Gabriel must be getting ready to return to France, Anna thought with a quiet sigh, her lips tightening into a thin, tense line.
Ever since their strange, emotionally charged conversation in the garden, he had been keeping his distance again—like clockwork, retreating behind his wall of silence the moment things became uncomfortable.
Come to think of it, she mused bitterly, that was the second time we had a tense, unresolved conversation in that same garden. And just like the first, he couldn't handle his emotions—he fled again, unable to face whatever truths lingered between them. He's so immature… and yet, ironically, there are times when he seems to have more emotional clarity than I do.
"Chloe?" Marienne's voice sliced through her thoughts like a needle popping a bubble, pulling her abruptly back to the present. "What are you thinking about so deeply?"
