Reaching Gavin (Good Girls Don't Book 3)

by Geneva Lee

  “I doubt it,” he said.

  I melted like the pat of butter on my stack of pancakes.

  “What does everyone think of your relationship?” Richard asked, bringing us all crashing back to earth.

  “We haven’t told anyone yet,” I jumped in.

  Richard raised an eyebrow at his son.

  He disapproved.

  Crap.

  “Better not keep it a secret. These things always come out. Remember transparency is the key to good leadership,” he advised his son.

  “As you’ve told me about 1 million times,” Gavin said. “Everyone loves Cassie at the office.”

  “Of course, they do,” Rebecca said as if she had already decided that I was worthy of such affection.

  “She could always come work for me,” Richard said.

  “Are you trying to steal my girlfriend?” Gavin pretended to be offended as he stabbed another piece of bacon off the center plate.

  “I’m more interested in the CEO.”

  Rebecca sighed heavily as if she’d heard this conversation before. “He’s got his own company, Richard.”

  “Then when do I get to retire?”

  “When you appoint a new CEO,” Gavin pointed out.

  This was the first time I was hearing about this. Gavin had said he wanted to build his own business, but he had never mentioned that his father wanted him at Sound Coffee.

  “I know you want to make your own mark,” Richard said, “but this family built this business and I’d like to keep it in the family. I need someone who will stay true to my vision.”

  “What about Imogen?” I suggested.

  Everyone turned to look at me. Clearly, they had opinions on that idea.

  “If we could get her to stay in one place long enough, that might be a possibility.” Gavin chuckled at the thought

  “Imogen is a free spirit,” Richard explained to me. “Maybe in another five years she might be ready.”

  There was a lot of doubt in his words. I bristled a little. Imogen wasn’t a kid and I liked her. We were about the same age. Then again, I definitely wouldn’t be prepared to take over the reigns of a Fortune 500 company. They might be right.

  “Then I guess you get to retire in five years,” Gavin said, in a way that suggested this conversation was over.

  “So what are you two doing today?” Rebecca said quickly, as though she sensed the topic needed to change.

  I looked to Gavin. This was his town. His vacation house. I was just along for the ride. He shrugged. “We hadn’t really planned anything out.”

  “Spend the day with us,” his mother said. “I promise we’ll be on our best behavior.”

  “And we won’t keep you to out too late.” Richard added. Rebecca shot him a scathing look, but he feigned innocence. “What? I heard these two need to get back to bed. It’s amazing that they look so young, but they’re so tired.”

  Chapter Twenty

  There were even more tourists today. The handful of shops in the historic downtown district were all packed. I didn’t see where they could all be coming from. We did our best to stick together as we walked. For the most part, conversation flowed easily, save for a few minutes of bickering here and there between Richard and Rebecca. Despite their arguments, they held hands and stayed close to one another. It was clear they were very much in love, just like Gavin had said. Apparently, good-natured arguments were a Sound family tradition.

  Rebecca stopped in front of a storefront and peered inside. “Oh! The gallery has a new artist.” She shooed us all inside.

  I didn’t know much about art, except the poor and starving part. As a college student, I could relate to that easily. Rebecca, on the other hand, was greeted the moment she walked in the door with a friendly hug from the gallery owner. “Let me show you Joshua’s work. You’ll love it.”

  Rebecca wandered off with the woman while Gavin, Richard, and I studied a few landscapes. Most looked local. Given how beautiful it was here, it wasn’t hard to imagine painters finding inspiration.

  “That looks familiar,” I said to Gavin, pointing at a landscape that featured a rocky shoreline and gray skies. I looked down to see the name of the piece and realized it was Olympic Falls. “That makes sense. It’s where I go to school.”

  “Do you like it?” Richard asked.

  “The painting or the school?”

  “Both.”

  “I can’t complain,” I told him. “They gave me a full-ride scholarship. I’m a first-generation college student, so that really helped my parents out.”

  “A full ride?” He sounded impressed. Elbowing his son in the ribs, he pointed at me. “This one’s a smart one. Keep her.”

  “It would help if you didn’t try to scare her off,” Gavin said, in a wry tone.

  Rebecca came back over, positively buzzing about the newest artist, whom she proclaimed a genius with watercolors. She lowered her voice conspiratorially and told me, “I know nothing about art. I just buy what I like.”

  “Which is everything,” Richard added.

  She shot him a look and then turned to her son. “Gavin, take your father, so us girls can be alone. These shops are too full for all of us to be together anyway.”

  “And she doesn’t want me to see how much money she spends,” Richard told me.

  “Come on, Dad. Let’s go find some coffee.”

  The guys left us and we continued to peruse the art. She showed me the new watercolor artist’s work. I had to admit it was striking. She’d already bought three pieces.

  “This better,” Rebecca said with a relieved smile, as we made our way to the next store. “I’m not one of those women who has to be with my husband all the time. Of course, we usually are together all the time. You two are young, so it’s natural to want to be with each other all the time.

  I laughed at this. “We haven’t been together that long. I guess he’s not sick of me yet.”

  I didn’t want her to get her hopes up about us, which she clearly already had.

