Chapter 25
Cole
The house was quiet when I woke Monday morning.
Too quiet. It had been that way all weekend and I hated it.
Everywhere I looked, I saw Gavin: at my kitchen table, on my couch, in my shower.
Every twinkle from the tree reminded me of him, and every night when I climbed into bed and his side stayed cold brought him to mind.
Thinking of it that way made my chest hurt, but that’s what it was to me now: his.
After getting dressed, I pulled on my boots, grabbed my keys, and left.
I didn’t grab coffee or pack a lunch. I just walked to my truck and cranked the engine.
While it warmed slowly, I scraped frost from the windshield and then headed to the empty, chilly bed and breakfast to get a head start on the day.
Inside, I walked the length of the hall, marked the boxes I hadn’t finished, and set the reel I was carrying against the wall. The drill whined as the bit chewed through the stud, the sound reverberating in the bare room. When the bit punched through, I pulled it free and started feeding the line.
The routine work should have helped, but it didn’t.
Every pull circled me back to the same thought: He was gone.
Not just absent from the house but away from me, and I didn’t know how to put losing him into words that made sense because I’d never planned on feeling this way about anyone again, least of all Gavin.
He’d strolled into town looking for someone to fix up the inn. I was just supposed to do my job. I was supposed to handle the remodel, keep the work moving, and leave him to whatever life he lived outside of mine.
That was the plan.
But somewhere between him sitting across from me at the diner and the way his mouth could undo me, I’d stopped keeping it simple.
Because it hadn’t been just sex. It was grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup at my table, secret touches under the table at The Tap, and him cooking me a hot dinner after a long, cold day.
It was standing next to him in front of a Christmas tree I’d never planned to put up, then kissing him and knowing it wasn’t about the ridiculous, messy tinsel at all.
It was him all along, and he was gone, and I didn’t know what to do with everything I felt.
Now I stood in a half-finished room with a drill in my hand, wondering why the hell it felt like my chest was caving in over a man I wasn’t supposed to want in the first place.
I’d gone thirty years without thinking about men the way I had Gavin.
I had married Whitney and moved to Boston.
We’d tried to build a life there. It hadn’t worked.
After the divorce I’d come back to Brookhaven and resumed working with my dad, taking jobs around town and keeping my head down.
That’s what people do. They find their lane and stay in it.
Even after Whitney tore my life apart, I never questioned that the next time I tried with someone, it would be a woman.
That was who I thought I was. That was what everyone in town thought I was.
Then Gavin showed up.
He wasn’t part of my life plan, but every time he leaned close, every time he smiled across a table, every time he looked at me like I was more than the guy swinging a hammer for him, something inside me cracked. I told myself it was nothing, that it would pass, but it didn’t.
What broke me open was how easy it felt with him.
I didn’t have to explain myself, didn’t have to pretend.
He came into my house and filled the spaces I hadn’t realized were empty.
And I hated how much that scared me. Because if I cared for him, it meant I wasn’t who I thought I was.
It meant everyone in town would look at me differently if they found out.
It meant admitting that the man I’d let into my bed wasn’t just a complication, but someone I still wanted, even after he’d left.
That was what I couldn’t get past. It wasn’t about Gavin writing us into his pages. It was about realizing those pages existed in the first place, that I’d been living them without meaning to, and now I had to face what that said about me.
I stared at the wiring, my gloves stiff in the cold, and remembered I was going to call my father about hiring more guys on after the holidays. At least then I could hurry and get the job done and get out of Gavin’s space for good.
Taking off a glove, I pulled my phone from my pocket, thumbed through to Dad’s number, and pressed Call. He picked up on the second ring.
“Morning, Son.”
“Morning. You busy?”
“Never too busy for you. How’s the inn?”
“Cold.” I looked out at the frozen lake.
“But I’m upstairs running wire. I’m currently on track for the deadline, but if we get another storm and I lose days, it’ll push me too close to spring and I could possibly miss the deadline.
After the holidays, I want a couple more guys lined up so I don’t fall behind. ”
“You want me to make some calls?”
“Yeah. At least two. I’ll keep the work moving, but I don’t want the whole job slipping.”
“You’re running it fine, but I’ll find you the help.”
“Thanks. Keep me posted.”
“I will, and don’t freeze up there.”
