COUNTERPOINT
An original romantic serialFrom Alina Adams the author of "When a Man Loves a Woman" (DELL 4/00), "Annie's Wild Ride" (AVON 8/98), "Inside Figure Skating" (METROBOOKS 11/00 & 9/99), "Thieves at Heart" (AVON 12/95) and "The Fictitious Marquis" (AVON 6/95)
Available weekly by e-mail from http://www.AlinaAdams.com
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Dedicated to Helping Children All Over the World
CHAPTER 48
First thing in the morning, after dropping Eve off at school, Nicole went to Gabriel's clinic. When she was told he'd taken the day off, Nicole thought she'd misheard and she resigned herself to waiting for him. When he still hadn't shown up by noon, she went to his apartment.
No Gabriel.
Picking Eve up from school, Nicole went back to the clinic. After a useless two hours there, she returned to his apartment. Pretty sure that Gabriel wouldn't answer the door if she was the one to ask him, Nicole sent Eve to do the deed. She suspected Gabriel would never turn Eve away. And she was right.
When he heard Eve's voice, Gabriel opened his door and promptly swept the child into a hug. But, over Eve's shoulder, Gabriel's eyes radiated such hatred in Nicole's direction, she almost took a step back, as if from a physical blow.
While spending the day trying to locate him, Nicole had composed a litany of excuses and justifications in her head. But, when she saw Gabriel, Nicole forgot them all.
The only thing she could think to say to him, was a half-whined, half-pleading, "I forgave YOU, didn't I?"
"Of course, you did." Gabriel took Eve by the hand, and led her into his apartment, picking her up and planting her on the bar stool next to his kitchen counter. He spun the little girl round and round with one hand until she giggled. He told Nicole, "Why settle for the second-born Cooper son, when you can snare yourself the first?"
Nicole stared at him blankly.
"Or were you as much in the dark as the majority of us?" He took her uncomprehending face as an answer. Gabriel asked Nicole, "You ever hear of a fellow called Sean Cooper, sweetheart?"
She nodded slowly. "Robin got pissed off at Douglas once, and he yelled something about Douglas wishing Robin was the one who was dead, instead of Sean."
"Well, guess what? Little Sean ain't dead. Turns out, like Mark Twain, all those reports were highly exaggerated. Turns out young Sean Cooper grew up to be a doctor, and, by all reports, an all-around, great, big, gullible idiot."
Nicole inhaled sharply. "You?"
"Don't blind yourself with those dollar-signs flashing in your eyes, sweetheart."
"You think I knew about this?"
"Can you think of a better reason for stringing me along?"
"I... Well... No, actually."
Gabriel laughed bitterly. "And who do we owe thanks to for this uncharacteristic burst of honesty?"
"I suppose that would be you. But," Nicole interjected before Gabriel had a chance to berate her further. "Just because dollar signs may have been the best reason for my stringing you along, it just so happens that they weren't. The reason, I mean. And I wasn't stringing you along. I -- I really liked you, Gabriel."
"You know, I almost believe that."
Nicole smiled. And just as quickly, her smile faded, as soon as she heard the rest of Gabriel's sentence.
"I mean, you claim to love dear Robin, and you haven't treated him too well, either. So, I guess blackmail is your way of showing affection."
"The only person I blackmailed was your sister. And I never, ever claimed to like her."
"Touche," Gabriel said.
"Gabriel, please...."
"No." He didn't raise his voice, perpetually conscious of Eve spinning on the stool between them. But, Gabriel didn't need to raise his voice to make his point perfectly clear. Everything he felt and thought about Nicole was obvious in that one single word.
"No, Nicole." He shook his head. "No."
He wanted to be alone on the nightshift. Gabriel was in no mood to make small talk so he sent Sheila home, assuring her he could handle the clinic on his own. Unfortunately, by midnight, the last of the waiting patients had cleared out, leaving Gabriel with nothing to do but think.
He wasn't exactly in the mood to think, either.
But even burying himself in paperwork didn't help. Every form he filled out reminded Gabriel of the documents that almost got him a jail sentence. And that, wouldn't you know it? reminded him of Nicole.
Funny. Considering the day he'd had, Gabriel would have guessed a woman -- a married woman -- would be the least of his concerns. What with his newfound father and brother and all. But, somehow, Douglas and Robin didn't seem real. They were concepts. Words. Notions. Something that might be. As opposed to Nicole. Nicole was something that... was.
"Hey, Doc-Head."
Gabriel sighed.
"Now, there was witty bon-mot if I ever heard one, boys. And a clever pun, to boot. I'm all confused about what word you might have used in place of Doc." Already knowing what he was going to see, Gabriel tiredly raised his head and told the expected five, Asian boys in front of him, all identically dressed in their tacky gang-colors and each trying to outsmirk the others, "What do you fellows want from me? You know I don't keep any drugs with street-value, here, and if you're just dropping by to call me names, please believe that I'm not in the mood. Really, really not in the mood."
Uninterested, Gabriel was about to turn back to his paperwork.
But, that was before he spotted the knife.