Free Lead the Way by K.L. Prince Page B

events and it makes her feel strange inside.  It is the first time in a long time that she feels like she might be able to take some power back in her life.  Everything she has done in the past five years of her life has been the result of, or in reaction to, what has happened to her.  The writing, the way in which her friends interact with her now, hiring Rosa, moving into a more secure building – all of it has been defensive.  If she goes along with Gabriel, it will be the first time she has attacked the problem.  It will be the first time she has acted offensively.
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 6
     
     
     
    Eva looks at the clock.  It’s nine-twenty in the morning.  Gabriel is late.  A feeling of panic starts to creep into her mind.  She hates to admit it, but she’s started to really rely on Gabriel.  She’s started to look forward to his arrival and feels sad when it’s time for him to go home.  It’s been nice having male company. 
    Gabriel has been able to get her to open up, like no one else has been able to.  When she looks into eyes, it seems like he really cares about what she is saying.  There are times when she feels like she’s being desperate and will back off and leave him to do his work, but he comes and seeks her out.  It seems like he wants to speak to her, as much as she wants to speak to him. 
    He’s been working for her for about three weeks now.  There are days that go by where it doesn’t seem like he’s doing much work.  She’s been slacking off with her writing, just as much.  The time that he should be spending cleaning and she writing, they spend talking and goofing around.  They sit and talk over coffee or play board games.  She’ll run story ideas by him and he talks about things going on in his life or about his time in the Navy.
    She’s let Gabriel into parts of her life that no one has been allowed into for a very long time.  She’s tried to resist, but he has this magical way of drawing things out of her.  It fascinates her, how he is able to that.  She jokes with him that he must have been a psychiatrist in a past life.
    The way that Gabriel looks at life is so positive and it has started to rub off on her.  He’s helped her to look at life through different eyes.  He has been able to get her to stop focusing on her view and try to see things with a different spin - a better spin.  He has definitely changed some of her negative thinking into positive thinking. 
    She doesn’t know why she has let Gabriel in or let him get so close to her.  Even before the attack, someone could definitely be her acquaintance, but it took time for her to let him or her into her inner life and thoughts.  She’s let Gabriel walk right past her guards.  She let him get past her concerns, her insecurities, and her boundaries.
    She’s not sure how he feels about her, but she thinks of him as a friend now.  She’s told him things that she’s kept secret from her most dearest friends.  Rosa is like a mother to her and she’s told Gabriel more things in three weeks, than she’s told Rosa the entire five years that she’s known her.  She’s been trying to figure out why she trusts Gabriel so much and so quickly, but the reason escapes her.
    When the clock turns to nine-thirty, she starts to wonder if Gabriel is going to show up.  Feelings of disappointment start to set it.  She was looking forward to seeing him.  Plus, she had something wonderful she wanted to tell him today.  She’d been looking forward to seeing the look on his face when she told him her good news.
    She was waiting for Gabriel’s arrival before she started the coffee machine, but since it doesn’t look like he’s going to turn up, she starts filling the machine with water.  She measures out scoops of coffee and pours them into the machine.  With each step that she takes to get the coffee machine going, the disappointment that she feels grows.  She’s grown really used to Gabriel being