Saving Me

The valet roared up in Eva’s Corvette and smiled when she handed him a ten and a wink. “Thanks Teddy.” He blushed violently. “Thanks Miss Eva. Have a good night.” She nodded and looked up at Gabriel. “Wanna drive?” His eyes lit up with boyish delight. “Really?” Eva nodded and slid into the passenger seat. Gabriel adjusted the seat and grinned wickedly. Eva sat back, tucked her feet up under her and buckled her seatbelt. He was so beautiful it was probably a sin. Those wicked eyes, and burnished whiskey accent were all sinful. But they added to the package, and he wouldn’t be the same without those things. He really was a devil disguised as an angel. He pulled away from the Oasis and headed into town. “There’s this little Italian place in town, have you been there?” He asked her as he shifted the gears and stepped on the accelerator. “There are two, which one?” Gabriel looked at her from the corner of his eye. “Bellisima.” Eva nodded. “Not in a long time, my grandfather used to take me there.” She smiled at the memory of him letting her drink sparkling grape juice from a wine glass. “It’s wonderful.”

Gabriel saw the wistful look on her face as she recalled the memories. “Would you like to go there?” His question seemed to throw her. “Yes. I would.” He frowned inwardly. She was used to having things decided for her. But who had done that? Certainly not Adrian, the man worshiped Eva like the baby sister he claimed she was to him. And she wasn’t used to men opening doors for her, or making her feel safe. What was wrong with these American men, were they all idiots? He pulled into a parking space right in front of the restaurant, and quickly got out before she could open her own door. She was going to get used to it he decided. She stood up and smiled an odd smile at him. “I’ve never met anyone like you before Gabriel.” She said quietly. He grinned playfully. “That’s cause I’m the only one of me.” She laughed. “Cheeky man.” “Most assuredly.”

He opened the door for her and let her walk into the dimly lit restaurant. He heard a gasp, and a rotund woman came bustling over to throw her arms around Eva. “Oh mi iho! Evangeline I’m so happy to see you.” Eva laughed and hugged the woman back. “Francesca. I missed you, how are you?” Gabriel saw the tears in the woman’s eyes. “I am fine, but look at you! I haven’t seen you in ages, you’re so beautiful, all grown up. And I saw you on television last year. I cried when you won, I was so proud! And now you’ve come back to see us.” Francesca just then noticed him looming over Eva. “And you’ve brought me a man.” The little woman said saucily. “Ah, no that one is for me. Franny this is my new skating partner Gabriel Hunter. We’ll be competing at nationals in the pairs division.” Franny’s hands flew to her face. “Oh, Oh mi iho, how beautiful. I always loved to watch the pair’s figure skating. And now I’ll get to watch you. Oh I’m so happy for you. It’s lovely to meet you Mr. Hunter.”

Gabriel inclined his head respectively. “Just Gabriel, please.” Franny looked to Eva with her brows raised, impressed obviously. “So polite, much better than that last pendeho.” Eva spluttered a laugh. “Franny!” She said in shock. “Oh and look at me, you’re here to eat not stand around. Come, come a table with some privacy.” Francesca De Marc led them to a secluded booth, draped with red curtains on either side of the plush seats. “I’ll bring you some wine…You are old enough now Eva aren’t you?” Francesca said sternly. Eva nodded gravely. “Yes ma’am, twenty one for nearly a year now.” Gabriel saw the laughter dancing in her eyes. When the older woman had left Eva smiled apologetically. “I practically grew up in Franny’s kitchen. She was our housekeeper and cook when my parents still lived in town. She opened this place when I was twelve.” He leaned his elbows on the table and looked intently at her. “You live here now, and yet she acts like she hasn’t seen you in years.” Eva looked down and smiled a small sad smile. “I haven’t seen her in…god six years? I only moved back a couple months ago. There are a lot of bad memories here, but more good ones too.”

