Watch Me Take Your Girl (6 page)

Chapter 10

“
I’m so glad
you’re back, Gabrielle,” Padma said, squeezing Gabrielle. “Oh I’ve missed you so much, daughter.”

“I missed you too, Padma.”

Gabrielle was at the grand opening celebration of
Padma’s Food House
, the second location in Tyson’s neck of the woods. With this restaurant, she managed to get a waterside location, even had an outside deck for guests to dine.

“This is beautiful, Padma.”

“Thank you, darling.”

“You’re welcome,” Gabrielle said. “The patrons are just going to love this view of the water.”

“Yes. It certainly adds to the ambience.”

Gabrielle noticed the black and white balloons lining the
deck and the front entrance of the restaurant.

“Come on in, Gabrielle. It’s pretty crowded in here, but I had Prasad save us a table.”

Gabrielle followed Padma inside. The place was crowded and loud, filled with a blending of voices, conversations and background music. This grand opening was a big deal. There were several town officials present who admired the work Padma did for the community.

The
waitresses were serving appetizers and finger foods – mini beef tenderloin sandwiches, shrimp cocktail, panko-crusted crab cake bites and bacon quiches.

Tyson was in the kitchen preparing al
l the desserts, including mini Oreo cookie cheesecakes, chocolate cakes and chiffon cakes with chocolate and vanilla layers.

As Padma and Gabrielle approached the table,
Heshan stood up and said, “Hey, Gabrielle. Good to see you.”

“You as well, Heshan.”

“Hi, Gabrielle,” Prasad said.

“Hi, Prasad.”

“You haven’t met my wife, have you?”

Gabrielle glanced over at the
beautiful, West Indian woman sitting next to him with long, black, silky hair and beautiful brown skin.

“This is my wife, Lalita. Lalita, this is Gabrielle.”

“It’s so nice to meet you, Gabrielle,” Lalita said.

“You as well.”

Gabrielle took a seat.

Padma ran off to the kitchen to make sure everything was
running efficiently.

Gabrielle exchanged small talk with Lalita
, laughing and conversing with her like they were old girlfriends, making plans to get together soon.

When Gabrielle
saw Dilvan emerge from the kitchen, she gasped. He was stunning. She could understand why all the women on his Instagram account were drooling over him, leaving comments about his gorgeous eyes, his well-toned body, stroking his ego; especially over his Hanes photo shoots.

Today, h
e was dressed in a gray suit that enhanced his phenomenal gray eyes. He wore a lilac colored shirt underneath and a charcoal necktie. Gabrielle inhaled a quick breath when she realized he was heading straight for her. The man still made her skin crawl and not in a good way. Even though she tried to be strong and pretend she wasn’t intimidated by him, the truth was, she was afraid of Dilvan. After what he did to her, she had ample reasons to be.

Why am I going away with him
, she thought to herself. If she felt this nervous now, she’d be a wreck in the same car with him. At a private beach with him.

Dilvan
pulled out the chair next to Gabrielle, sitting in a way that his knees where aimed towards her. He wanted to touch her, but to do so would probably bother her so instead he leaned close to her ear and said, “Hi Gabrielle.”

His
deep voice even irritated her and brought back bad memories. So why did his breath on her neck make a wave of desire rip through her body? How could she feel anything for him?

“Hi,” Gabrielle
finally responded.

All eyes were on them. Lalita, Prasad and Heshan, who all knew about the history between Gabrielle and Dilvan looked on, probably confused
by Dilvan’s bold move.

“How are you?”
He looked at her lips while licking his.

“I’m okay.”

“Did you think about this weekend?” he asked, wanting to know if she was going to go away with him and talk openly without any interruptions.

“
I thought about it.”

“And?”

“Um...” she stammered, because before she came here, she was certain that she wanted to go with him and get it over with. Now, not so much.

Dilvan leaned forward and whispered in her ear, “Let’s go outside and talk for a minute.” He stood up, then reached for her hand.

“I can get up on my own,” she told him.

She followed him out to the deck. There were only a few people standing out there, admiring the place
.

“So, I really would like,” he began, noticing her staring down at the deck, her arms crossed.

“Gabrielle, can you look at me?”

