Chapter Twenty-One
The next three days were the longest days of Gabe’s life. Everywhere he turned, a memory of Devlin played through his head. He couldn’t sleep in his bedroom, but his couch was ruined as well. The kitchen and bathroom would need complete remodels. He couldn’t even escape to his shop, the unfinished table laughed at him every time he entered there.
His whole house smelled of her, sweet and intoxicating vanilla wafted at him wherever he went. He had to get out of the house, so he ended up at Finnegan’s.
He’d given Devlin the space she wanted, and he’d hated every second of it. The weekend had been filled with loneliness and longing, his thoughts going from one perfect memory to another then back again, in an endless loop. The only other thing breaking into his tedium was the self-flagellation that took place when he remembered what he’d said during dart night.
He slammed his hand on the bar top, startling the customer closest to him. He was sitting at the far end by the door, a beer in his hand, but Gabe didn’t remember him coming in or pouring his beer.
“Whatever is bothering you, son, dealing with it in anger is never the solution,” the patron offered his sage advice.
“The only person I’m angry at is myself. I’m sorry, that’s not my usual way of dealing with frustration.”
The old man picked up his beer and moved down the crowded bar, finding a seat in front of Gabe.
“I’ve got some time. Why don’t you tell me what’s bothering you?”
“Isn’t that backwards? You should be telling me your problems.”
“I’m okay to let precedence slide if you are.” He reached out his hand at Gabe’s nod, shaking it as he introduced himself. “I’m Joe. So, what’s the issue?”
“I met this girl,” Gabe started.
“The stories are always about a girl.”
“We…” Gabe wasn’t sure he wanted to tell this man—who could easily be his grandfather—that he’d had a one-night stand, but he could tell his mental load was already lightening just by thinking about spilling his story to someone that didn’t know either him or Devlin.
“It’s okay, son. I’ve heard it all,” Joe insisted.
“We had a one-night stand about a year and a half ago in Boston, then she moved here not knowing I was from Amber Falls. She figured out I lived here a few months after, but kept it a secret from her new friends and me. Then my brother started dating one of her friends and we got thrown together.”
Joe whistled. “Now that’s a doozy if I’ve ever heard one.”
“It gets better. She avoided me for a few more months, only admitting she knew I was here when she was caught.”
“Caught, now that’s an interesting word. Is she a criminal?”
Gabe paused and thought about how he was portraying Devlin to a stranger. To demean her character after telling her more than once that he understood where she was coming from, that he understood why she’d hidden from him and why she had a hard time opening up to people. Maybe because assholes like me do crap like this.
“No, she’s not a criminal. I’m sorry, that’s not how she is, I don’t know why I explained it like that.”
“You’ve apologized twice to me now. I feel like you’re not quite yourself.”
“No, I’m not. I haven’t been myself for weeks.”
“Women have a strange way of doing that to you, especially when love is involved.”
Gabe shouldn’t have been surprised when he heard that word come out of Joe’s mouth. He’d known he was in love with Devlin from the first time they met, and it had only deepened once they reconnected in Amber Falls. Everything he’d shown her about himself and everything he’d said to her after she’d explained her past had been chucked away when he submitted that proposal. He told her she could trust him, that she could let her defenses down when he was around. He’d gone so far as to wish he could slay her demons for her. Then what had he done? He turned into every bad seed she’d known and proved, in her mind, that all men were alike and not one was worth the hassle. Devlin was clearly still fighting her demons and he had to figure out how to get past her defenses.
God he was an asshole for doing that to her. He broke out into a cold sweat thinking of the way he spoke to her Thursday night.
“I can see the wheels turning in your head, son,” Joe ventured.
“I’m replaying everything back. You can’t imagine how bad I feel after talking to her like that. I’m not like that. I don’t know what happened.”
Joe nodded along, quieting for a moment before speaking. “I do know a little of what you’re going through.”
Gabe was surprised. “How so?”
“Oh, I recall many years ago, right after the Vietnam war, if you must know the timeline.”
Gabe did a double take at Joe’s appearance.
“There was a girl.”
“Fitting,” Gabe murmured.
“She was the most beautiful person I’d laid my eyes on. We’d been going steady on and off in high school, but when I went to college, I decided to sow my wild oats as it were, and having a girlfriend still in high school would cramp my style.”
Gabe tried to picture a young Joe, hair long in the hippy style, wearing bell bottoms and a fringe vest, or with close-cropped hair, a skinny tie and big, black-rimmed glasses.
