David raised both eyebrows and waited for her explanation.
Ella ran her tongue over her lips. "Why would we do anything about anything?" This was getting out of control. Ella shook her shoulders in a shrug, and said, "I already accepted your apology, remember." David grimaced at her tone. Ella rolled her eyes but she did not change her tone, "You thought I hit on you, back then, at that rugby training camp, because you thought that was in my nature."
"That is not true." He moved his head side to side. "That is definitely not true." He repeated.
"Yes, it is." She snapped.
"I hit on you! Not the other way!" David corrected with frustration. "You were so shy, I pursued..."
"Yes. I was shy. Still am, actually." Ella retorted. He grimaced as she reminded him. "But come on, you accepted your mates' words!"
"It was just for a few seconds, I realised pretty fast..."
She glared at him and interrupted, "I thought you liked me. I was flattered by your attention." David raised his eyebrows.
"I did like you. I still like you!"
"Utter rubbish!" " Ella snapped. "You looked at me as if I was a Mata Hari, after listening to your mates . You threw out what you knew about me" David ran his palm across his face. Ella tried to remain cool and aloof. "So, yes, thank you for your apology, and I accept it." She glared at him, "But you have no idea ..." Her voice catching she took a breath to gather her composure.
David interjected, "I'm sorry Gabriella..."
Ella interrupted, "As I said, apology accepted. But if you really knew me ....!"
David ran his fingers over his jaw, and opted for sincerity, interrupted again, "Look, my mind was all over the place. I wasn't thinking. I was in shock."
Her eyes narrowed in temper and snapped at David, "And accepted I was a slut, because your mates said I slept with everyone!"
"No, Gabriella," He threw up arms in frustration and said, "I didn't know you were at school!" He remembered they were meant to portray a happy couple so he lowered his voice, just in case other passengers noticed they were arguing. "That really threw me."
"Oh really?" Her response was full of sarcasm. "That is rubbish! You are only a few years old than me."
This conversation was falling apart. David nodded as he accepted her statement. Ella folded her arms and looked away.
David ran his fingers through his hair, buried his face in the cage of his arms as his fingers locked behind his head, and closed his eyes. "Ok, ok, I know that." He said quietly. Opened his eyes, unlinked his fingers and lowered his arms. "I thought you were roughly my age. I didn't know that you were still at school." David looked directly at Ella. As if that would help his situation. She still glared at him." When everything blew up, after Henry, all I heard was I was with a school kid, that you knew the team, that your dad was the manager. I felt like an idiot. I had feelings for a school kid. A perv! I was so embarrassed."
"Pervert? Embarrassed? Are you kidding? Why? I was nearly eighteen. You were twenty. What is wrong with that?"
He rubbed the back of his neck. "Nothing is wrong with that, Gabriella. But no-one mentioned your age. Just that you were at school! A school kid, it rattled in my head! How could I fall in love with a school kid? What would people say about that?" That was the problem, back then, one statement, the fact she was at school and he was falling for a school kid.
She snapped, missing his statement about falling in love with her. "No one would bat an eye!" Why would he worry about that?
He sighed out a long breath, "I overreacted. Ok. What registered was you were a school kid. And I conjured a kid, someone who could be thirteen, fourteen, fifteen and I was twenty."
Ella folded her arms. Time to re-gather her composure. She was not going to cry, despite the fact that she was close, because it reminded her how she felt back then, when he literally moved back.
"I wanted to apologise at the paddock." David started to explain. "I wanted to apologise back then, because I wanted to tell you that I wouldn't hit on a school kid and that I had assumed, when I started to flirt with you, that you were the same age as me."
"Fine."
David gritted his teeth. "Gabriella! I wanted to explain. My reaction. The fact that we were at different positions in our lives and it was probably not the right time for us given the fall-out from Henry and the teams' reaction. But you didn't come back the next day."
"You expected me to come back the next day, after what your mates said to me, about me?" She took a step away.
David changed his strategy, "I went to see your dad." That stopped Ella. "I apologised to him, told him I didn't know you were at school. That I wouldn't flirt with a kid."
"What did he say?"
"He said I was at the camp because I had potential. That he had spoken to you and you vouched for me."
Gabriella knew that.
"He said he had free advice for me." David added, he came toward her, she took a step back.
"And that was?" She glared at him, hoping her stance would encourage him to back-off.
"Put my social activities on the back burners and focus on rugby."
"Good idea!" Gabriella murmured.
"Your dad, said he would arrange a workshop for this camp, especially this cohort."
"A workshop?" She blinked.
"Yes, a workshop for that camp. Yes, he did not endorse or encourage telling fibs whatever the motives, so he wanted to arrange a workshop about their behaviour. Because, while he clocked my mates' actions and acknowledged their reasons, the fact that they wanted to support me, that their behaviour was not ok."
Gabriella knew her father. He would do something constructive about the incident.
David saw that Ella understood her father's intentions. "Your dad, also said there were lots of fans that would take advantage of his players. And it would be easy for them to spread rumours if his players didn't know the difference between fact and fiction." His neck flushed with colour when he remembered her father's statement back then, as it was directed at him!"
"Exactly. " Ella mumbled. "Know the difference between fact and fiction."
David nodded. "Yeah, exactly. He said his players must have to take aboard the need for trust, integrity and honest because the difference between fact and fiction could ruin someone's reputation. "
Ella could imagine her dad saying that. He was big on integrity. That is what she was brought up with. Honesty. That is why she told her father exactly what had happened. She also told her father exactly how she felt. That Henry overreacted and his reaction set off a chain of events.
"Typical dad." Ella smiled gently. "Honesty, integrity and fairness. It should be inscribed on his headstone!"
David nodded. "Yes. He was always fair. Upfront. Didn't put up with any nonsense. But gave everyone a fair go."
Ella sighed. "Yes. That is him."
Seconds elapsed.
He ran his tongue over his teeth as he considered his option. Should he leave this alone, or keep going? He could practically see her dad's face in his mind, and could see he was trying to encouraged him, to keep going.
He inhaled and then he said bluntly, "I became wary." Sharing his innermost thoughts was difficult for an alpha man. They don't do that. They maintained a facade: be tough and do not talk about feelings.
"Wary?" She blinked and then started to glare as she said, "You don't know the difference between fact and fiction..."
"No." He shook his head. "I became wary, really careful." He took another breath, "About my relationship."
"Relationship?" Ella frowned. She really didn't want to know about his relationships, with anyone. It would hurt so much. It had taken her years to deal with what had happened ten years ago.
He nodded. He stated succinctly, "If you spoke to my ex-girlfriends, they would tell you, I don't do one night stands." He met Ella's eyes and said softly. "Ever."
"Oh." Ella blinked. That seems odd for an alpha man.
He smiled, albeit a predatory smile. "And Gabriella," She gulped when she read his eyes. " I have no intention of letting you dismiss what is going on between us." Ella gulped again. He continued, "Back then, and now!"
Ella swallowed, she had definitely miscalculated. She should have stayed with Amelia and Jack inside, but more importantly, Ella had misjudged David. He was really savvy.
She had learned to bury her feelings for him. For the last two years, she had learnt to live with him lurching in the periphery of her life. When it came to the two of them, they were cagey, really guarded and apprehensive. But this journey, for the last two hours, on a ferry, between two islands, gave him an opportunity to inch closer, and took her from to entrusting. How she felt about him was something that she kept to herself, for nearly ten years, but now, the last two minutes, listening to him, revealed that he, like her, had become cautious. His honesty was the combination to the lock to her heart. Confiding in her, was unexpected. It confirmed she underestimated David. Really savvy. He knew that honesty was key to her.