She
looked up at him. His eyes were powerful. Enchanting.

“I really would like you to come with me,” he said. “It’ll give us a chance to talk
openly and honestly without any outside influences.”

“Okay.”

He frowned, confused. Was it really that easy? “Did you just agree to go?”

“Yeah. I did. What time are we leaving, Dilvan
, before I change my mind?”

“In about an hour or so.
”

“
So we would be arriving tonight and leaving tomorrow night, correct?”

“Yes. That’s correct.”

After a long pause, Gabrielle asked, “And what about accommodations?”

He smirked.
“I reserved a beach house for the weekend.”

“Good...just wanted to make sure I would have my own room.”

“Of course,” he said, keeping his gaze on her.

“G
uess we’re good, then. I’ll meet you by your car at five,” Gabrielle told him, then walked away.

~~~~~

Heshan pushed the kitchen door open where he saw Tyson busy whipping up another cake. He was focused, wearing an apron and all...twisting his body as he spread chocolate cream on each layer of cake, making sure his food was as pleasing to the eyes as it was to the palate.

“Hey, Tyson,” Heshan said.

“What’s up, Heshan...yo, I meant to apologize to you for the way I went off the other day. Dilvan just irks me, man.”

“It’s cool...I get it. He irks all of us. And speaking of Dilvan,
what’s up with him and Gabrielle?” Heshan asked with a puzzled look on his face.

“What
do you mean?”

“I mean, when did they start talking again?”

Tyson shrugged. He didn’t want to seem bothered by the whole thing.

“She was out there talking to him like they were old friends,” Heshan added.

“Apparently, Dilvan asked her to go away with him this weekend and she agreed.”

“What?”

“Yeah...”

“And you’re just going to let her go?”

“
Let
her?” Tyson chuckled. “Heshan, Gabrielle is a grown woman. I don’t control her.” Tyson turned on the industrial size mixer and mixed up enough cake batter to make four, two-layer cakes.

“But don’t you love her?”

“Of course I do, but now I can only sit back and have faith that she loves me the same.”

“You mean like you did with
Desiree. How’d that work out for you?”

Tyson sighed. “Don’t bring up
Desiree, man.”

“Tyson, seriously
...if you love Gabrielle, why are you letting her go anywhere with my brother? It’s like you’re just handing her to him, the same way you let Desiree travel back and forth to Chicago without even questioning her and come to find out, she was cheating on you.”

Tyson turned off the mixer.

“That’s what you’re gonna do with Gabrielle?” Heshan asked. “Let Dilvan weasel his way into her heart?”

“No. I don’t plan on doing that, but you know what I’ve learned with my experience with Desiree
since you insist on bringing her up?”

“What’s that?”

“I want a woman who’s willing to fight for me as much as I fight for her. If Gabrielle wants to go back with Dilvan, there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“Jeez, man. So you are just going to
let
it happen?”

“Heshan, calm down
. You act like Gabrielle’s your woman.”

“I just don’t
want to see you get hurt again, or her for that matter, Tyson. I know what Gabrielle means to you.”

“Yeah, well all I can do now is hope she knows what I mean to her.”

After dispersing the batter evenly in round baking pans, Tyson placed them in the oven. Then he took off his apron and adjusted his khaki slacks and shirt to join the family table. When he opened the kitchen door to the dining room, he saw Dilvan sitting next to Gabrielle.

Unfazed, he walked over to the table, greeted everyone and then he locked eyes with Gabrielle.

Gabrielle’s face lit up when she saw him, and the growing smile on her face was one that no one else had seen tonight.

“Bri, is anyone sitting next to you,”
Tyson asked her. Dilvan was sitting to her left, but the seat on the right was empty.

“No,” she replied.

Tyson walked around the table and to the seat. He sat down and blew a breath, placing a small dessert plate in front of him.

“It’s
not too hot in there, is it?” Gabrielle asked, staring at his lips.

“Yeah, it is, but I can
take a little heat,” he responded.

Gab
rielle smiled.

“Bought you the first slice of cake,
my dear,” he told her.

“Ooh, that looks delicious,” Lalita said.

“Yeah...where’s our cake?” Prasad chimed in.

Dilvan hadn’t said a word.
He just turned red in the face, pissed off by the fact that Tyson had more of a rapport with Gabrielle than he did. If he had his way, he’d change that tonight.

Tyson took a fork, broke off a piece and brought it to Gabrielle’s lips. “Try it.”

“Really, Tyson?” she said, then giggled.

He hid a smirk. “Yes. Open up.”

Gabrielle opened her mouth, instantly feeling something related to ecstasy. After fully chewing it, she said, “Tyson...that is delicious. Then again, everything you make is delicious.”

Your lips are delicious
. He thought it, but didn’t say it. Along with the undeniable chemistry between them, there was already enough tension at the table. “Thank you, sweetie,” he told her. “As for the rest of you guys, just tell your waitress you want the chiffon cake.”

Tyson
stood up but leaned down and whispered in Gabrielle’s ear, “I want to talk to you before you leave, okay?”

Gabrielle nodded slightly, watching him saunter back into the kitchen. There was so much to admire about Tyson. What Gabrielle admired the most was his giving spirit. Everything he did for
Padma’s Food House
was out of the goodness of his heart. The money came out of his pocket and not once had she ever heard him complain and she never would hear him complain. He enjoyed it, took pleasure in making other people happy, and that’s the kind of man she wanted – someone who was self-sacrificing and giving of his time, which was far more valuable than money.

Chapter 11

“
So a day
and a half then you’re back?” Tyson asked, leaned up against the deck railings, staring at the woman he was completely head over heels for, watching her hair sway in the crisp breeze. He watched her pull the cream-colored cardigan sweater she was wearing a little tighter.

“Yes
. This evening and all day tomorrow...will be back tomorrow night.”

“And you’re
sure
you want to do this?”

“Yes
. I have too, Tyson.”

Tyson sighed.
“No, you don’t have to.”

“Well, I need to. I need to do this and get it over with.
I know you’re worried about me, but I’ll be okay.”

Tyson grimaced.
“If anything happens to you...”

“Nothing is going to happen to me.” Gabrielle wrapped her arms around
him prompting Tyson to fold his arms possessively around her. He intended on marrying this woman. Even though he understood her need to do this for closure, he was still worried that Dilvan had some tricks up his sleeve. “Don’t worry, Tyson. I’ll be back.”

He blew an agitated breath.
“Okay, sweetheart.” He leaned in, kissed her on the temple.

“I’ll see you later.”

“Okay. Later.”

With that, she
turned to walk away to meet Dilvan near his car but was surprised to see him standing on the opposite end of the deck. He had been watching her and Tyson instead of waiting by the car...