  “Well, just remember, stand your ground. He’ll respect it. If he doesn’t, call me, I’ll knock some sense into him,” she promised me. “I raised him right.”

  We spent the rest of the morning ducking in and out of shops. Rebecca was a prolific spender, and no matter how hard I tried to refuse, I kept winding up with more and more shopping bags full of things she had to buy me.

  “Imogen doesn’t let me buy her anything anymore. You have to indulge me. My children are too independent,” she said, a streak of pride in her words. No doubt they had gotten that trait from their parents.

  It had been a long time since I’d spent the day shopping with my own mom. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed it. Rebecca felt like a surrogate mother.

  We passed the Weekend Café which, if the two days I’d seen it were any indication, was characteristically full. There must always be a wait there. After dinner last night, I understood why. “We ate there yesterday. It was amazing.”

  “Oh, Gavin’s restaurant?” Rebecca said, looking over to the bustling café.

  “I thought it was Thomas’s restaurant,” I said slowly.

  “Thomas is the chef, but Gavin owns it.” She spoke matter-of-factly, like this was common knowledge. One look at my face and she realized she had let the cat out of the bag. “He didn’t tell you, did he?”

  “Your son is full of surprises.”

  “He doesn’t like to brag,” she explained to me. “Could be worse, I suppose. Richard and I did our best to show him that having money wasn’t everything. I think it’s stuck.”

  I thought about how humble Gavin was, how hard he was working to invest in his community and city, how respectfully he treated everyone we encountered. “I think you did a pretty damn good job.”

  “Thank you,” she said sincerely. “He bought the restaurant last year when there was a storm.”

  I nodded. Gavin had shared that much with me.

  “Thomas was hurt when part of th
e building collapsed and crushed his leg,” she continued.

  I thought back to the slight limp I noticed when I had first met the man. He was still getting around, but if it was still bothering him after a year, the damage must have been significant.

  “The restaurant almost went under while he was recovering. Gavin just bought the place. He insisted on making Thomas half owner, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He wants to pay Gavin back. Stubborn men.”

  “Is there any other kind?” I said with a laugh, while my mind began to wander. So, Gavin didn’t tell me everything. He seemed intent on keeping small secrets. Not dangerous or hurtful ones, but rather things that most men might boast about. I didn’t have to ask myself why he would do that. Gavin didn’t want people to see him that way. He wanted to be his own man. Not a man with money. But I appreciated these glimpses from other people, because they showed me that he was even more amazing behind the scenes when no one was watching. I’d known that already. I’m glad other people got to see it as well.

  We ran into the guys a little while later. They were still holding coffee cups from wherever place they had finally found some caffeine.

  “Can I have some?” I asked Gavin. He offered me his without objection.

  “It’s the best coffee on the island,” Richard told me.

  “I guess you would know,” I teased him. It wasn’t half bad. A little strong for my taste, but I guessed that the Sound family drank their coffee stronger than the rest of us. “Are you ever going to open a Sound Coffee up here?”

  It would make sense to expand. This town had a huge tourism trade. A lot of people would be looking for the familiar brand.

  But Richard shook his head firmly. “This coffee shop has been here for twenty-five years. It was here when we bought our vacation home, and it will be here after I die. It’s too small of an island support too many competing businesses. There are plenty of Sound Coffees in other places in Washington.”

  I could see that after spending the day here. Most of the shops were full of unique items. The shopkeepers seemed to dance around one another, trying to offer a wide array of merchandise without stepping on one another’s toes. It made spending time down here all the more enjoyable.

  “There’s the added bonus that I don’t get reminded of work,” he whispered to me.

  Gavin and his mother had begun to walk ahead of us, chatting about something, the subject of which I couldn’t catch from this distance.

  “Gavin says you’re in PR,” Richard said to me.

  “I’m studying PR,” I clarified. “I graduate this year.”

  “Well, if my son doesn’t hire you, we have a pretty robust PR department at Sound Coffee.”

  I had no doubt about that fact. Still, I didn’t want to take advantage of his kindness. “That’s so nice of you. I really don’t know”—

  “You sound like my son,” Richard cut me off. “You two seem like two peas in a pod, so I don’t expect this advice will make a dent. Gavin is stubborn like his old man. But do yourself a favor and be a little smarter than him. He thinks that no one will respect him if he uses his family connections. The truth is, though, that family is the only thing we have in this life. We have to lift each other up. You can call it nepotism, but at the end of the day your family is loyal before everyone else. That’s one of the reasons I hope that someday he’ll run my business.”

  “My family are Texas ranchers,” I explained to him. “Not exactly a PR-heavy position. But definitely a family business. I know what it’s like to want to make your own mark. But I also believe family is important.”

  I did. It was how I was raised. It was why my parents had driven their old car up for me to get to an unpaid internship this summer. It was why I always went home for Thanksgiving.

  “You’ve got two families now,” he said in a firm voice.

  “Oh, well…” I didn’t know what to say to that.

  “My son is falling in love with you. That makes you family in my book.” Richard looked up at his son walking a few hundred yards ahead of us. “Gavin doesn’t give his heart easily. I know he would only choose an extraordinary woman.”