The call ended, and I slid the phone back into my pocket. Voices carried from below where Dale’s crew had started in on the plumbing. I stayed upstairs, the sound of their tools distant while I leaned back against the wall and tried to pull in a steady breath.
I pushed through the afternoon, finishing a run across the hall and capping lines in two rooms before packing up.
By the time I locked the back door, the light outside had thinned, and my stomach reminded me I hadn’t eaten all day.
The thought of going home to an empty kitchen didn’t sit right, not when I’d gotten used to someone else filling it.
So, I drove through town and parked in front of the diner.
After parking in front, I walked inside. A few heads turned, smiled in greeting, and then went back to their plates. I started toward a booth near the window when a voice carried across the room.
“Cole!”
I looked over. Ryan and Allie were in a booth by the wall. Her coat hung on the hook, and his cap was turned backward on his head. Ryan motioned me over.
“Sit with us,” Allie offered.
For a second, I thought about telling them no and keeping to myself, but the way they both watched me made it clear they wouldn’t let me. I slid into the seat next to Ryan and across from Allie.
“You all right?” she asked.
“Working,” I answered. “Trying to.”
Her eyes softened. “That’s not what I asked.”
I looked toward the window, where the lights of the town square glowed against the snow, and the giant Christmas tree shone bright with colorful bulbs. “My house is empty, so I figured I’d stop here for dinner.”
Ryan tipped his cup toward me. “Empty? So Gavin’s back at the inn?”
His words made me freeze, and Allie’s head turned quickly, her eyes cutting to him.
“What?” He looked between us. “What am I missing?”
Allie stayed quiet, her hands folded tight in front of her. She wasn’t going to say it for me.
My throat worked, but nothing came out at first. I gripped the edge of the table, heat crawling up the back of my neck, before taking a deep breath and just going for it. “Gavin and I ...”
Ryan cocked a brow. “You and Gavin what?”
I lowered my voice so no one around could hear. “We were together.”
He blinked, sat back, and whispered, “Together how?”
I met his eyes. “The way it sounds.”
He let out a slow breath, rubbed his jaw, then nodded. “All right. That’s a lot to hear, but I’ve known you too long to let it change anything. If he’s who makes you happy, then who am I to question it?”
“And he cares about you, Cole. You know that,” Allie stated.
“I care about him too,” I admitted. “I do. But he’s been writing about us, and I didn’t know until you told me. I can’t just act like it’s fine.”
Ryan sipped his soda. “So tell him it’s not fine. Make him fix it.”
I shook my head. “It’s not only that. If it gets out, everyone in town will know. I’ll walk into The Tap, and every head will turn. Mom, Dad, Lauren … I don’t even know what they’ll think. People around here don’t forget things. Once it’s out there, it’s out there.”
Ryan tapped a finger against his glass. “People will chew on it for a week, maybe two. Then they’ll find something else. You know this town. They don’t stick with one story forever.”
“It won’t feel like that when it’s me in the middle of it,” I argued.
“It never does,” Allie said gently. “But you’ll get through it. Especially if he’s by your side.”
Hazel stopped at the table with a pad in her hand. “Burger and iced tea for ya, Cole?”
“Yes, ma’am,” I answered. “Extra pickles. And fries, please.”
She wrote it down and walked off.
Allie leaned in again. “You look miserable. If you want him, then figure it out. Don’t let the fact that he’s writing about you be a deal breaker. It means he really likes you, and if you really like him, go get your man.”
My throat tightened. “It’s not that easy.”
“It won’t ever be,” she said. “But nothing worth keeping ever is.”
I stared down at the table, the laminate worn smooth from years of elbows. The truth sat heavily in my chest. “I don’t know if I can face having everyone know.”
Ryan lowered his voice. “I’m not good at this stuff, but I’ll tell you what I see.
You’ve been lighter these past few weeks than you’ve been at any point since you moved back after the divorce.
Singing karaoke, laughing, just looking like yourself again.
If he’s the reason for that, maybe don’t be so quick to let him go. ”
Hazel returned with my plate, the burger dripping juice and the fries crisp at the edges. I thanked her and picked one up, though I couldn’t taste a thing. Though Allie and Ryan kept quiet while I ate, the weight of their words pressed harder on me than the silence ever could.
By the time I paid the check and stepped out into the cold, I was still confused and hated that I would spend another night without Gavin on his side of the bed.