Chapter 33

A few weeks had passed and I was still at Patrick’s place, the police still hadn’t found Vince, and I was feeling more and more stressed. Every day that went by without word on Vince made me worry just a little more. Where was he and what was he planning? I’d become paranoid, studying the faces of every person I saw making sure he wasn’t following me. I’d even become grateful for the rides to and from work from Patrick and Paige.

Even though I was feeling less and less stable every day, I kept it all inside for Patrick. Pre-season had started and he was back to the grind. Then he’d had to go to Finland for a couple of games and I had stayed with Paige while he was gone. I couldn’t put any more stress onto Patrick with his season underway. I especially didn’t want to alter anything since he’d scored a goal in each of the first three games he’d played.

I sat in my office, staring blankly at a file that I couldn’t have identified if asked about it. Too much was on my mind, and admittedly I’d been slacking when it came to work lately. I hadn’t wanted to be like that, and I hated myself for it, but I couldn’t help it. A knock on my door jolted me out of my thoughts and I smiled as I waved Gia in.

“Hey, Gia, how are you?” I asked. She didn’t look upset, but we didn’t have an appointment, so I didn’t know the reason for this visit. She’d actually been doing much better since she’d opened up to me, and we didn’t currently have any appointments scheduled at all.

“I’m good,” she replied, but didn’t offer up any more than that.

“Is there something you wanted to talk about?” I pushed after a moment of silence between us.

“Not really.” She was quiet again, but there had to be a reason she was here. “My parents finalized their divorce yesterday.” There it was.

“How do you feel about that?” I was almost tempted to congratulate her. She’d told me before how much better things had been once she’d talked to her parents and told them what their fighting was doing to her. Gia shrugged, and then a small smile formed on her lips.

“I feel bad saying it, but it’s nice. They’re in such better moods now. There’s no more fighting. They can even get along when they see each other,” she told me. I smiled back at her.

“I’m glad that it seems to have been the right thing to do.”

“Yeah, and my dad got a place just a couple blocks away so I can see him whenever I want to.”

“It’s nice that you’ll still have both of them around. It shows how much they care about you.” Gia smiled and nodded before falling quiet once again. This time I waited her out to see what else she wanted to say. “I have something for you.”

“For me? What is it?” I asked, not expecting this at all. She pulled something out of her backpack and opened it up. “Is that your portfolio?”

“Yeah, it is. I just started working on it not too long ago. I wanted to have something together when I started applying to college. I’m going to go for photography,” she explained.

“That’s great,” I told her enthusiastically. “It’s good to know what you want in life. You’re luckier than most.” I watched her pull something out of her portfolio.

“My dad took me to Yellowstone this summer so we could spend some time together since I’m living with Mom. I took a lot of pictures, and this one just reminded me of you. I thought you might want to have it.”

She handed the photo over to me. I saw that it was a photo of the sunrise in Yellowstone, but it was so much more than that. The sunrise was the subject of the photo, but the way the light played on the difference surfaces, the mist that rose up, nearly took my breath away. It wasn’t just beautiful, but it held hope in it. For whatever reason as I looked at it, I felt hopeful, like it represented a new beginning.

“It’s an amazing photo. Thank you so much for thinking of me. I love it,” I told her sincerely. She was beaming over at me when I looked back up at her.

“Well, I have to get to class.”

“I’ll write you a pass,” I offered when I heard the bell ring. I wrote one and then handed it over to her. “I’d love to see your portfolio when you’re done with it, if you don’t mind.” She smiled at me again.

“I’ll bring it in.” With that she turned and walked out of my office.

I glanced back down at the photo in my hand and fought back the tears that wanted to spill from my eyes. I didn’t quite know why it was affecting me so much, or how Gia seemed to know that it would. I just knew that I wanted how it made me feel to be right. I wanted to be happy and hopeful again. I wanted out of the funk I’d been in. Maybe when Vince was caught I would get a new beginning. I put the photo in a drawer, telling myself I would go get a frame immediately and hang it in my office. Then I forced myself to get out of my head and back to work.










