Wade seemed momentarily stunned. “What?”
“You think I don’t know, but I do. I’ve known for a long time there was someone.”
“Doesn’t matter,” he said bitterly. “She’s not available to me.”
“I knew it! Who is she? Tell me everything.”
Wade sagged back into the chair. “Nothing much to tell. We’re friends. She’s married. Not happily, but she won’t talk about it. I worry he’s knocking her around, but I can’t prove it. Now I don’t even really talk to her anymore.” He shrugged. “It’s not going to happen, so what’s the point of thinking about it?”
“I know that feeling, when it all seems so hopeless.”
“In this case, it is hopeless. She’s married to someone else.”
“What’s her name?”
He hesitated before he said, “Mia.”
“How did you meet her?”
“At a yoga retreat.”
“When?”
“A year and a half ago.”
“Oh God, Wade . . . And all that time . . .”
His shrug was confirmation.
Filled with sadness for his dilemma, Ella got up and went around the desk, sitting in the chair next to his. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Nothing to tell. It was over before it began.”
“Why do you think he’s knocking her around?”
“She’s always got bruises on her arms that she says are because she’s clumsy, but they look like fingerprints to me. Like someone grabbed her hard. She denies that he’s hurting her.”
Ella took a deep breath and blew it out. “You’re worried, though.”
“Hell, yes, I’m worried! I keep telling myself it’s not my deal. She’s not mine. She’s married to him, not me. And every night I lie awake wondering how she is, if she’s hurting, if she’s scared, why she doesn’t call me anymore. It fucking sucks.”
Ella picked up the stress ball and put it back in his hands, covering them with hers. “I can’t imagine what that must be like.”
“Every day I say this is the day I’m not going to think about her anymore, and every night I’m right back in hell, left to wonder where she is, if she’s okay, whether she ever thinks of me the way I think of her.”
“Why haven’t you told me about her before?”
“I don’t know.” He squeezed the ball and then glanced at her. “I told Hannah once in a weak moment. I needed to tell someone, and she was willing to listen.”
“I’m glad you told someone. You shouldn’t have to go through this alone.”
“You’re not mad I told Hannah and not you?”
“No, Wade,” she said, smiling at his reference to the special bond the two of them had always shared. “I’m not mad. I hope Hannah was able to give you some good advice.”
“She did.”
“If there’s anything I can do, anything at all . . .”
“I know. Thank you. Don’t tell anyone, okay?”
“I never would.”
“I gotta get back to work figuring out how to incorporate sex toys and marital aids into our health and wellness line. Never thought I’d say that sentence out loud.”
Ella snorted with laughter. “Good old Dad strikes again.”
“Thank goodness it’s going to be your problem getting the sales force onboard. No way I can imagine having that conversation with all the lovely grandmothers who work for us.”
“You’re so cute that they’d be filled with warm thoughts of Wade Abbott on cold winter nights.”
“Eww.”
Ella lost it laughing at the face he made.
“On that note, I’m outta here.” He tossed the stress ball to her and made a hasty exit.
After he left, Ella couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d told her and how awful it had to be caring about Mia the way he did but not knowing if she was okay.
Since she was apparently taking a break from work, Ella stood and stretched and then left her office to cross the hall to Hunter’s. “Knock, knock.”
“Hey, what’s up?”
Ella stepped into Hunter’s office and closed the door. “I need a favor.”
“Okay . . .”
“It’s a weird favor and you may not approve, but I need the favor anyway.”
“That was a hell of an intro. Lay it on me.”
“I want to take Gavin to Dylan’s wedding, and I need you to help me with the logistics. I don’t know Dylan as well as you do.”
He tapped his mechanical pencil against his lip as he contemplated her request. “I thought Gavin said he wasn’t going to the wedding.”
“That’s what he said. Yes.”
“So, um . . .”
“Nolan told me he never goes to Sultan things anymore, except for when they’re here.”
“That’s true.”
“It’s because he thinks of them as Caleb’s friends, not his. But they’re his friends, too. Everyone has said that.”
“You might be wading into shark-infested waters here, Ella. Gavin is weird when it comes to stuff that involved Caleb. I suspect it’s been part of his coping mechanism to distance himself from things he associates with Caleb.”
