40. What He Found
WHAT HE FOUND
“ A re you slowing down at all?” Daphne asked Abe the following week. She’d told him she was getting out of work early and he suggested she stay at his house tonight.
He liked the night with her. He knew she liked staying with him.
But he didn’t always want to be at her place.
She’d offered to come to his during the week and this time he took her up on it since he had to start early on a job thirty minutes in the other direction from home.
Forty-five minutes from her place, so he wouldn’t see her much this week.
“Not really,” he said. “Which isn’t a bad thing. The weather is holding and that’s the best part for us.”
He had full-time work all the way to the end of the year if they went that long without snow sticking.
The ground wouldn’t be frozen either until January with any luck. Some years he was actually still working with half a crew in December doing jobs that people didn’t want to wait until spring for.
“I’m so happy for you,” she said. “How hot do you want these wings?”
“I like spice,” he said. “And spicy things. That’s why I love you so much.”
She laughed and wiggled her ass for him while she checked on the wings in the air fryer.
He’d just gotten out of the shower. He’d texted her when he was leaving his last job and they arrived about the same time. She offered to start dinner while he cleaned up.
“I think you just like that I cook for you all the time.”
“There is that too,” he said. “But you don’t do it all the time. I still have to mooch meals off of Laurel.”
He was doing it less and less though. He loved his cousin’s fiancée and all, but he’d obviously rather have time with the woman he loved.
“I’m sure she doesn’t mind either,” she said. “She told me she always makes extra.”
“When did she tell you that?” he asked. They’d gone to dinner with Abe and Laurel one other time, but it’d been a busy few months for everyone.
“At Raine’s bridal shower,” she said. “She thinks highly of you. I’m sure you know that though.”
“I do,” he said, brushing his knuckles across his chest. “I’m a great guy to have around.”
“You’re so full of yourself,” she said.
He walked over and laid his lips to hers. “And you love it.”
“I do,” she said.
She was mixing hot sauce and melted butter in a pan. There was some other lemon honey glaze on the stove.
“Are you mixing those two things?” he asked. “Not sure they are going to taste good together.”
“No,” she said. “I’m going to put a few in the lemon, honey, ginger one for me. You said you liked hot wings.”
“I want to try that,” he said. He stuck his finger in it. “That’s good.”
“Do you want this instead or both?” she asked.
“I’ll have both if it’s not too big of a deal,” he said.
“They are both made. It’s just tossing the ones you want. There are two bowls in the fridge if you want to grab them.”
He moved over and opened the fridge. “What’s in them?”
“A tossed salad and potato salad.”
He scrunched his nose. “I’ll have the potato salad.”
“I know. That is why I brought both. I wanted a tossed salad. Don’t worry, it’s not the spring mix that grosses you out. It’s romaine lettuce.”
“Don’t care what kind it is,” he said. “I’ll take a hard pass. There isn’t any broccoli on it, is there? The smell of that still makes me gag too.”
“You’ve said that before,” she said, laughing. “I remember. No, there isn’t.”
“Good,” he said. “I’ll get your seltzer if you want.”
He was reaching in to get a beer when he said it. “Sure,” she said. “These wings are done and I’m going to toss them if you want to get some plates and lots of napkins out.”
He went about setting the table while she finished with dinner.
He was just grabbing more napkins out of the pantry when he heard his phone ringing.
He came out and saw Daphne with her eyebrow raised as she looked at his phone on the table next to her. “It’s Ella.”
Shit.
“Let it go to voicemail.”
“No,” she said. “Answer it.”
“There isn’t anything going on,” he said. “I don’t want to talk to her.”
“Answer it for me,” she said. “Ease my mind.”
It was the uncertainty mixed in with some other emotion in Daphne’s eyes he couldn’t pinpoint that had him picking the phone up.
“What do you want, Ella?”
There was a pause on the other end. “That’s not a greeting,” Ella said.
“No,” he said. “It’s not. This isn’t a social call and I’m not sure why you’re calling me.”
“I’m sorry. I guess I’m not sure either.”
He frowned. “I don’t know what that means. There has to be a reason you called unless you’re pranking me and if that is the reason, goodbye.”
“No,” Ella said. “Wait. I’ve been thinking.”
“Okay,” he said. He couldn’t imagine what this had to do with him.
“I miss you. I was wrong. I think I did a lot of things wrong and I thought maybe we could give it another chance.”
“No,” he said. “First off, I don’t care what you think. That’s all in the past. You’re with Nash and I’m with Daphne.”
“Daphne?” Ella asked. “Who is that? I didn’t know you were dating someone.”
