25. Found It Too
FOUND IT TOO
“ Y ou got engaged yesterday,” Abe said to Easton on Sunday morning. He was outside in the barn looking for a part for his lawn mower. The damn thing wouldn’t start.
He’d been stunned when Easton came out to talk to him.
“I did,” Easton said. “I popped the question before we went to the wedding.”
“Good for you,” he said, moving toward his cousin and hugging him. He’d always been a huggy type of person.
Easton laughed. “Yeah. No reason to wait. I know it was fast, but when it’s right, you just do it. It’d been hard work keeping it quiet while Rose made the ring at Blossoms.”
“I’m kind of hurt you didn’t tell me you were doing it,” he said.
“I didn’t tell anyone,” Easton said. “I surprised myself when I made the decision a few weeks ago.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Because I spent years with someone else who wanted a ring from me that I never wanted to give. Then Laurel had her fast engagement that she broke off before the wedding. Maybe she wasn’t ready to do it again. Or that I wasn’t what she wanted.”
“Dude,” Abe said. “We’ve both spent a lot of time wondering if who we were with really wanted us. I’m not doing that anymore. Maybe I’ve seen what you’ve got with Laurel and it gives me hope I can find it too.”
“You can,” Easton said. “I think you might have. I noticed your truck wasn’t home Friday either when we got back.”
“I think I found it too,” he said. “But she’s not ready to hear it. She’s got a lot of insecurities of her own that I’m helping her with.”
“Like what?” Easton asked.
“Not bad. She doesn’t think she’s worthy of anyone either. Just in a different way. I know who I am and how I can be with someone. My biggest obstacle in life was my career. I think there is more with Daphne, but she’s not always one to volunteer it.”
“Do you think something bad happened to her?” Easton asked, frowning.
“No,” he said. “At least I hope not. I know that she didn’t have the best relationship with her parents. She’s close with Aster, but he’d been in the service for years and then moved here. She wants to stand on her own two feet.”
“Sounds like she’s doing it to me,” Easton said.
“She is. She just has to believe it,” he said. “And we are getting off-topic. “Where is your future wife? I want to congratulate her.”
“She ran to the store quickly. She’ll be back soon.”
“I can’t wait to see her,” he said. “Are you staying or heading back today?”
“Staying,” he said. “I’ll go back next weekend. Why?”
“I want to take you both to dinner to celebrate.”
“I might let you,” Easton said.
“I am thrilled for you,” he said. “My mother is going to be over the moon.”
“Does Aunt Carrie know about Daphne?” Easton asked.
“She does. And you know she wants to meet Laurel, so this will push her visit up some.”
“I’d love to see her,” Easton said. “I know you had your fill of her for a few months earlier this year.”
A horrified look came over his face. “Never say that to my mother. Oh my God. I’ll be disowned.”
Easton laughed and slapped him on the back. “Do you think I’ve got a death wish?”
His cousin left after that and Abe resumed looking for the part he needed without much luck.
Laurel pulled into the driveway and he walked over to hug her.
“Let me see that ring,” he said.
“Don’t you sound just like a woman asking to see that first?”
He squinted one eye at her. “I figured you’d want to show it off. If I know my cousin, he went all out.” Abe looked down at the sparkling diamond solitaire ring. It was massive. Not to mention two more pink stones on the sides. “Are those pink diamonds?”
“They are,” Laurel said. “Your cousin knows me and my girlie side well.”
“He does,” he said. “Bougie and all like he is.”
Laurel laughed. “We both know that’s not true, but it’s fun to say it.”
“Welcome to the family,” he said. “I told Easton I want to take you both out to dinner tonight.”
“If he said yes, then I’m on board.”
“He did,” he said. “I’ll text in a bit and we’ll firm up plans. I’ve got to run to the hardware store.”
Laurel went into the house with two bags in her hand and he walked to his truck to leave.
He parked at the shopping center and got out to go inside, found the part he needed, and then decided to pick up some fertilizer for the front yard. His grass was looking a little on the thin side, and considering what he did for a living, the place should be a showpiece.
He did spend a lot of time in the spring planting and sprucing up the yard after Easton had done work too.
“Abe.”
He turned and was shocked to see Ella standing there. Twice now in a short period of time.
Both times she’d called his name out.
This time she appeared to be alone when the last time she was with her new boyfriend looking happier than he’d ever been able to make her.
At least it looked it to him.
“Ella,” he said. She was pushing a cart and had some flowers in it. “Planting?”
“I am,” she said. “I got to use everything you taught me.”
Which was ironic considering she never wanted to spend time doing those things when he always enjoyed it.
He’d bet Daphne would like it.
That would be a nice hobby for her. Maybe he’d get her a plant or a book on them.
Nah, that’d be stupid. She could figure out her own hobbies without someone pushing another agenda on her.
That might smack of desperation too much that he wanted Daphne to like what he did for a living.
She’d said it enough.
She showed him last night what she thought of him.
Maybe he was just as insecure as he’d told Easton Daphne was.
“Good to know,” he said and went to move past her. She blocked his way. She did that a lot when they were dating and he didn’t want to talk.
“I heard your business is doing well,” she said.
He frowned. “What did you hear?”
“That you got this big job at the McGill Estate and now a lot of people are calling. You’ve got jobs lined up into next year and are hiring more. Is it true?”
“Yeah,” he said. “You never cared all that much about the business.”
“That’s not true,” Ella said. “It’s just that you worked so much.”
“Which most people who own a business do,” he said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get home and finish my chores for the day.”
She looked at the lawn mower part in his hand and the bag of fertilizer. “You always had to be doing something. You never could just sit and relax.”
“There is always something that has to be done,” he said. “Have a good day.”
“I wish you well,” Ella said. “I really do.”
He nodded his head. “Yeah, the same.”
It was so easy for her to say that now when she got everything she wanted from someone else.
But then he had to think—didn’t he find it too?