“By doing that, he’s also distancing himself from people who care about him. I hate that for him. I hate that he’s been living half a life for all these years. I want to remind him of things he used to enjoy. If he can’t do those things with Caleb anymore, he can still do them with me and you and all his other friends.”
“It might be too hard for him,” Hunter said softly.
“The first time. Maybe the second and third time. But eventually he’ll start to associate new memories with old friends.”
“Are you prepared for him to be unhappy that you’ve done such a thing?”
Her stomach knotted at the thought of making Gavin unhappy. That was the last thing she wanted to do. “I hope he’ll be pleasantly surprised.”
“You’re playing with emotional dynamite.”
“Maybe so, but you know what he told me last night?”
Hunter cringed. “Is it PG-13?”
“Yes,” she said with a laugh. “He said it’s been years since he laughed or smiled as much as he has with me in the last few days. I want to give him more to smile about. That’s all this is.”
“And if you get a few days in the tropics with the guy you love . . .”
“Bonus.”
Hunter shook his head, his disapproval still obvious, but he clicked away on his computer and then looked up at her. “I sent you an e-mail with Dylan’s address.”
“Thank you.”
“Your heart’s in the right place with this, Ella. Don’t think I can’t see that. But just be prepared for it to not be as easy as you think it’s going to be.”
“Nothing with Gavin has been easy, except for the way I feel about him. Loving him is the easiest thing I’ve ever done.”
“I know that feeling, but I also know Gavin, and he’s different since Caleb died.”
“Of course he is. We all are.”
“No one more so than Gavin. The grief runs deep. All the way to his bone marrow.”
“Grief isn’t the only emotion he’s capable of feeling. I’m determined to prove that to him.”
“Just make sure it’s not at your own expense.”
“I’m getting tired of everyone warning me off the man I love.”
“I know that feeling, too. Everyone thought I was crazy for getting involved with Megan, especially when she’d been so crazy about Will for so long. Didn’t matter. I get it. But none of us wants to see you sucked into the rabbit hole Gavin’s been in for years now. In fact, I can almost promise you that I’ll throw myself in front of that if I see it happening.”
“I don’t want you throwing yourself in front of anything, Hunter. I’m asking you and everyone to respect my judgment and my privacy. I know we’re up in each other’s business all the time, but I won’t welcome interference in this case.”
“Ella—”
“Gavin has a right to be happy, especially after everything he’s been through. I’m going to make him happy.”
“Okay.”
“Okay? That’s it? You’re actually going to stand down?”
“If that’s what you want.”
“It is. Don’t worry about me. I’m a lot tougher than I look.”
“I will worry about you because that’s my job as your big brother.”
Ella rolled her eyes at him. “Focus your big-brother bullshit on Charley and leave me alone.”
“It’s easier to focus on you. You’re not as mean as she is.”
“Wimp.”
“Damn straight.”
Ella walked out laughing and encountered her dad returning from somewhere with Ringo and George in hot pursuit.
“Just the girl I wanted to see,” Lincoln said. “Step into my office.”
She didn’t bother to remind him that she was no longer a girl. Nor did she take the time to tell him she didn’t want to hear Gavin warnings from him, too. Resigned to losing control of her day, she followed her father into his office.
“Close the door, will you?”
Ella wanted to tell him there was no need to close the door because they weren’t going to talk about the thing he wanted to talk about. But arguing with him would take time she didn’t want to waste when she had a special meal to cook for the man she adored. She’d taken advantage of Gavin’s ungodly wake-up time to come into work more than an hour earlier than normal with plans to also leave early.
She took a seat in front of her dad’s desk. “What’s up?”
“I wanted to go over the remarks for Friday night. You’ve given me a great start, as always, but I need your opinion on a few things.”
“Oh,” Ella said, pleasantly surprised to realize they were going to discuss business rather than her love life. However, this was Lincoln Abbott, and his interest in his children’s love lives had been at an all-time high recently. So she remained wary.
They went over the remarks Ella had drafted for him, thanking the sales team for their dedication to the family and the store, gearing them up for the holiday rush and reminding them of several new product lines that were expected to get a lot of attention this year.
“I’d like to mention the toys,” Lincoln said.
“You’ve got that covered in the part about special gifts for the young people.”
“Not those toys.”
“Oh . . .” Ella did not want to sit in a room with her father and discuss sex toys. Uh-uh. No way. “It’s probably too soon. We’re not ready to roll that out yet.”