~~~~~

The drive to Hatteras Island was a quiet one. Dilvan had tried to offer up some small talk, asking her how her day was and stating something about rain being in the forecast today, but Gabrielle hadn’t said a word in response. She didn’t have a thing in common with Dilvan, so it was difficult to find topics to talk about. Also, being this close to him made her not want to talk to him...brought back bad memories. One of those bad memories was the morning he came into her bedroom, forced his sex on her while covering her face with a pillow because, in his own words, she was too ugly to look at.

“So
we’re here,” he said, pulling up to a huge, two-story beach home with a screened-in porch, way too much home for two people. Then again, his personal home was too much. He was single with a maid, living in a six-bedroom house and owned three luxury vehicles.

“This is a nice house
,” Gabrielle commented.

Dilvan
squinted at her, surprised she said anything at all. He liked the fact that she felt comfortable enough to speak. “Good...thought you might like it. A change of scenery is what I think we both need.”

Gabrielle
quietly followed him to the door and up the stairs.

“There are
five bedrooms,” Dilvan said. “Three up...two down.”

Boy did he love to show off. That’s one thing
Gabrielle didn’t like about him. He had to have the best of everything. Coming from humble beginnings, she didn’t care about money, but money was very much a part of Dilvan’s lifestyle. He drove a one-hundred-thousand-dollar Maserati like most people drove Hondas. It was his
main
car. The others – the Ferrari and Lamborghini usually stayed parked.