“Did you get as crazy as you wanted to?”
“It wasn’t for a lack of trying,” Joe admitted, “but my heart still belonged to Agatha, and the other ladies could see that plain as day. It took me a few miserable years before I realized what a mistake I made, but by then Agatha Sanderson had married Arthur Crenshaw and I’d lost out on the love of my life.”
“ The Mrs. Crenshaw? The one that wins all the cook-offs?”
“The one and only.”
“I can’t picture her as the love of anyone’s life,” Gabe admitted.
“She was a spitfire back in our day. Word has it that not much has changed.”
“I live next door to her and she still is.”
“You don’t say?” Joe grew pensive and downed the last of his beer. “And how is Agatha doing?”
“Good, from what I can tell. Arthur died about five years ago and they never had any kids that I could gather,” Gabe offered.
“No, no kids for them,” Joe confirmed then smiled. “I know a few things, but lost track of her years ago.”
“I think she’s lonely. She likes to stick her nose in everybody’s business. It wouldn’t hurt to stop over there to say hi, would it?”
“So much time has passed, I don’t know if she’d remember me.”
“She’ll remember you,” Gabe promised.
“Yes, but how? As the man who broke her heart? She was inconsolable when I ended things, I said words that I couldn’t believe were coming out of my mouth and she said she never wanted to see me again.”
“Same here, Joe, same here, but she hasn’t gotten to the point of telling me to get lost.” Gabe picked up Joe’s mug and tilted it toward him in an offer to refill it.
“That’s all for me.” Joe waved his hand and stood, placing some bills on the counter. “Son, don’t make the mistake I did. If you know you love her, don’t let her go. Hold on to her with everything you have, otherwise you’ll be an old fuddy duddy like me, by myself, drinking a beer at eleven a.m. Go to your girl and make everything right, and if she doesn’t want to hear it, keep reminding her that you’re just human and you made a mistake. That kind of love comes around once, and she’d be crazy to let you go over your foolishness, and to not let pride or stubbornness get in the way.”
Gabe turned around to deposit the mug into a sink of water and when he turned back, Joe was gone.
Taking a step back from the odd realization that Mrs. Crenshaw was the recipient of a lifetime of unrequited love, Gabe thought about the words Joe had spoken to him about pride and stubbornness. A dash of arrogance and a pinch of conceit had created the perfect recipe for his attitude on Friday.
Gabe was kicking himself for everything that had happened over the last few days—all he wanted to do was run to Devlin and beg her forgiveness. He felt like it would take more than words to forgive her, and he had the perfect plan. He just needed to be able to make it to the town council meeting tonight.
The afternoon crawled along at a snail’s pace and if he didn’t know the basic concepts of time, he would’ve sworn that the clock was ticking backward. Every person that passed by the front window caught his attention but none of them were Devlin. He was hoping to catch a glimpse of her, or that she’d come over, but neither happened and that ended up being okay. He’d planned tonight out, and he wasn’t quite sure words this afternoon would hold the same influence as his gesture tonight.
Tonight, he was going to withdraw his proposal at the town meeting. By withdrawing, neither of them would know who the town council chose, but Devlin would get the building. He was sure he was making the right decision. Finnegan’s was fine for now, just as it was. He wanted to focus more on his woodworking, and he had space to do that in his garage. It was smaller than he wanted, and he didn’t have any place to store his creations, but he would figure that out.
He’d gotten to the town hall early so he could watch everyone come in. The meeting now was supposed to start in five minutes and Devlin still hadn’t shown up. He tapped his finger on his leg, wondering why she wasn’t there, frustrated from not seeing her for four days.
The door whipped open, and Annabelle whirled in, a notepad in her hand. She noticed him sitting at the front and made her way to him.
“Hi, Gabe. The meeting is almost ready to start.”
“I’ve been very aware of time today,” he admitted. “Have you seen Devlin?”
Annabelle avoided his eyes, turning around to take note of the other townspeople in the room.
“AB, have you talked to her?” he begged. “I need to know.”
She sighed. “I haven’t talked to her. She’s kept a low profile all weekend since she got sick.”
“Sick? Is she okay?”
“From what she says, yes. It seems like a normal cold, but she sounded miserable. She didn’t want us over so she couldn’t spread it.”
“I wonder if that’s why she isn’t here yet. Do you know anything else?”
“I don’t, we know as much as you.”
