He’d misled them all—and it had been his idea, not Anna’s. He took her hand in his, and this time she didn’t look away. His heart beat fast, pumping adrenaline through his veins that left him with a sick feeling in his gut. “First...” Gabe tried to imagine himself at the head of a table at one of his company meetings, aiming for a note of confidence. Something that didn’t exist. He squared his shoulders and began again. “First, please don’t blame Anna for the scene that just happened in the lobby. It wasn’t her fault.”
“Were you two having an affair?” The words came high and thin, his grandmother’s eyes glistening with tears. “Did that man have any reason to be angry?”
“No, of course not,” Anna said firmly. “We—” She put a hand to her throat. “We weren’t truthful about our engagement.”
“It happened suddenly, didn’t it?” Tana asked, a hopeful expression on her face. “If it happened suddenly and that’s why you didn’t want to tell us—”
“It didn’t happen at all.” The words were forced from between his lips. This was it—this was Gabe’s worst nightmare. “We’re not really engaged.”
Jonas’s eyes darkened, and Chase looked up toward the ceiling.
“What?” his grandmother exclaimed. Her eyes traced a path to Anna’s hand, where she still wore her engagement ring. Her eyes came back to Gabe’s. “Not engaged?”
“The relationship was a setup. I got the call from Jonas about the holidays, and I couldn’t—I couldn’t come home alone. I wanted you to know that I would be okay no matter what happened with your illness. I’m so sorry, Grandmother.” He couldn’t stop the words from spilling out, and now that it was happening, he didn’t want to stop them. As painful as it was, it was also a relief. “I asked Anna if she would agree to pose as my fiancée for the holidays, and she said yes. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision that happened just before we left town.”
“What were you thinking?” Jonas shouted. “That’s the sickest thing I’ve ever heard. You honestly thought it would be better to lie to us all this time? Then what, Gabe? What were you going to do later? Fake a breakup, too?”
“Yes,” Gabe shouted back. “That was what I was going to do. Because at least for a little while, Grandmother would be happy. That’s what was most important to me.”
“Well, that’s not going to happen,” Jonas thundered. He turned away, putting his hand to his forehead.
Chase still hadn’t said anything. He looked at Tana and shook his head ever so slightly.
Gabe squeezed Anna’s hand, and it seemed to shake her out of her shock—at least a little. Her eyes met his, dark and powerfully sad, and she brushed a hand against his wrist. Then she let go and stepped away.
He could see her gathering herself for what had to be the biggest effort of her life. As a conference liaison, she’d dealt with stressful situations many times—even in front of him. She took a deep breath, straightened and lifted her chin.
“I’m so sorry.” Anna’s voice shook, but she clapped her hands together in front of her and kept going. “It was wrong to deceive you. Of course it was. And there’s no excuse for it. I just wanted to—I wanted to thank all of you for being so welcoming, despite everything that happened.” A tear slipped from her eye and glistened on her cheek. “I’ve never had a chance to experience a holiday like this before. It was wonderful,” she said, her voice breaking on the last word.
Except they hadn’t had a holiday together—Christmas hadn’t come yet. “I’ll be going now.” Anna dipped her head, and then she ran for the door, but not before he caught what sounded like a sob.
Wait, he wanted to shout. Don’t do this. We can figure this out. But he couldn’t force the words from his mouth, and she was gone. He looked around the room at his family. Elin’s eyes were red, her mouth pinched, and Jonas wasn’t looking at him at all.
“Gabe,” Chase said quietly. “We can talk about this, if—”
“No,” he snapped. Part of him did want to stay and work this out. To confess all the fear he’d had about his place in the family for as long as he could remember. But Anna had to come first. He knew she was hurt and would think they were all 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.”