“We’re ready to tell them it’s coming in the New Year.”
“But that has nothing to do with the upcoming holiday season.”
“It’s a great time to start the conversation with everyone there. The next company meeting doesn’t happen until the picnic in July.”
“We can call another company-wide meeting before then, if need be.”
“That’s just more work. I want to tell them about it. Will you write me a paragraph or two about what we’re doing and why?”
“I still don’t know what we’re doing or why.”
“Yes, you do. You sat in Colton’s presentation and heard the numbers and why it makes sense to add the line to our store.”
“Fine. I’ll write something for you. Anything else?”
Eyeing her shrewdly, Lincoln sat back in his big leather chair and scratched Ringo behind the ears. “How are things?”
“Things are good. How are things with you?”
“Just fine.”
“Great. Glad we had this conversation.” She began to get up to leave.
“Ella.”
“Dad, please. I know exactly what you’re going to say and I’ve already heard it from Mom, Hunter, Hannah, Wade, Charley . . . It’s beginning to feel a bit like piling on. I know you all care, and I appreciate that. But if you really care, please just stay out of it.”
“All I was going to say is that I like Gavin. I like him for you.”
Ella was so flabbergasted that her mind went totally blank. She had not expected him to say that. “Oh. Well. Thanks. I like him for me, too.”
He smiled. “He’s a good guy.”
“Yes, he is. So . . . That’s it? That’s all you’re going to say?”
“That’s it.”
“Okay, um, I . . . I’ll get you that paragraph.”
“Thank you, sweetheart.”
Baffled and confused and more than a little relieved, Ella left her father’s office and returned to her own. For the next hour she labored over the paragraph her father wanted, trying to set the right tone so the sales force wouldn’t be alarmed by the new product line. She made sure to assure them that there would be lots of on-site training before the line went live and anyone who had concerns was welcome to bring them to the management at any time.
She sent it off to her dad via e-mail, hoping to avoid another sex toy conversation with her father. No one ever said there wasn’t a downside to working for the family business. She couldn’t wait to share this story with Gavin when she saw him later.
Ella thought of him while she ate the ham sandwich he’d made for her while she made his for him. She pictured him eating his sandwich and thinking of her. She’d made it with lots of mayo, just the way he wanted it, while he spread a thin layer of mustard on hers.
It was such a small silly thing, but she’d absolutely loved making lunches with him. Inside her brown bag, she saw a piece of paper and pulled it out. Hope you’re having a good day, he’d written. You’re standing right next to me, and I can’t wait to see you later.
Ella sighed with pleasure at the sweet words and the sweeter sentiment. It felt so damned good to let loose all the feelings she’d kept contained for so long, to let the whole world know how she felt about him.
With her heart full to overflowing with love for him, she sent off an e-mail to Dylan, telling him what she wanted to do and asking if he’d be willing to help put her plan into action.
She moved on to other things, trying to forget about the message she’d sent to Dylan. Until her e-mail chimed with a new message and she immediately clicked right over to read it.
Hey Ella, Dylan had written, so nice to hear from you, and I love your idea of surprising Gavin with a trip to the wedding. It would mean so much to me to have him there. I can easily add you to the reservation at the resort. They’re holding a couple of extra rooms for us until the week before, so good timing. Am I holding one room for you guys or two?
He included some other details about the wedding and a link to the resort where it would take place.
Ella clicked on the link and began to drool at the sight of the crystal-clear blue water, white sand, palm trees, sunsets and breathtakingly romantic rooms. Imagining herself in paradise with Gavin was further impetus to make this happen.
She wrote back to Dylan. Thanks for all your help. The resort looks AMAZING! One room will do. Thanks again and congratulations!
He replied right away. Sounds like my buddy Gavin has been keeping secrets . . . Happy for you guys and especially happy for him. It’s high time he got back to the land of the living. See you soon, Ella.
Bolstered by Dylan’s kind reply, she logged on to a travel website to discover there were still plenty of seats available on flights. They’d leave from Boston the day after Thanksgiving—Black Friday, she thought with a gulp—and return the following Friday. Before she could purchase the tickets, she had to see about putting Charley in charge of the floor during one of the busiest weeks of the year in the store.
Ella checked the time on her computer. Just after three. She had an hour before she wanted to head home to start cooking and needed to make it count.