Page 65 of Ice-Cold Obsession

“Gabriel—”

“I’m serious. You changed my life. And I don’t just mean the mafia stuff. I mean everything. You made me want to be better. You made me want to fight for something real.”

My throat tightens, and I reach across the table to take his hand. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

As we get our food, we keep smiling at each other.

“Do you ever think about your sister?” Gabriel asks quietly.

I do. All the time. But it’s different now. The anger and the need for revenge are gone. All that’s left is sadness and acceptance. My grief could’ve destroyed me, but it didn’t, and all thanks to Gabriel.

“Yeah,” I say. “I think about her a lot. I wish I could’ve helped her, and I wish I’d seen how much she was struggling. But I can’t change the past. All I can do is move forward.”

“I think about Lucas too,” Gabriel says. “And about what he would’ve thought of all this. My first pro game. You. Everything.”

“What do you think he would say?”

Gabriel gives me a small smile. “He would’ve made fun of me for being sappy. But I think he’d be happy for me. For us.”

“Yeah. I think he would be.”

Sappy or not, I’m just glad Gabriel’s with me and that I found him. Because I don’t know what I would’ve done without him.