Patrick kissed Gabrielle goodbye before walking out of the house. It was the first home game of the season and he was headed in to the rink. He hated leaving Gabby alone in the house, even if it was just for a couple hours, but it couldn’t be helped. He couldn’t be there all the time.

If one good thing had come out of any of this however, it was that she’d been with him all the time. She’d been living at his house for a few weeks now, and he had no complaints. He loved having her around, being there for every meal, sleeping next to him each night. He didn’t want her to leave, ever. But that was a whole other story.

That was not a topic he could just bring up with Gabrielle. She’d be resistant to the idea and he knew it. It went right along with the fact that he couldn’t just come out and tell her he loved her. It would have to be done at the right time, the right way, or she would just panic and run. That was the last thing he wanted.

Sure, it was frustrating to not be able to tell her how he really felt about her. It was taking more and more effort not to just blurt out the ‘I love you’ to her. Even if the police finding Vince would put her back in her apartment, which is something he didn’t want, he couldn’t tell her he loved her until all of this was resolved. She had too much on her mind to add anything else.

He pulled into the parking lot and got out of his car. It had only been three games, and the team had a 1-1-1 record, but this season felt good. He’d scored in each of the first three games, and something felt different this time around. They had a special team and he knew it. This could be the year for them. This team had the ability to win the Cup.

And wouldn’t that be a hell of a year for him? Win the Cup, fall in love, and move in with his girlfriend. The thought put a giant smile on his face. Once inside the locker room he pushed thoughts of Gabrielle out of his head, which was harder to do these days than it had been last season, and prepared for the game.

Later that night he walked out of the locker room happy with a win. He stepped foot into the family room and immediately Gabrielle’s eyes met him and lit up, followed by a smile. He joined her conversation with some of the others for a few minutes and a debate about going to get some food and drinks came up.

“What do you think?” he asked her, fine with any decision she made.

He wanted her to want to go out, because she hadn’t done much of that lately. Mostly she’d been staying locked up in the house unless she was at work. She’d been too afraid to be out anywhere, afraid that she’d run into Vince. Even so, he wasn’t going to be the least bit upset if she didn’t want to either.

“Maybe we could go just for a little bit,” she answered a little hesitantly. Everyone knew what was going on, and he saw them all smile at Gabby.

A large group of the team went out to get some food so she was surrounded by a lot of people that wouldn’t let anything happen to her. That seemed to loosen her up some, and make her forget about Vince. They stayed longer than he’d expected them to, which was fine with him. Gabrielle’s smiles and laughter had been too sparse lately.

When they returned home he immediately changed out of his suit and found Gabrielle standing at the back door watching Dudley and Loxley run around the backyard. Still too amped from the game to be even remotely tired he plopped down on the couch and turned on the TV, putting on NHL Network to see what others teams had done that night.

He heard the sound of paws running across the floor seconds before he was bombarded by the two dogs. He laughed, gave them some attention, before they had their fill and began to expend the last bit of their energy playing together. It was then that Gabrielle walked over, and instead of sitting next to him, she curled right up on his lap.

“Thank you,” she told him.

“For what?” he asked. She placed a kiss on his forehead before answering.

“Doing all that you have the past few weeks. I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t have you,” she told him. He kissed her before they settled back and watched TV together.

A little while later they got ready for bed and crawled in together. Patrick thought again about how nice it was to have Gabby there to hold every night. After giving her a kiss goodnight he pulled her into his arms and closed his eyes. She fell asleep before him and he opened his eyes just to watch her sleep for a little while. She was always so beautiful when she slept. Then he couldn’t help himself. She was asleep after all.

“I love you, Gabby,” he whispered, just feeling better having said it out loud.

He knew he had to wait until all of this was over to tell her when she could hear him, but it couldn’t hurt to tell her when she was asleep. Maybe if he did it each night it would subliminally make its way into her mind and it would be less difficult for her when he did eventually tell her. He settled back into bed, a smile on his face, and fell asleep alongside her.