“Gabriel, I—”
He opened his eyes and unclenched his fist but didn’t turn around.
“Just call him. Tell him what you want him to do.”
Julianne tugged the sheet free, winding it around her petite frame. She went to him, bringing her front to his back.
“You want to protect me. You want justice. I love you for that.”
“I still wish I’d killed him.”
“You have.” She pressed her cheek against his shoulder blade.
His muscles tensed. “How so?”
“You love me, you’re kind to me, and you treat me with respect. The longer I’m with you, the more everything having to do with him seems like a bad dream. So in many ways, you have killed him. You’ve killed his memory. Thank you, Gabriel.”
Gabriel closed his eyes as a great wave of love and something he couldn’t quite name washed over him.
Julia kissed his shoulders and went to call her uncle.
Chapter Sixty-two
That evening, Julia and Gabriel dined at Kelly’s Manhattan apartment with her husband, Jonathan, and their daughters, Andrea and Meredith.
Julia felt welcomed by Gabriel’s family. By the end of the evening, they were visiting like old friends rather than strangers.
Kelly gave Gabriel a pair of cuff links and an old Brooklyn Dodgers cap that had belonged to their father, along with several books that had been written by their grandfather.
Gabriel gave Kelly the knowledge that the train engine he had, was, in fact, their father’s. He’d carved the initials “O.S.” into it as a boy, when his name had been Othniel Spiegel.
The Emersons invited the Schultzes to visit in Cambridge or Selinsgrove, and there was talk of a joint holiday in the Hamptons the following summer. Kelly made sure that Gabriel promised to attend the next meeting of the Rabbi Benjamin Spiegel Foundation. She was looking forward to introducing her brother to the cousins.
Back at the Ritz before bedtime, Julia checked her email. She was wearing the Dodgers cap, since it was almost too small for Gabriel’s head.
(A fact she pointed out with no little amusement.)
She stared at her laptop screen from behind her tortoiseshell glasses.
“Scheisse.”
“I really need to start teaching you to curse in a different language. I’ve heard that Farsi has some particularly colorful expletives.” Gabriel smirked as he walked toward her, clad in a plush hotel bathrobe.
“I’m not sure Farsi could capture what I feel when I look at this.” Julia pointed to the screen.
Gabriel picked up his glasses and put them on. He gazed at the scanned black-and-white engagement photo, recognizing Simon Talbot immediately.
He resisted the urge to curse. “Who’s the woman?”
“Do you know Senator Hudson from North Carolina? That’s his daughter. She’s a senior at Duke.”
Gabriel and Julianne exchanged a look.
“Her family is very conservative. How did she end up with him?” Gabriel sounded contemptuous.
“I have no idea. But I can understand why Natalie is upset. Simon dumped her for the Jacqueline Bouvier of fiancées. Look at her.”
“Who sent you the photo?”
“Rachel. It was published in The Philadelphia Inquirer.”
Julia turned back to her laptop, gazing sadly at the photograph of the smiling couple.
“I feel sorry for her. She has no idea what she’s getting into.”
“Perhaps she does but doesn’t care.” Gabriel tugged on the brim of her ball cap. “This looks good on you. I didn’t take you for a Dodgers fan.”
She grinned. “I’m embracing your Brooklyn heritage.”
The next day, Julianne finished her seminar paper while Gabriel attended to business, researching his grandfather in the Columbia University archives. That afternoon, they joined Kelly and Jonathan in paying a visit to Aunt Sarah at a nursing home in Queens.
After an evening spent shopping and then dining at the Russian Tea Room, they returned to the hotel. The room was bathed in candlelight as Julia moved atop him. Her hands rested on his chest, stroking him.
He gripped her hips, urging her to increase her pace.
“Say my name,” he whispered.
She gasped as he thrust up inside her.
“Gabriel.”
“Nothing could enflame me the way your voice does when you say my name.”
“Gabriel,” she repeated. “That’s beautiful.”
He pulled her closer, his lips moving across her breasts.
“You inspire me.”
“You’re very intense.”
“Of course I’m intense. I’m with my beautiful wife, having fantastic sex.”
“I feel like we’re the only ones in the world.”
“Good,” he mumbled, watching her as she moved up and down and up and down.
“You make me feel beautiful.”
In response, he licked her breast until she began to groan.
“I love you.”
Gabriel’s eyes grew determined as he urged her to go faster.
“I love you too.”