Page 18 of Trusting Mr. Sterling
Their eyes met and held long enough for Gabriel to memorize the small freckle near her left ear he’d somehow forgotten.
“See you Thursday.”
He left before he could talk himself into staying.
Back in the car, Knox sat with the bakery box on his lap.
“The baker’s terrifying.”
“She wasn’t that bad.”
“She said I needed oatmeal to loosen things up.”
“She wasn’t being literal, Knox.”
“Then what was she being?”
“She was saying you seem uptight. Emotionally constipated.”
Knox’s jaw tightened. “I’m not uptight.”
“You walked in there like you were about to fire someone. She pushed back.” Gabriel shrugged. “She’s direct.”
“She’s rude.”
“Call it what you like.”
Knox didn’t answer. He pulled out his phone.
Gabriel merged into traffic and let his mind drift back to Tessa. The wedding had been one collision. The coffee shop had been another. The bakery made three. In a city of eight million people, that wasn’t coincidence anymore.
Back at Oath Capital,Gabriel hung up his jacket and tried to focus on the morning’s work. He couldn’t. He kept circling back to her.
Three encounters in two weeks. Three times she’d been within arm’s reach, and three times he’d let her walk. Nothing in Gabriel’s life happened by accident. He engineered outcomes—quarterly, contractually, by the hour if necessary.
He pulled up the vendor list on his phone. Devney had sent it to the team that morning, and Tessa’s contact sat there among the florists and lighting contractors. Professional. Accessible. One tap away.
His thumb hovered over her number.
He tapped call.
She answered on the third ring. “Thorne Events.”
“It’s Gabriel.”
Silence on the line. Then, quieter, “Hi.”
One syllable, and he was sixteen again. “I got your number from the vendor list.”
“Did you need something?”
“No. That’s not why I called.”
“Why did you call?”
“Because I’m tired of leaving it up to chance.”
She didn’t respond.
