Sara raised an eyebrow. “Well, she did try to kill herself. He’s just being compassionate.”

Alex gave her a wry look. “I call it being stupid. You don’t know how many times I’ve seen him do this.”

“Do what?”

“Take in a broken woman thinking he’s going to nurse her back to good mental health. Like a bird with a damaged wing.”

Like Sara, maybe? Not a flattering thought.

“It’s a big waste of his time. You can’t fix another person.” That was very true. She could vouch for that with her own mother.

“I don’t think he’s trying to fix this girl. He just felt bad for her. It was a very random thing.” She didn’t know what else to say. She really wanted Alex to leave so she could take off her shoes and curl up on the bed with her kitten. Go to sleep finally.

“Well, I’ll take off then, since he’s not home. I need to go see my daughter. She’s having boy trouble, as usual. But if you could tell Gabriel I stopped by, I’d appreciate it.”

“Sure. It was nice meeting you. Sorry, I’m a little out of it from lack of sleep.” Sara wondered how old Alex was that he had a daughter dabbling with dating already. She would have put him at no older than thirty-five, but then again, she herself had been nineteen when her own mother was thirty-five.

“I understand. It was nice meeting you, too.” He smiled.

Sara remembered the bottle of absinthe in her hand. Alex must have brought it as a gift. “Oh, did you want me to give this to Gabriel?”

But Alex just shook his head and studied the bottle. “I didn’t bring that. It was sitting on the doorstep when I got here.”

“Oh.” She wished he had. The alternative was too disturbing.

“And Sara, just a little warning. There will be others.”

“Other what?” Gripping the green bottle and her purse, she just blinked at him, her mouth and face hot, palms sweaty. She really needed to lie down.

“Other girls. Women. They can’t resist Gabriel. They all want to coax a smile from him, and they all want to be the one who is special, who manages to get a reaction from him. None of them can though, and they become obsessed with him.”

There had been others, besides Rochelle? With that kind of intense reaction? That was a disturbing thought. Yet she could understand it. She herself had been drawn to Gabriel from the beginning, intrigued by his solitary life, his lonely eyes, his physical beauty. Didn’t she want to think she was special, that he let her in, and her alone?

Alex added, “Don’t let that happen to you, because it really is pathetic.”