“She’s the woman I love. Not my problem you didn’t know about her.”
He looked at Daphne and saw the frown on her face.
“Why didn’t you tell me about her before when we were talking? It never came up.”
“I didn’t see any reason to bring it up. You approached me those times. I was happy to go about my life. Just like I’m going to do now.”
“That’s it?” Ella asked. “You’re not going to give me another chance? You said you loved me.”
“You got more chances than you should have gotten,” he said and disconnected the phone.
He felt a little shitty doing that but then told himself it wasn’t his job to explain it anymore.
He wasn’t going to be worried if he hurt Ella’s feelings when he had Daphne in front of him staring.
“Are you going to tell me what that was about? From my position, it looks as if she wanted to get back with you.”
“That is what she was calling about,” he said. “She thought we could give it another try even though she was with someone not that long ago.”
“Nash,” she said. “You said that name. How do you know that?”
He sighed. “I knew she was dating someone. I ran into her months ago. Right before I met you in the casino. Around then. She looked happy, made eye contact with me, smirked, and went on with her time. I left and that was it.”
“You said she talked to you a few times when you were out,” she said. “When and what happened?”
“I ran into her in the hardware store,” he said. “She came over to talk to me and made a comment about hearing my business was doing well with my big job at the McGills’ estate. She had plants in her cart. I said things were good and I went to leave. I told you about this, remember?”
“You did,” she said. “And it sounds like you didn’t tell her about me. Right? Guess I didn’t think of it back then.”
Probably because that conversation was the first time they’d said they loved each other.
He was more focused on what he’d found than what he’d lost.
“I didn’t,” he admitted. “I didn’t want to talk to her. We’d just started to date really, but that isn’t the point. She approached me and I didn’t need to tell her my life. She was with someone else and I moved past her. End of story.”
“That was two times,” she said. “There were no others?”
His shoulders dropped. “One other. I went to give a quote for a job and found out it was a friend of hers. I didn’t know that. The person admitted it. I brushed it off. I didn’t want to talk about Ella and didn’t care. They work together.”
“Which means she talks about you a lot even though she is dating someone else,” she said. “It sounds to me like she never got over you.”
“That’s not my problem, is it?” he asked.
“Go back to this quote you were giving. Did Ella show up there or something?”
He wouldn’t lie. “She did. I felt like it was a setup, but the people signed a contract with me. I haven’t started the work, but they put a deposit down.
She seemed almost embarrassed that Ella came over, but that is their issue.
We talked in the road, then I got in my truck and drove away after she made some comment about us being good together.
We weren’t. I’m not sure what world she lived in. ”
“How long ago was this?” she asked, crossing her arms.
“Before your accident,” he said. “I don’t remember the exact date unless I look in my calendar. Do you want me to do that?”
“That would be petty of me to say yes. It’s even more petty of me to say this, but I’m going to. You are in a relationship with me and at this point could have told her and didn’t. Why?”
“I left,” he said. “I didn’t want to talk to her. Every time I look at her I see what a failure I was as a man. No one wants that.”
“So you still love her?” she asked, her voice rising.
There was the anger he hadn’t seen from her before.
“No! I stopped loving her a long time ago. Even the last time we got back together it wasn’t because of love. It was more like I wanted to see if it was me or my fault.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s not your fault if someone doesn’t like the person you are. I think you’ve said that to me enough times yet you didn’t listen.”
“Probably not,” he said. “Why are you so mad at me? I told you about Ella. It’s not like she was a secret.”
“No,” she said. “But you didn’t tell me that you’ve talked to her since that one time. Enough that she felt like she could call you now to rekindle something.”
“It’s not my problem she called. I didn’t encourage it,” he argued.
“You didn’t discourage it either!” she shouted.
He took a step back.
“You’re mad over this, aren’t you?”
“Do you think, Abe? You know how I felt about the way we met.” She stopped and paused.
He went to speak and she put her hand up.
“You said you saw her right before you went to the casino. That every time you saw her you felt like a failure and there she was laughing with another man and smirking at you. Is that why you slept with me that night? Because you had to feel like you could wipe her from your mind? You said you never did that before.”
“No,” he said. He felt a panic setting in right now. “It’s not that. I mean I went there to do something because I felt lonely. You said the same thing.”
“I have to leave,” she said. “Don’t talk to me about this. For a man who runs his mouth as much as you, you’ve had plenty enough time to say something about seeing your ex and you didn’t. You were calculated about that when you haven’t been about other things.”
She picked up her purse and left.
He wanted to go after her but knew that she’d need time to calm down.
He knew he sure the hell did because she was right. He purposely hadn’t told her things.