“I don’t want to hear it.”
Rachel looked over at Julia and frowned. “Why not?”
“Because he’s my professor. It’s—safer if we pretend not to know each other. Trust me.”
Rachel shook her head. “He said something similar to me, you know. But I’m going to tell you what I told him, I don’t care. He’s my brother, and I love him. And there are a few things you should know.”
Julia sighed in acquiescence.
“He’d kill me if he knew that I was telling you this, but I think it will make his attitude easier to understand. Did Mom ever tell you how she came to adopt him?”
“She only talked about happy things: how proud she was of him, how well he did at Princeton and Oxford. She never talked about his childhood.”
“Mom found him when he was nine years old, wandering around the hospital in Sunbury. He’d been traveling with his mother, who was a crazy alcoholic, and she got sick. They ended up in Sunbury, and his mother died, of pneumonia I think. Anyway, Mom found Gabriel, and he didn’t have a dollar to his name. He couldn’t even buy a drink from the vending machine. She was even more upset when she tracked down his mother’s relatives and they told her to keep him. He knew that his family didn’t want him. And despite everything my parents did, I don’t think he ever felt at home with us. He never became a Clark.”
Julia thought of Gabriel as a scared and hungry little boy and fought back tears. She imagined his eyes, large and blue in his pale but angelic face. His shock of brown hair spiked and unruly. Dirty clothes and a crazy mother. Julia knew what it was like to have an alcoholic mother. She knew what it was like to cry herself to sleep at night wishing someone, anyone, would love her. She and Gabriel had more in common than she cared to admit. Much, much more.
“I’m sorry, Rachel. I didn’t know.”
“I’m not excusing his rudeness. I’m just telling you who he is. Did you know that after his horrible fight with Scott, Mom lit a candle every night and placed it in one of the windows? She thought that if Gabriel happened to be in Selinsgrove and saw the candle, he would know that she was waiting for him, that she loved him, and he’d walk up the front steps and come in.”
Julia shook her head. She hadn’t known that, but she believed it. That’s just who Grace was—charity unbound.
“He pretends to be whole, but he’s been broken. And deep down, he hates himself. I told him to treat you nicely, so I think his behavior will improve. Let me know if it doesn’t and I’ll deal with him.”
Julia snorted. “He ignores me, mostly. I’m a lowly grad student, and he doesn’t let me forget it.”
“I find that difficult to believe. I doubt very much that he would stare so intensely at a ‘lowly’ grad student.”
Julia busied herself with her chocolate. “He stares at me?” She was trying very hard to sound relaxed, but her voice sounded unnatural, shaky even.
“He stares at you all the time. Haven’t you noticed? I caught him looking at you over dinner the other night and when we were at the club. Every time you took a drink, actually. And when I winked at him, he scowled.” Rachel looked at her friend thoughtfully. “I see the two of you together, and I feel like I’m missing something…He knew that I was going shopping this week, and he not only encouraged me, he gave me money.”
“So? That’s nice. That’s what big brothers are for. What did you buy?”
“The money was for you, not me.”
Julia frowned and turned sideways on the bed, cross-legged, so that she could face her friend. “Why the hell would he do that?”
“You tell me.” Rachel cocked her head to one side.
“I don’t know. He’s been rude to me since I got here.”
“Well, he gave me some money and told me to buy you a gift. He was very specific. So here it is.” Rachel placed the box in Julia’s lap.
“I don’t want it.” She tried to hand it back, but Rachel refused.
“At least open it and see what it is.”
Julia shook her head, but Rachel insisted. So she opened the box. In it she found a very nice chocolate-brown, Italian-made leather messenger bag. She held the bag up by its strap and looked at it. The label said Fendi.
Holy crap, thought Julia.
“Well? What do you think?”
“I don’t—know,” she stammered, staring at the beautiful and classic bag in astonishment.