Chapter 6
Chapter Six
GAbrIEL
Morning light filters through the cabin windows, catching the curve of Noelle’s bare shoulder.
She’s still asleep, tangled in my sheets, her hair spread across the pillow.
Last night was like the kind of dream you wake up from and try to chase back to sleep, because the real world can’t possibly be this good.
I reach out, trace my thumb over her shoulder blade. She sighs softly, turns toward me, her hand finding my chest.
“Morning.”
She props herself up on one elbow, the sheet sliding down, and it takes all my self-control to keep my eyes on hers.
“Ready for more?”
Her cheeks flush the prettiest shade of pink as she smiles up at me. “You’re impossible.”
“Maybe. But I don’t want this to end.”
Her smile falters and there’s a flicker of something I can’t read in her eyes. She reaches for her phone on the nightstand, the screen lighting up her face. The expression that crosses it isn’t what I expect.
“Oh.”
“What is it?”
She stares at the screen for a moment, like she’s trying to make sense of it. “The Harvest small, gold, the glass cracked. I pick it up. The second hand is stuck between numbers, frozen in place. I slip it into my jacket pocket. There’s only one person in town who might be able to fix it.
Snowflake Repairs sits tucked between the post office and the candy shop, its windows fogged from the heater inside. The bell jingles when I step in, and Clarence looks up from his workbench.
“Well, hello, my friend. So, what brings you in?”
I pull the watch from my pocket and set it on the counter. “Found this. Thought maybe you could take a look.”
Clarence leans in, turning it over with delicate fingers. “Lovely piece. This belonged to Noelle Jolly’s grandmother, if I’m not mistaken. It’s hers now?”
I nod, afraid my voice will give me away if I talk about Noelle.
“Mmhmm.” He opens the back with a tiny screwdriver, squinting through his glasses. “The mechanism’s worn, but not beyond saving. Might take a few hours, maybe a day.”
“That’s fine.”
He looks up at me then, his sharp eyes seeing more than I’d like. “You look like a man who’s trying to fix something important.”
I huff out a laugh. “Guess so.”
He sets the watch down carefully. “Funny. Things break, stop, stall… but that doesn’t mean they’re finished. Just means you’ve got to give them a reason to start working again.”
I glance at the watch. “Are you saying I should try and fix things with her?”
Clarence smiles faintly. “I’m saying maybe this is your time, son. Don’t let it slip away just because you’re scared it’s broken.”
I leave the shop as the snow starts to fall harder. Clarence is right.
Maybe Noelle and I have been missing each other for years; not only because the timing was wrong, but because neither of us ever showed the other how we felt.
Something has to change.