie’s outstretchedhand. Haughty gray eyes gazed disdainfully around the room, and as she looked at several of Ellie’s newest purchases, a horrified expression settled on the woman’s features. “I knew it. I knew it!” she said bitterly.
Ellie’s hand dropped to her side. The warmth inside her faded. “Is something wrong?”
“I would certainly say so—this place is ghastly! This isn’t real art! What will the Palermos and the Branwells think? He did this on purpose. I know he did!”
“Who?” Ellie asked.
“Garek.” Loathing filled Doreen’s voice. “My brother. He picked this gallery to humiliate me. The wretch. The terrible wretch!”
Ellie’s stomach knotted. “Mrs. Tarrington, you don’t know what you’re saying. Garek did this for you—”
Doreen laughed cynically. “Is that what he told you? You obviously don’t know him very well. Or do you?” The piercing gray gaze, suddenly looking very much like Garek’s, swept over her. “He’s sleeping with you, isn’t he? A common sales clerk! I can’t believe Ethel was taken in by you—or Garek, either. But of course he wasn’t. I see it all now. I make a perfectly reasonable request that he start an art foundation for me, and what does he do? He seeks out the trashiest gallery he can find just to annoy me. How like him. How very like him!”
Ellie opened her mouth to say something—anything—but Doreen continued, her anger as biting and unstoppable as the wind over Lake Michigan.
“And you—I suppose you’re the ‘suitable girl’ I asked him to find.” Doreen’s hard gaze swept over her again. “How much did he pay you to play this horrible trick on me? Or did you do it for free, thinking he really cared about you? I hope you weren’t that naive. The only thing my brother cares about is himself. And money, of course.”
Without another word, Doreen turned on her heel and left the gallery. Ellie, feeling dazed, went into her little office and sat down. She stared at the canvas over her desk. It showed an artist drawing the barren landscape outside his window—only in his rendition everything was green and in flower.
Ellie had always liked the painting. It reminded her to look on the bright side. But now it seemed to have a totally different meaning.
Had she been looking at everything through rose-colored glasses—seeing only what she wanted to see?
She picked up a pitcher of water, but her hands were shaking so badly, she put it back down.
That woman—that horrible woman was Garek’s sister? She obviously didn’t think too highly of her brother. Could what she’d said be true? Had Garek chosen Vogel’s and gone out with Ellie to humiliate his sister?
Ellie clasped her hands together tightly. She didn’t want to believe it. But it all rang true. All the little inconsistencies that had puzzled her, that she’d ignored, now made terrible, sickening sense. His seeking her out for his art foundation after insulting her in his office. His quick decision to choose Vogel’s without even speaking to any other galleries. His insistence on taking her to the symphony, to dinner, the art show and the basketball game…
Ellie felt cold inside. She’d thought he was a kind and generous man who loved his family. But now with that facade stripped away, she saw the same man who’d left her standing in the gutter—cold, selfish, heartless. Did he care about anyone or anything other than himself?
Money, according to his sister.
Ellie folded her arms on the desk and put her head down on them.
She should have questioned him more closely instead of allowing herself to believe the best. But that was what she’d wanted to believe. If Doreen hadn’t come in, Ellie would probably be on her way over to his apartment right now, planning to spend the night with him…
Air burned inside her lungs, stinging her throat and nose and eyes. She’d thought she might be falling in love with him. She’d thought he might learn to love her. How could she have been so stupid?
“Ellie?”
Startled, she lifted her head. “Robbie?” Blinking back her tears, she looked at her handsome cousin standing in