Once Upon a Marriage by Tara Taylor Quinn

decade. She’d feared that Gabi, who deserved home and family and security more than anyone else she knew, would never give herself a chance to have it all.
    Marie was going to do some serious damage to Liam Connelly, business partner and best friend or not, if he ever did anything to take that soft look out of Gabi’s eyes...
    â€œHe’s only trying to help,” Gabi continued. “You’re lonely with me moving out so suddenly. We all know that. And you know Liam. He sees a problem and thinks he has to fix it.”
    â€œI’m not mad at him,” she said now, not hiding the hint of peevishness in her tone. Wouldn’t have done any good anyway. This was Gabi. Gabi knew Marie better than Marie knew herself.
    â€œYou like Elliott, don’t you?”
    Turning so she was facing Gabi, whose tall slender body looked model perfect in the short black dress she was wearing, Marie said, “I don’t know.”
    It was the truth.
    â€œI’ve...never...”
    â€œTell me what you feel when you’re with him.”
    â€œThat’s the problem. I don’t feel just one thing. It’s like...he walks into the shop and I feel
him.
Like he draws me. And it’s exciting. And dangerous. And yet the most compelling thing about him is that he makes me feel...safe.”
    Afraid, when she saw Gabi’s frown, Marie said, “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
    â€œI don’t want you to get hurt.”
    â€œYou think he’s going to hurt me?”
    â€œI’m more afraid that you’re going to hurt yourself.”
    â€œHow would I do that?” Marie was a pro at keeping herself, her heart, at arm’s length. She’d been protecting herself from getting hurt by the opposite sex since junior high. Or at least it seemed that long ago.
    â€œBecause it sounds like you’re finally falling in love, and I’m afraid you won’t just go with it. Won’t just let it happen.”
    She was falling in love?
    She and Elliott were friends. And they were that much only because they’d spent a lot of hours chatting in the coffee shop over the past few months he’d been watching over Liam and the building.
    They were friends because of proximity. Nothing else.
    She didn’t want to fall in love.
    Ever.
    She’d promised herself she’d never be that vulnerable to any man.
    But Gabi knew her...
    â€œDon’t look so scared, Marie. See, that’s what I’m talking about. You get in your own way and...”
    â€œI’m...not convinced I’m falling in love.” She blurted the thought in her head. “Love is a roller coaster. It’s angst and exhilaration. I feel neither of those things.”
    â€œJust promise me that if Elliott gives you any indication that he’s interested in you, really interested, you won’t run in the other direction? You’ll give him a chance?”
    Marie nodded. Because at the moment, the way she felt, there didn’t seem much point in not doing so. Gabi knew she wanted to go out with Elliott.
    â€œWhat if he doesn’t feel anything for me?”
    â€œThe way he hangs around you so much when it’s Liam he’s working for? And Walter? Besides, Liam says he can tell by the way Elliott watches you when you don’t know he’s looking that he has a thing for you. Bad, Liam said. He’s got it bad.”
    Gabi fidgeted with Marie’s hair and then turned to readdress her own lipstick.
    â€œAnd it’s not like he’s working for me,” Marie reemphasized. “He’s working for Liam. And if Liam’s good with him going out with me, then he wouldn’t be breaking a code of ethics or having some conflict of interest.”
    â€œExactly.”
    â€œUnless I distract him, he misses seeing something and Liam gets hurt.”
    â€œElliott is too much a professional to miss any danger to anyone within a five-mile