Chapter 54
FIFTY-FOUR
Love is something two people do that means there’s a connection, and it’s very important.
“It’s Tuesday. That’s meatloaf day.” Mikey grinned as he sat at the kitchen counter watching me heat up dinner. “I love meatloaf. Gilly doesn’t make me meatloaf.”
“What does he make?” I asked.
Mikey made a show of looking around for Gil before he whisper-yelled, “Oatmeal. A lot of oatmeal.”
“Hey.” Gil appeared in the doorway. “That’s not the only thing I make.”
“Yes, it is ’cause Gilly’s not allowed to cook at home.” Mikey grinned and pointed at himself. “But Dad taught me how to make grilled cheese sandwiches and mac and cheese and spaghetti.”
“Really?” I leaned a hip on the counter. “I guess that makes you a better cook than your brother, huh?”
He nodded with enthusiasm. “One time, Gilly set the stove on fire.”
Gil’s cheeks turned pink. “It was a small grease fire. Over before it started, really.”
“And another time, we all got real sick after he made tacos and I was stuck in the bathroom for a whole day ’cause of it.”
“Bad meat,” Gil said weakly.
I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing. “That’s no fun.”
Mikey shook his head. “So, Gilly isn’t allowed to cook. Dad said and that’s that.”
My eyes met Gil’s. “We will absolutely not let him cook.”
“When you and me get home, you don’t have to cook. I’ll cook us grilled cheese for every meal, Gilly, okay?”
Although Mikey had seemed happy the last week, I noticed he brought up home at least once a day. And every time, I told myself to calm down. It didn’t mean anything. Mikey was doing so well here that, just maybe, Gil was starting to come around to my way of thinking.
Gil shook his head. “No cooking when we get home, dude.”
“Mikey, why don’t you go find Oliver and let him know it’s almost dinnertime?”
Mikey hopped up. “Okay.”
When he was out of the room, Gil cleared his throat. “I, ah, won’t be here for dinner. I was wondering if Mikey could hang out with you and Oliver?”
Now that he said something, I noticed he was in his pressed khakis and dress shirt, clothes he didn’t wear as often these days.
He looked freshly showered and shaved, hair parted and slicked back.
Those little bits of gray around his hairline were more noticeable when he wore his hair that way. I liked it.
Then again, what didn’t I like about him? My hand curled around the glass of water.
“Oh.” Don’t ask. It’s not really your business, right? I asked anyway. “Where are you going?”
He hesitated, his eyes darting to the cabinet above my head. “Just a meeting. I should be back before eight.”
“Okay. No problem.” But something inside me, a swirling in my stomach, said otherwise.
I watched the door close behind him as he left.
It was well after eight and Gil wasn’t yet back, Oliver was asleep, and Mikey was sitting with his nightly bowl of popcorn watching his favorite television show. Occasionally, his loud, joyous laughter would filter through the house, and I smiled in response at the sound.
I was working on my mother’s one slipper. Um, no, it had not been completed for Mother’s Day, but I was hoping for Christmas now. My phone dinged with a notification. When I read the message, my stomach dropped like a stone.
ALI : Why is Gilbert having dinner with Peter Stone?
ME : I don’t know. Are you sure it’s him?
ALI : Oh, it’s him and Peter and a couple of other guys in suits. I recognize them, too. They’re with that development group that’s been sniffing around.
ME : Oh.
ALI : I thought Gil had changed his mind about selling.
ME : I was HOPING he would change his mind.
The way my heart was tangled up in a knot at the moment, I’d put a lot more hope in that than I’d realized. There was only one real reason for him to meet with them.
And he hadn’t even told me he was.
ALI : I should go over there and break that meeting up. Maybe I could accidentally spill something on Peter. For funsies.
ME : Don’t do that.
ME : Please.
ME : Ali?
An hour later, Gil found me lying in the middle of the gazebo, arms and legs spread out like a starfish.
I couldn’t see the night sky through the wooden roof, but it pressed in all around me.
Since that text from Ali, my brain had been in panic mode, zipping around at breakneck speed, one thought after another until I wasn’t sure anything made sense.
But if I thought hard enough, I would have realized nothing had made sense for a while. We had been living in a dream and everyone had to wake up from those at some point.
“Hi.” Gil stood above me, staring down at me. “Why are you on the ground?”
“I’m thinking.”
“Ah. How’s that going for you?”
“Horribly.” I sat up.
Gil stuffed his hands in his pockets and kicked at an invisible rock. “I guess you heard. Nothing really is a secret in this town.”
“Not unless you’re Ollie, it seems.” I folded my knees to my chest, wrapping my arms around them.
After a long moment, Gil sat down next to me. “We’ve been avoiding this.”
“Yeah.”
“The six months end next week.”
“I know,” I snapped. I took a deep breath. “Sorry.”
He said nothing in response.
Finally, I couldn’t stand it anymore. “Just say it. Whatever it is you need to say. I won’t break.” Liar, liar, pants on fire. I was going to bake so many muffins in the coming week.
“Maybe I will,” he said under his breath. His gaze landed on me finally. “Peter made a really good offer. Like seven figures.”
That was an incredible amount of money, even split in half.
I could make a lot of muffins with that.
I could move to another small town, find a café or diner for sale, maybe even build my own.
But staying in Two Harts and watching my whole life get partitioned out for a strip mall? That, I didn’t think I could do.
“I thought maybe you’d changed your mind. You were worried about Mikey leaving Austin, but he’s been here for a week now. He’s doing great. We’re doing great.”
Gil stood and paced, his shoes clacking on the wooden floor of the gazebo. “For now, he is. But I have to work. What happens then? Are you going to take him with you to the café every day?”
I climbed to my feet. “I don’t know exactly. Maybe…maybe you could get a teaching job here in Two Harts and…but we could figure it out together.”
He slammed a hand down on a wooden post, the sound surprisingly loud. I jumped in response. “It’s not that easy. Mikey is all I have.”
“No, he’s not.” I took a step closer, my voice growing louder. “You have me. You have Oliver. You have Teddy and the whole damn town of Two Harts. You are not some island. You have people right here.”
“Do I?” he asked, his voice just as loud.
“This has been a nice vacation, but you’ve never seen Mikey have a meltdown.
You’ve never seen what it’s like when he gets angry.
You don’t know what it’s like when I’m exhausted or when I’m not so patient.
” He yanked at his hair. “You see all the good things. Why do you think you ended up with such losers before? You only saw the good things.”
It felt like he’d slapped me. Tears stung the backs of my eyes, but I refused to cry.
Not now. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I was that person, but I’m not now.
Trust me, I have my faults. And you have yours, too.
But you’re not even trying. Everything’s been decided in that dumb head of yours.
At least I’m willing to compromise.” I stepped close, so close that my chest brushed his when I took a breath.
“Well, fine. You know what? Go home then. We’ll sell everything. You win.”
Our eyes locked. My anger simmered at the surface. Both of our heads jerked to the side at the sound of a cry. But nothing was there. Or whatever it was had left already. Probably just an animal.
“I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to do,” he said in a low voice. A thread of despair laced his words.
I shook my head. “Let me know when you figure it out.”