Franny came back forestalling any more of his questions. She set down a bottle of wine that made Gabriel blink. That innocent looking bottle was worth two hundred dollars. “I’ve been saving this mi amore. For when you came back.” She said softly, her eyes were misty and she kissed Eva’s cheek. She sniffed and collected herself. “Now what are you hungry for?” Gabriel couldn’t resist asking. “What’s good?” Eva covered her mouth trying to stifle a giggle. “Everything.” Franny said flatly. “Do you still make that special chicken marsala?” Franny grinned at Eva. “Yes I do.” Eva nodded and looked to Gabriel. “I’ll have the same please.” He said with his most charming smile. And Francesca buckled under the brilliance of it. She narrowed her eyes at him, trying to suppress her own smile. “Sneaky is what you are, Gabriel Hunter. Are you good enough for my Eva?” Ah, he understood. Here was the dragon guarding the fair princess. “I’d better be hadn’t I?” She nodded once with approval. “Damn right.”

Eva’s mouth fell open as her friend walked away. “I can’t believe she just did that.” Gabriel was finding more puzzle pieces to Eva’s life. He needed to get the edges together first, and then fill in the rest. “So Eva, who was this other person that didn’t pass your dragon lady’s muster?” Eva’s head whipped up and he could see she didn’t want to talk about it. He saw her debate how much to tell him and then saw her decide. “The first boy I ever kissed. He was a local boy here, Martin Hastings. His father and mine were high school friends and when we came back here to live I developed this crush on Marty.” She smiled and let Gabriel pour her some wine. She took a sip and cradled the glass in her palms rolling it back and forth.

“Franny never liked him, from the first time he’d stepped foot in her kitchen. She thought there was something not right about him. Turned out she was right.” She made a face. “I though he hung the moon, he would always come to my skating practice and wait for me. Sit and watch me with this look on his face that never failed to make me want to see more of it. Want to do better just so he would look at me like I was special.” She laughed lightly. “I caught him one day, watching me though my window. He was sitting in a tree just staring at me with that same look on his face.” Gabriel saw the pain the memory evoked, but he knew she was on a roll. “How old were you?” “Fourteen. When I confronted him, he shrugged it off and said why shouldn’t he watch me? I was his so why not. He started to scare me, the depth of his obsession with me. Wherever I went I knew he was watching me. It got to the point where I didn’t want to leave the house, and I tried to tell my father. But he didn’t believe me, said I was imagining it and to grow up. Francesca was the only one who saw Marty for what he was.” Gabriel slotted another puzzle piece into place. “Is that why you moved away?” She shook her head. “No, Martin followed me home from practice one night and I ran, I was always faster than him.”

Franny came over and sat beside Eva, a hand on her arm. “Stalked her endlessly, the boy was unstable.” Gabriel saw the protective glare she sent him but Eva kissed the woman’s cheek. “He was, and he ended up dying because of it.” Gabriel saw the pain the two women shared. “He fell out of the tree he used to watch me from. It was a huge tree and I assumed he had been trying to climb in my room but he fell.” Franny shook her head. The boy’s father blamed Senor Page, and Eva. But it was no one’s fault but Martin’s.” Eva smiled and he saw her throw off the gloom of those memories. An amazing thing about women, the ability to move out of the past that quickly and into the present. “It was tragic, but Martin’s parents never accepted that it was an accident, so my father moved us to New York, and I met Adrian there. And the rest it history as they say.”

A waiter approached with their dinner and Franny clapped her hands. “Enough of Martin, amore. It’s over and done, eat and talk about something else.” Francesca winked at Gabriel and left the table. He grinned at Eva and asked nonchalantly. “So tell me more about this strange way I make you feel?” Eva laughed, and the light returned to her eyes. “Lets not.” She twirled her pasta around her fork and ate delicately. “No, I insist. I must know what it is so I can keep making you feel that way.” Her eyes narrowed. “I’m still not going to sleep with you.” His smile widened wickedly. “Still thinking about it though aren’t you?”