Keeping Secrets in Seattle - By Brooke Moss Page 0,33

as smashing my fingers with a hammer, but I had to do it. No way I was going to get through this wedding if I had to stand next to Cameron. Gabe had to decide which one of us he wanted in the wedding party more—Cameron or me.

“First off,” I said, “when were you planning on telling me that Cameron is in your wedding?”

Gabe’s eyes met mine. “I was going to, but Alicia beat me to it.”

I looked up at him, opening my mouth to explain what was troubling me, but every word that came to the top of my throat just toppled back down. Over Gabe’s shoulder, I noticed that there were a handful of black picture frames that my mother had picked to go on his dining room buffet. I’d been bugging him to get pictures into those frames for the past year.

Three of the six frames were filled. One was of Gabe and me at his twelfth birthday party, our heads thrown back, laughing hysterically. One was of Gabe and Alicia, shortly after he’d proposed. Her eyes were bright with tears, and she looked unbelievably happy, as did he. And the last was of Gabe and Cameron Hakes, their arms thrown over each other’s shoulders, both of them sweaty, a basketball under Gabe’s muscular arm.

The chair beneath me suddenly swayed, and I felt sick.

Gabe frowned at me. “Hey, what’s going on? Are you all right?”

I stood, nearly knocking my chair over, and stomped over to the picture. After flipping it facedown, I turned to face Gabe, my arms wrapped around my middle. “I just want to know why Alicia brought Cameron up in front of everyone at brunch.”

Gabe’s eyes flashed. “She brought it up at brunch?”

“Of course she did.”

He groaned. “I guess she thought it was better to get it out in the open. So you’d know that Cam was in the wedding, too.”

“How can you still be friends with him after everything that happened?”

“The same way I’m able to be friends with you, I suppose.” He looked at me with pain-filled eyes. “Vi, why are we discussing this?”

I dragged a hand through my hair. “You need to understand what went on that night. Just because we never, ever talk about it doesn’t mean it never happened.”

Gabe’s eyes pointed down at the table. “I thought I did know what happened?”

My hand came down on the tabletop loudly, sloshing some of his coffee onto the glass. “No, you don’t.”

“You slept with someone at a party while I was upstairs.” His voice was low and metered, but I saw his hand trembling as he fiddled with his mug. “I thought we were exclusive, but we weren’t. It was only our first date, and I was just a stupid, lovesick kid. I didn’t know that you liked Cameron.”

“I didn’t.” My eyes filled again. “We were exclusive.”

“Then why?”

“I should have explained all of this so long ago,” I whispered.

Gabe raked a hand across the top of his head. “Explained what? That you drank too much and had sex with my friend? Vi, I’ve had a long time to get over this. I’m okay now. I wish you could be as well.”

My knuckles were white against the tabletop. “Gabe, that’s not what happened.”

He leaned forward. “Then what did happen?”

I mustered up every ounce of strength I could find and drew a deep breath. “I only wanted to embarrass him. He was always so mean to me. So I flirted with him. I didn’t know that…” My voice trailed off as I glanced at the tipped frame. I was choked on the overabundance of words in my throat, and my eyes blurred as I looked at Gabe. I wanted to tell him. Really, I did. But I knew deep down that the moment my secret came out into the open, everything Gabe and I had worked so hard to rebuild after I came home from Utah would be smashed into a million pieces.

He shook his head. “Talk to me. What’s wrong?”

The buzzing in my head was almost louder than his voice. “This is just bringing up a lot of old feelings. That was a really rough time for me.”

He sighed. “It was a rough time for all.”

I gripped the table edge. “Gabe, that night…with Cameron…I—”

The shrill ring of Gabe’s cell phone sounded, and I released an aggravated moan. Ten steps forward, eight steps back.

He took the call and spoke to the person on the other end tensely. “Uh-huh, okay…yes, I’ll be right there.