It's Only Love(90)

“As serious as I’ve ever been about anything.”

“I’m not going to lie to you,” Hunter said. “Part of me wants to tell you to f*ck off and leave her alone. But Ella doesn’t need me to fight her battles for her. She’s perfectly capable of fighting her own battles, and you’re facing one hell of a battle where she’s concerned. You’ve hurt her badly.”

“I know that, and I feel terrible about it. I’m here to fix it, if she’ll let me.”

“That’s the big question,” Will said. “Will she let you?”

The thought of her rejecting him, of her telling him she’d had enough of him and his stop-and-start-and-stop again bullshit, had terrified him on the long trip to get to her.

“I guess we’ll see,” Gavin said, glancing at her.

She caught his eye and then looked away.

“One thing I’ll tell you for certain,” Hunter said, his tone leaving no room for interpretation. “If you hurt her again, you’re going to have seven very unhappy Abbott brothers to answer to. Am I clear on that?”

“Yeah,” Gavin said. “Crystal clear.”

“Good,” Hunter said. “Don’t f*ck it up.”

“I’m going to try really hard not to.”

“You do that,” Will said.

Cameron came over to her husband and looped her arm through his, and his expression immediately softened. “Everything okay over here, boys?”

“It’s all good,” Will said with a glare for Gavin. “Or at least it had better be.”


*

“What do I do?” Ella asked Hannah as quietly as she possibly could, waiting until Gavin was engaged in conversation with Jack and their other friend, Austin, to consult with her sister.

“What do you want to do?” Hannah asked.

“I don’t know. Part of me wants to tell him to get lost, that it’s too little, too late. But the other part of me—”

“Will never have any peace until you hear whatever he’s come to say.”

“Yes,” Ella said with a sigh. “I hate myself for wanting to hear what he’s come to say.”

“Don’t hate yourself. You’re only human, and for some strange reason, you love the guy.”

“Yeah, I do, even if I’ve tried to convince myself otherwise in the last two days.” One touch from him, one breath of his arresting scent, and she’d been drawn right back into love with him. That was all it had taken.

“You can’t talk yourself out of loving him, even if you think that’s what’s best for you.”

“I can’t let him do this to me anymore, though, Hannah. The yo-yo effect is making me crazy. He said he was all in until he wasn’t, and I can’t do that again. I just can’t.”

“Then you have a decision to make. Give him another chance or don’t. Which would be harder to live with?”

“I honestly don’t know.”

“You need to decide—ASAP. He looks rather . . . determined.”

Ella couldn’t deny that she’d noticed a different sort of air about him since he’d arrived out of the mist at the wedding. Like he’d resolved something important in the time they’d spent apart. “Since he came all this way, I suppose I’ll hear him out. And then I can decide what I want to do.”

“For what it’s worth, that’s what I would do, too.”

“It’s worth a lot. Thanks, Hannah, for everything the last few days.”

Hannah curled her arms around Ella’s arm and rested her head on Ella’s shoulder. “That’s what big sisters are for.”

They enjoyed a delicious dinner of jerk shrimp, chicken and beef, rice, salad, vegetables and succulent fruit. The courses kept on coming, along with wine and champagne and rum punch.

Though he sat next to her at dinner, Gavin made no attempt to get her to talk to him. But she was acutely aware of his presence nonetheless. Every so often his leg would brush against hers under the table or his arm would land on the back of her chair, the possessive gesture setting off a primal need in her.

She wanted to hate him for what he’d put her through, but she didn’t hate him. No, she loved him as much as she ever had, and as she fixated on his muscular forearm and the sprinkling of dark hair, she was forced to acknowledge that she would always love him. No matter what happened next.

After dinner, everyone got up to dance, leaving Ella alone at the table with Gavin. Every nerve ending in her body was on full alert, waiting to see what he would do.

“Take a walk with me?” he asked in a low intimate tone.

She looked at him for a long moment, taking in the rugged, handsome features that had held her captive for so long, and then nodded, powerless to deny him, even though she knew she ought to.

He helped her up and out of her chair and guided her from the pavilion with his hand on her lower back.

Ella felt the eyes of everyone she knew on them as they walked out and was deeply grateful for the protective presence of her siblings, who would be there for her no matter what transpired between her and Gavin. She took comfort in the certainty of their unwavering support.

They stepped onto the beach, and Ella kicked off her shoes, leaving them by the stairs.