Her mother gasped and her father looked more furious than she’d ever seen him.
“Young lady, you will apologize to your mother and me at once.”
“I will not. You have been unforgivably rude to a man I love.”
Her mother seemed to rally. “Darling, we certainly never meant to insult Paul.”
“Gabrielle knows that,” her father said. “The man has to understand that we’re just looking out for your welfare. Now Townsend—”
“I don’t want to hear one more word about Townsend,” she snapped. “You say you just want the best for me. Has it occurred to either of you yet that what I have right now might be the best for me? Have you been paying any attention at all to what’s been going on here tonight? I’ve never been happier. I love Paul. I hope to God he loves me enough to forgive your behavior. This is where my life is now, not in Charleston and certainly not with Townsend.”
Her father reached for her hand. Without the bolstering effect of his anger, he looked older. To her amazement he even looked a little bit afraid. “Gabrielle, honey, your mother and I just worry about you. This isn’t what we envisioned for you.”
“It’s not what I envisioned, either, but Paul is what’s best for me. I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life. He’s encouraged me to discover who I really am, rather than to rebel against what I don’t want to be.”
“What about Wall Street? You were so dead set on that once,” her father reminded her.
“Maybe it was because I knew you and mother would hate it. I saw the life you had in mind for me, married to Townsend, spending my days doing dull, boring, predictable things and I reached out for the one thing that I knew was more exciting. I always envied you going off to work every day, while mother had to stay at home.”
“But I love being at home,” her mother protested.
“I know you do,” Gabrielle said more gently. “And I guess that’s what we all need to realize. Each of us is entitled to make our own happiness, whatever it is. Mine is with Paul, with this new business of ours.”
“You really are sure about this, pet?” her father said, squeezing her hand. He searched her eyes for an answer.
“I really am.”
“Then I suppose that will have to be good enough for me. We’ll wait with you until Paul comes back. We’ll explain that we were wrong.”
One thing about her father, when he’d been convinced of something, he gave it his full-fledged support. She got up and kissed him. “Thank you, Daddy, but no. I think we’d better be alone. I’ll call you in the morning. Maybe we can get together again before you leave.”
“I’d like that,” her father said. “I’d like to get to know this man you love. He must be something for you to care this much.”
“He is, Daddy. He’s pretty special.”
Her parents left then amid more apologies and promises to be available for any plans she and Paul wanted to make with them.
Left unspoken was Gabrielle’s greatest fear: that the apologies might be too late, that Paul might not come back to her at all.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
When Paul left the apartment, he walked aimlessly for a while, then got into his car. His stomach was in knots. He couldn’t think straight. Only once before in his life had he felt this lost and defeated and furious. Not since he and Christine Bentley Hanford had stood under a starry sky, and she’d stared at him in astonishment as she laughed at his proposal. He had felt like such a fool. In all these years since that humiliating night, he had never felt such gut-wrenching inadequacy. He had avoided any situation, any person likely to put him at such a disadvantage again.
Until Gabrielle. Until this beautiful, vulnerable woman had come along and convinced him that what they had together could survive anything. But not this, he thought angrily. Gabrielle’s parents had dismissed him as casually as they might a servant. Worse, he had tolerated it, which didn’t say much for his character or for his sense of self-worth. How would Gabrielle ever respect him after this?
Without realizing where he was headed, he found himself on his way to Long Island. Maybe there were answers to be found in the past. Maybe he needed to link these two failures in his mind in order to walk away from Gabrielle with his dignity intact.
One thing he knew for certain after tonight: he had to walk away. He would not allow her to be subjected to the kind of pressure her parents had exerted tonight. It wasn’t fair to expect her to give up so much for a life with him. She ought to go back to Townsend and all the advantages she could have in Charleston.
He turned into the gate of the Hanford estate and drove to his parents’ cottage without once looking in the direction of the main house. The cottage lights were still on, which meant his mother was probably up knitting while his father slept in an easy chair, a book open on his chest. He glanced in a window at the familiar scene and smiled. It gave him an odd sense of continuity.
He tapped on the door and heard his father’s startled, “What’s that?”
“I’ll get it, John. Put your shoes on.” His mother opened the door a crack and peeked out. “Paul!”
Her round, wrinkled face lit with pleasure and she enfolded him in plump arms. She smelled of talcum powder and a vague hint of cinnamon. She’d probably baked a coffee cake for the Hanfords’ breakfast, he thought,