“You’re telling me you don’t know if she ended up submitting her proposal?”
“Fine, I know everything, but she made me promise not to tell.”
“Did you pinkie swear?”
“What?” Annabelle looked taken aback by the question.
“If you didn’t, that promise isn’t binding.”
Annabelle chewed on her pen cap for a few moments before she started talking again. “She didn’t submit.”
“I don’t understand. She was very clear that she was going to and nothing was going to stop her.”
Annabelle shrugged. “We talked after and once her anger went away, she decided she just wanted to be done with it all. It wasn’t worth any more mental anguish to continue to fight with you.”
“She has to have submitted—my plan will only work if she does.”
“She’s moved on, Gabe. I hate to entertain this thought, but I think she could leave Amber Falls after this.” She cocked her head. “Wait, what plan?”
“I decided that before the council make their decision, I’m going to withdraw my plan, so Devlin gets the building no matter what.”
“Dang, Gabe. That’s good. I’ll admit, I’m impressed.”
“Thank you, but I’m not doing it to impress anyone. I’m doing it because it’s the right thing to do. I had no business submitting it when we got into town, especially since we hadn’t talked about anything long term. I should’ve waited and figured it all out together with her.”
“What are you going to do, then?” Annabelle asked, but his answer was cut off by the sound of the meeting starting.
Council President Reardon called the meeting to order and passed the first order of business to councilperson Campbell. “Mr. Campbell, will you please proceed with the issue of the property on Main Street and the two parties who want to buy it?”
“Yes, thank you President Reardon.” He looked around the room. “Is Ms. Watkins present?” he asked.
“No, sir, just me,” Gabe answered.
“That’s just as well. I’ll note that she didn’t submit a proposal like we asked her to at the last meeting. Since Ms. Watkins did not submit a proposal, we will grant you the permit, Mr. Atwood.”
Gabe took a deep breath before speaking. “I don’t want the permit.”
“Only one proposal is on the table—yours—and if you reject the permit we’re granting, the building will go back on the market.”
Gabe stood, perplexed at what was happening and not knowing what to do. His grand gesture to give the building to Devlin was backfiring.
“Mr. Atwood, can you please let us know your decision?”
“I have a question.” He waited until Mr. Campbell nodded then continued. “If I’m granted the permit, can I transfer it to someone else without going through this whole process again? I promise you that Devlin will be the owner of that building.” He crossed his fingers behind his back, hoping that she’d stay in Amber Falls and do just what he was promising.
Councilperson Campbell put his hand over his microphone and consulted the rest of the council before addressing Gabe again.
“Sir, only two people showed interest in the property. You and Ms. Watkins. As I stated before, since she didn’t submit they will go to you, and if you refuse we start all over.”
Rustling sounded from the back of the room and Mrs. Crenshaw stood. “Oh, let him do what he wants, Bob. He loves the girl and wants her to have the property. Don’t be an ass, just tell him that he can pass the permit on to Ms. Watkins so she can buy the place.” She turned to the people around her, explaining, “It only makes sense. What a ridiculous premise, this whole granting permits thing.” She spoke to the front of the room again. “Let the boy do it, Bob.”
The crowd broke into a cacophony of sound as the council yet again discussed the matter between them until they quieted when the President held up her hand, addressing him informally.
“Gabe, the whole proposal part of the building sale was made up by us at the last meeting because we’d never had two people want the same property. In the light of the fact that we made it up—” She shooed Bob away from his microphone when he tried to interrupt. “No, Bob, we did make it up and we can make up how to get this finalized. Here’s what I’m going to do. Based on your words and your assurance that Ms. Watkins will still buy the property, I’m going to put the permit in her name. If you decide later that neither of you want the building, we’ll just start over from scratch, but for now, we’re allowing the sale to go through to Devlin Watkins.”
Her last few words were drowned out by cheering in the hall. He gathered the permit, now made in Devlin’s name, and walked over to Annabelle, who was writing at a furious pace.
She held up a finger to stop him from talking and finished jotting down her words.
“This is going to make a great story in the paper, I can’t believe I was here for it. This stuff never happens at these meetings!” She spoke the words aloud as she wrote them. “Grand gesture made at town council meeting. Town cheers.”
“You can’t make a grand gesture if the other person doesn’t show up.”
“You sure can. And I can write about it. Now leave me alone so I can get this written while the meeting is still fresh in my mind, and go get our girl.”