Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
GAbrIEL
Fuck!
I watch Charley walk away without a backward glance and my heart sinks.
I stare after him for a few minutes, trying to decide what to do next.
Had I expected him to say yes? Probably, as I hadn’t actually thought about what would happen if he said no.
He never says no. But then, we’re not kids anymore.
He’s an adult and he can make his own choices.
That’s fine. But there’s one thing I’m pretty sure of and that is Charley isn’t happy.
He looked good, really good, but there was a tightness round his eyes.
Charley’s always been the more serious one of us, but he’s never looked like this.
I know time changes us but it still seemed like there was something going on.
He didn’t mention a partner, and I didn’t ask because I’m not sure I want to know the answer to that.
But if there was someone significant in his life, surely he would’ve said when I asked him about what made him stay here?
That’s it, my one chance to try to get Charley back and I’ve blown it. There’s nothing more for me to do now except drive back to Oxfordshire and try to think of a plan B.
I don’t want to, though. I only ever wanted Charley for this project. I should’ve approached him months ago, but every time I thought about it my brain said I had time. Now time has run out.
As soon as I get back to the house, I change and head out to the stables.
I’ve already called Kirsty and asked her to get Merlin ready for me.
Once in the saddle, I ride out through the woods towards the heath.
Riding and being around horses always helps to clear my head.
They’ve always been my place to escape to.
It wasn’t ever easy being the heir to Monkswood, there were expectations on how I should behave, what I needed to know.
Going away to Woodcoutts school had been alright, but then I came home in the holidays and never had any friends close by.
That was until I came across a kid who looked as lost as I was.
Claiming Charley as a friend was easy, he didn’t have any expectations of what I should say or do.
He went along with everything I did, even my more rebellious plans with a little persuasion.
Maybe that was the problem, he was too malleable.
Maybe we should have disagreed more, argued even.
Because when an argument did come, neither of us knew how to handle it and it shattered our friendship.
I look up from my thoughts and realise I’ve unconsciously arrived at the same fork in the woods where I first met Charley.
My body had travelled the same route as my thoughts.
Except there’s no Charley here, looking up at me with uncertainty in his pale eyes.
There’s just the ghost of a memory. Sighing, I turn Merlin back towards home. I haven’t found the answer out here.
“What’s eating you?” Imogen, my sister, asks when I enter the drawing room before dinner.
“Nothing,” I reply like a petulant teenager and throw myself down into a chair.
“Gabe, I know you better than that, what’s wrong?
” I sigh at her question. My sister is my best friend.
I have a few good friends from school, like Ru and Linden, but Imogen’s the only one who’s nearly on the same level as Charley was.
She was the first person I came out to as bisexual.
Linden came out as gay while we were still at Woodcoutts, the first and only one of us at that time, and Ru has only come out recently, since he met Nate last year.
It was at uni that I discovered that side of me.
I was twenty at the time and as confused as hell, and talking to Imogen helped me sort through it.
It was then, looking back, that I realised how much Charley meant to me. Only Imogen knows the truth of it.
“I went to see Charley today,” I say quietly.
“Charley Marshall?”
“Yeah. I asked him to come and be the centre manager. You know I always wanted him to be a part of it.”
“What, you just turned up out of the blue and asked him to come work for you?”
“I took him to lunch,” I protest, not liking her tone. She narrows her eyes and fixes me with a look. One that makes me want to crawl under a stone to get away from it.
“Did you actually ask him, or did you come over like the lord of the manor with him and just assume he’d come running?”
I drop my eyes from her gaze and hear her sigh loudly.
“Gabe, you know that doesn’t work on Charley.
” She’s right. I’ve been the owner of Monkswood since I was eighteen.
Filling my father’s shoes wasn’t easy, but I found that most people responded to the title, not the person, and acted accordingly.
I’d forgotten to take that persona off when I met Charley, I was so focussed on wanting him back. No wonder he called me out on it too.
“Did you tell him how you feel?” My head snaps up at her question.
“What? Tell him that all the time we were friends I had a crush on him and didn’t realise that until after he left?
And that every person I’ve ever met since has been held up to the Charley standard and has been found wanting?
Even I know that’s more likely to make him run in the other direction, plus I have no idea what his preferences are. ” And because I’m a coward.
“Well, yes, if you phrase it like that, he probably would, but maybe you should learn to communicate your feelings better.”
“I didn’t come here for you to point out my character flaws,” I mumble. “I need help.”
“They’re the same thing, sweet brother.” Imogen grins and I throw a cushion at her.
“It’s no use. He said no and it felt pretty final to me.” I return to sulking.
“You’re giving up just like that?” She sounds incredulous, but I just shrug, unable to see a way to convince him.
“What are you willing to do to get him back?”
“I’ll do anything, Immy, anything,” I say with determination.
Imogen sits in silence for a minute before letting out a low chuckle.
“What is it?” My sister’s schemes were always more devious than mine.
“I have an idea that might just work,” she says, and I lean forward to hear all about it.