Every suit he owned had a brand name or some famous, expensive designer attached, and he
wore expensive sunglasses and watches. Who needed a thirty-thousand dollar Rolex when one could buy a ten-dollar watch from Walmart that kept the same time?

“We’re having dinner at 8:30,
” he advised.

Gabrielle glanced at her watch.
It was a little after 8:00 p.m. She had just enough time to get settled in one of the downstairs bedrooms.

Dilvan also chose
one of the bedrooms downstairs only because he wanted to be close to her. If he had his way, they’d be sharing a bedroom...

While Gabrielle checked out her room and placed her overnight bag on the bed, she heard her
cell phone beeping from her purse. She took it and saw a text from Tyson.

Tyson
: u there yet?

She smiled. Tyson was worried about her. She saw it in his longing eyes when he said goodbye to her
on the deck at the restaurant earlier. To ease his mind, she responded:

Gabrielle
: just arrived about ten minutes ago

She walked to the bathroom down the hallway and
stared at herself in the mirror, recalling her toxic relationship with Dilvan.

What am I doing here
, she asked herself. Dilvan wasn’t worthy of her time, so why was she with him. Then she remembered that she wasn’t doing this for his benefit. This was for her forward movement in life. Most times, to get to something good, one has to go through something bad so that when the good finally comes, it would be easily recognizable.

The knock at the door interrupted her thoughts. She was so startled, so jumpy that she
accidentally knocked over a ceramic soap dish. It shattered to pieces on the tiled floor.

“Gabrielle, is everything okay?”
Dilvan inquired.

“Yeah...fine,” Gabrielle said, picking up
the sharp pieces from the floor, tossing them to the trash.

“Meet me out front for dinner.”

Is it 8:30 already?
Gabrielle looked at her watch. It was a few minutes after 8:30. Her first thought was, if she was too late, Dilvan would grow furious and she didn’t want to anger him, especially since they were here alone. “Okay...be right out,” she said.

Once she cleaned up the mess she made in the bathroom, she checked her hair one final time and
headed for the front door to meet Dilvan out front...whatever that meant. When he’d first mentioned something about dinner, she assumed they would be going to some fancy restaurant, but he had other plans.

W
hen she opened the front door, she saw a table for two set up on the beach with red rose petals sprinkled on the white tablecloth.  A few candles were burning as well, the flames dancing from the cold ocean breeze.

Dilvan was sitting there
, promptly. When he saw her approaching, he smiled. Then he stood up, took her by the hand and helped her to sit. Once he sat down again, he cleared his throat and said, “I know it’s a little chilly out here, but I thought a catered, candlelight dinner on the beach would be nice. I wanted to do something special.”

“Special?
” Gabrielle said, her brows furrowed. “I thought you just wanted to talk...clear the air. You don’t need to do anything special for me. You’ve never done it before and there’s certainly no need for it now.”

“Well it seems to work for Tyson, so...”

“Tyson?” she said, the wrinkles in her forehead threatening to become permanent. “Why are you bringing Tyson into this?”

“You seemed to have
grown fond of him. I know you lived with the man for a while.”

“
The man
...he’s your cousin, isn’t he?”

“Yeah. Your point?” Dilvan asked, taking a sip of wine.

Gabrielle silently shook her head. “You seem to have an extreme dislike of Tyson, and he’s been good to me.”

With flaring
nostrils, Dilvan said in a raised tone, “That man is trying to steal you away from me. You’re right...I do have an extreme dislike of him and, keeping it real for a minute, I’m not too pleased with you either.”

“W
ait...you need to calm down, Dilvan. I agreed to come here with you, but I will not let you treat me like you did before.”

“Yeah, and what way is that?”

“You know...you’re the one who did it. You’re the man who said I was ugly...that I was useless...that I would never be nothing and didn’t have nothing.”

“Okay,” he interrupted. “Let’s try to get pass those things
, Gabrielle. That’s why I wanted to come here. To talk rationally and calmly.”

“I
am
rational and calm, but you’re not. The only time I’ve ever seen you calm is when you talk to your Mother.”

Dilvan
took a sip of wine and silently studied her.

