Chapter Twenty
Cole slid into the booth across from Gavin at Moe’s Tavern in Remus, Michigan Friday afternoon, looking left and right out of habit if nothing else. The chances of him running into anyone else he knew in a blip on the radar like this town was about one in a billion. And while he’d liked to have been farther than half an hour from Mount Pleasant by now, this was the soonest Gavin could meet with him.
Even though his grandfather would have likely found a way out of that lease on his own, Cole refused to be irresponsible and skirt his duties like Daisy Mae always had. Bailing on Maddie and the others had been brutal enough on his conscience as it was.
“So what’s the deal, Granville?” asked Gavin, twirling a fork in his right hand. “I heard you were turning the town upside down while I was out west.”
“Something like that,” Cole grumbled, eyeing the menu sticking cockeyed out of a cluster of condiments on the table’s wall side. No, he needed to conserve what money he had, at least until he got into Illinois. Maybe there he could start looking for odd jobs, help him pay for a motel room or two as he kept moving farther west. That, or find an old abandoned barn where he could throw down a sleeping bag. At this point, both options sounded a million times better than spending one more night wedged into his car.
“Ah, a modest guy.” Gavin shrugged. “Whatev, it’s cool. Did you know the chick behind it all?”
“Sorry?”
“That girl and her boyfriend who got busted for painting up you and your gramps’s shops. Sarah something. Guess she worked at the Checkerberry before starting this fall at her grandparents’ real estate company.”
Sonofagun. “Let me guess. Sheridan Realty.”
“That’s the one. Pa said your gramps was pissed. Trying to vote old Bob Sheridan out of the Elks club as we speak.”
“Huh.” I hope he does.
“Yeah, it’s not often we have so much drama going on in the old part of town.” Gavin grinned. “Usually, that crap stays over by the casino or on campus.”
Cole shook his head. “Lucky me.”
“Darn right, you are. Go from town jinx to hero overnight? Not too many cats can pull that off.”
“Right. Wait, hero? What are you talking about?”
“The videotapes turned in by the Mastersons. Said if you hadn’t suggested adding cameras to the inn, the string of burglaries might have gone on for weeks.”
“If I hadn’t suggested…?”
Maddie. She must have started that rumor. Probably got help from the others, too. Damn it, he’d left them high and dry and still they went out of their way to cover for him. But why?
Didn’t matter, he couldn’t go back. Cole might be viewed as a hero today—a highly undeserving one at that—but once the media took a closer look at his track record they’d see what a screw-up he really was. Or, what a screw-up his rap sheet proclaimed him to be.
A waitress arrived and asked if they were ready to order, interrupting his thoughts. When Cole tried to pass, Gavin waved him off and ordered them a basket of cheesy breadsticks, then sent the waitress off with a wink and a smile.
“I know it’s too early for dinner, but you can’t find better breadsticks in this state than right here at Moe’s. So what is it you wanted to talk to me about anyway?”
This was it, the moment he’d been waiting for since deciding to leave Mount Pleasant. If Gavin said no, life was going to get a whole lot more complicated. If he said yes, though, things would be in order without him needing to go back. Which is the way he wanted it.
So why was he breaking into a cold sweat all of a sudden?
Cole swallowed hard and gave himself a mental kick in the pants. Now was not the time to start second-guessing his plan. This had to be done if he was going to find closure with his decision to leave. A clean break. Hopefully, the more time and distance he put between Maddie and himself, the easier it would be to get her out of his head. This close to home, she was all he could think about. He took a swig of ice water to help clear his mind, then met Gavin’s curious gaze.
“You still interested in the shop?”
“Ha, was hoping you’d come to your senses one of these days and agree to take on a partner. Town’s not big enough for a specialty shop like that. But guitars and drums? Now that’s got potential. Could even bring on a bass player to offer lessons, when your schedule is—”
Cole shook his head. “Whoa, hold up. Not a partnership, I want to hand it over. As in, the whole shop.”
“Why? What’s wrong with the place?”
“Me—I’m wrong for the place. For the whole darned town, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
“So you have a rap sheet?” Gavin shrugged. “How many rockers do you know that don’t?”
“I’m not a rocker, man. Not a star, not a celebrity, not even a hero.” The memory of him pushing Maddie’s letter under her door drifted to mind. “Far from it.”
“Look, this Sarah chick? She got to you. She found your weakness, and she exposed it to the whole town. But I’m telling you, it’s over. The rumor mill? It’s moved on. Sure, you might get a weird look or two from the town’s oldsters for a while. But hey, join the club.”
Wow, the guy was good. Suave, convincing—he’d make one heck of a salesman, that’s for sure. But Cole wasn’t buying it. He had been there, done that one time too many. “I’m just tired of the bull. It’s time for a new start somewhere else.”
“She must have really done a number on you.”
Cole fought not to squirm beneath Gavin’s scrutinizing gaze. Raised his glass and pretended to study its irregular lines. “It’s not just about Sarah, it’s—”
“I mean, I always did kinda wonder if Maddie was too much for any one man to handle.”
His water glass hit the table a little harder than necessary. “Excuse me?”
“Look, you don’t have to explain yourself to me, man. You’re afraid of commitment, I get it.”
Cole shook his head. “What are you talking about?”
“Seriously?” Gavin laughed. “You’re sitting here, in this dump of a bar—”
“Hey!” yelled a guy somewhere behind them.
“Sorry, Mac!—instead of back in Mount P with your arm around one of the hottest singles in town? I mean, who does that if it’s not because they’re afraid to commit?”
Cole raked a hand through his hair to keep from punching Gavin. “Don’t you get it? It doesn’t matter that I’m crazy about her. I can’t stay, it could ruin her. This”—he motioned between Gavin and himself—“me handing the place over, me leaving town, it’s all for her.”
Wasn’t it?
He’d left for her, not because of her. Because he’d wanted to protect her, to keep her reputation free from the mud being slung his way. Or was there more?
“You tell yourself that all you want, Granville, but I know scared when I see it. And you, my brother, look like a class A scaredy cat right now.”
When I ought to be the scarecrow watching over Maddie, not running away from her. Cole pounded a fist to the table. He’d already lost her, had made his bed and was sleeping in it. Could he even go back? Would she let him?
You’ll never know unless you try, whispered a small voice in the back of his mind.
Or he could make things a whole lot worse, and hadn’t he done enough as it was? Cole cast a wary glance at Gavin.
“You sure about the hero bit, that the town won’t form an angry mob if I go back?”
“Yup. Google it, if you don’t believe me. Mount Pleasant’s Channel 10. Amber Jensen did you right.”
“Well, I’ll be.” Cole cursed under his breath. He’d wanted the town to give him a chance, but hadn’t stuck around long enough to let it happen. “I gotta get back, man. Gotta make this right with Maddie, with my grandfather.”
“Ah, now you’re talkin’.” Gavin leaned forward, the glint of victory in his eyes. “The two of us? We’re gonna take the town by storm. Studio by day, stage by night.”
It all sounded amazing, like a dream come true. But there was still one piece missing.
“No offense, man, but if I can’t win Maddie back…”
“None taken. Hmm, a woman like that, it’s gonna require a lot of groveling. You’ll need to come crawling back on your knees, out in public, where she can’t possibly tell you no.”
Cole cringed. The public was the last place he wanted to be after the past few weeks. Unless…
“You guys still looking for a new lead guitarist?”
Gavin’s smile widened. “I think I like where this is going, Granville…”