Gabrielle
held his gaze. She could see the flames dancing in his eyes as the sound of the ocean water crashed and crested ashore. She studied Dilvan more, trying to understand him. Read him. He was stoic in his expression, so her eyes roamed from his eyes to his nose and his lips. He was stunning, a model, and he wanted her. While most women would be flattered to be wined and dined on a private beach by Dilvan Alexander, she was cautious and on guard.

He lifted the top off of what looked to be their dinner for the night – steak and shrimp. “How about we eat?
” he said. “That should help to calm things down a bit.”

Yeah, right
, Gabrielle thought, but she’d go along with it for now.

After he served her, he put some food on his plate
. They quietly ate for a few minutes.

“H
ow is it?” he inquired.

“It’s good,” Gabrielle said, covering her mouth with a napkin.

“Listen, I know we got off topic a little bit, and I’m sorry for raising my voice. Um...one of my main reasons for asking you here was to thank you for what you did for my Father. I know you didn’t have to do it, especially considering...” Dilvan took a breath. “Considering the way I treated you, but you did and I am truly, from the bottom of my heart, thankful for your sacrifice.”

Gabrielle nodded.

“You don’t have anything to say?”

“Not really.”

Dilvan sighed. “I can’t hold a conversation by myself, Gabrielle.”

“I don’t know what to say.
I’m not comfortable talking to you, Dilvan, especially since I wasn’t allowed to before.”

“That was then. This is now.”

Gabrielle shook her head. “I don’t even know why you’re trying to get back with me when you made it clear that you don’t like me.”

“I do like you.”

“No you don’t. You just
think
you do because I did something nice for your Father, but the truth of the matter is, if you
liked
me, you wouldn’t have treated me the way you did.”

“Why do you keep bringing that up?”

“Because you
hurt
me, Dilvan,” Gabrielle said, her voice cracking, eyes watering. “And I don’t think you understand that, which is an even bigger problem.”

“I do under—”

“No you don’t!” Gabrielle said, tears falling from her eyes, her lips trembling. “You don’t know the pain I felt to hear you creeping into my room at night for sex. You don’t know the mental torture you put me through...how I would just lie there when you were done and try to understand why you wanted to have sex with me but I wasn’t pretty enough for you. You wouldn’t even look at me, Dilvan.”

“Gabrielle—”

“Time and time again, you forced yourself on me,” she cried. “I lost two babies because of you. I lost myself because of you!”

Gabrielle took a napkin and dabbed her eyes. She wanted to get up
and leave him sitting there. He didn’t deserve to see her cry. It’s not like he cared. If he had, wouldn’t he have offered her something to dry her eyes with, or better yet, attempted to console her somehow?

“Okay. I hurt you. I know that. I’m admitting that. I take full blame and responsibility for what I’ve done, Gabrielle. Now what I need to know is, how do we move on from
here?”

“We don’t,” Gabrielle said, shaking her head, more tears rolling down her face. “
That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. I can’t be with a man who hurts me. Dilvan, I don’t care how much money you make, the cars you drive, how good you look, the magazine spreads you’ve done...I don’t care about that. I want to be with someone who makes me happy and...” she sniffled and swallowed hard. “That’s not you.” Gabrielle swiped tears away from her face. “It’s not you, Dilvan.”

Dilvan stoo
d up, rubbing his chin, irritated, staring out into the dark waters.

Gabrielle’s phone beeped. She looked
at the screen with her blurred vision and saw a text from Tyson:

Tyson
: I should’ve never let you go there with him. I’m sitting here worried sick about you. Please let me know that you’re okay.

Gabrielle smiled
and suddenly her tears of sadness became tears of happiness. This is the man who cared for her, Tyson, the man she would rather be sitting with on the beach, sharing a romantic meal. Tyson was much more pleasant to be around. Maybe because he was older, mature, had life experiences and was well grounded.

With Dilvan, there were a lot
of insecurities. The only thing he seemed certain of was his looks and his money. He wasn’t ready for a relationship. He knew it. That was part of the reason why he hated his Mother so much for setting him up with Gabrielle in the first place. Now that he’d seen real love displayed from Gabrielle to his Father, by means of the bone marrow transplant that saved Colin’s life, he wanted to hang on to her. It would be hard to come by a woman who would be so self-sacrificing.