  “He’s had an extraordinary example,” I said softly.

  “What are you two whispering about?” Gavin yelled over to us.

  “Nothing,” his dad called back. “I’m telling her embarrassing stories from your childhood. Remember the time you were convinced that there were tiny people in the radio?”

  The Sounds promised to show me their boat the next time we were all on the island, an occasion I dreaded a little. I’d spent even less time on boats than I had on planes. I suspected if I was going to get serious with Gavin, I needed to look into the best ways to cope with motion sickness.

  As early evening rolled around, my stomach began to grumble, our large late breakfast finally wearing off.

  “Shall we sit down somewhere?” Rebecca suggested. “Grab a bite?”

  I was grateful for the suggestion, but I wondered if she’d actually heard my hunger pains.

  “I could cook,” Gavin offered.

  “Not tonight. I want to enjoy you,” she said to him.

  “How about something quick?” Richard suggested.

  Something quick in San Juan Island language apparently translated into going to the drive-in. It was less of a drive-in and more of a walk-up these days with the amount of tourist foot traffic. The small, blue fast-food joint seemed like it had always been there. The Sounds were greeted by name and I was introduced to the man behind the counter who owned the place.

  Gavin didn’t let me order. He just returned with a bulging sack of everything. His dad held one for them.

  “We lucked out,” he told us. “There’s a movie in the park tonight: Bringing Up Baby.”

  “Oh!” Rebecca clapped her hands with delight.

  I didn’t want to admit that I had never seen this movie. My face must have given something away, because Gavin looked at me incredulously. “Don’t tell me you’ve never seen Bringing Up Baby.”

  I shook my head sheepishly “Is it a new one? I don’t get to the movies a lot at school”

  Being a scholarship student didn’t allot for much spending money. Plus, I tended to spend my weekends at Garrett’s, the campus bar, with my friends.

  “You haven’t seen a lot of classics, have you?” Gavin asked.

  “How old are we talking?” I asked suspiciously. I was familiar with the John Hughes oeuvre.

  “I think we got a classic films virgin,” Richard said.

  “That is one character flaw that we’re going to have to fix,” Gavin told me. “Thank God, I was beginning to think you were too perfect. I was going to start checking to see if you were a robot while you slept.”

  The movie in the park was a popular event. Families and couples were setting up picnics and lounging in lawn chairs. I nearly tripped over a renegade toddler. Gavin caught her and returned her to her frazzled mom.

  Rebecca and Richard hopped into Island Mercantile and got two blankets for us to spread out on. Thanks to Gavin’s eyes being bigger than his stomach, we had a feast to share. Rebecca lectured both men on their eating habits while they unpacked half of the drive-in’s menu.

  “What do you think?” Gavin asked, as I took my first bite of my burger.

  I rolled my eyes with pleasure.

  “It’s good,” I told him with my mouth still full.

  When the movie started, Gavin sprawled across our blanket, resting his head in my lap, and I ran my fingers through his hair. It felt good just to touch him, to be connected and relaxed. The film was the funniest thing I had ever seen. I kept catching Gavin looking up at me with a goofy grin on his face, as if my reactions were as entertaining as the movie. Rebecca and Richard sat on the blanket next to ours, holding each other closely. I couldn’t help but glance over occasionally and see what I suspected we would look like thirty years from now. I haven’t known what to expect from this weekend when Gavin asked me to go away, but I h
adn’t expected to feel this way.

  I felt like I had come home.

  That night there was no discussion after we said goodnight and went to his room. We made love slowly, our eyes on each other and our bodies joined, as though we could fuse our hearts into one.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  When I got home from Friday Harbor, I gave Olive the cat my vibrator.

  “I won’t be needing this anymore,” I told her. She seemed distinctly less interested in it, now that it wasn’t taboo. Still, she carried it off. I wasn’t certain that Lillian would be thrilled with her new toy.

  Thanks to the arrival of Gavin’s parents, who had come by ferry, we’d been able to swap modes of transportation. It had taken us longer to get home in Richard’s Land Rover. But, at least, I wasn’t going to spend the whole evening throwing up. His parents planned to fly home later this week. I made them promise to tell me as soon as they had made the journey safely. Richard had just laughed, with a questioning look in his eyes. Apparently, I was the only one who had a healthy fear of small aircraft.

  It was late, so I didn’t bother to call the girls with an update. I was ready for my bed. Gavin had hinted at me coming over to spend the night at his place, but this weekend had been emotionally overwhelming—in the best possible way.

  Still, I needed time to process what had happened between us. I suspected that a night apart now might be one of the last I spent alone. Our relationship wasn’t about to slow down. So, knowing that, and with the Majestic Theatre presentation in the morning, I’d chosen my place. I told him that I wanted to pour over my notes. Part of me felt guilty for not thinking about the presentation much while we were gone. Maybe Gavin and I would be good for each other—save one another from our workaholic tendencies.

  But when I finally conceded that I couldn’t be anymore ready, I found it was hard to sleep without him. Between that and the looming presentation, I tossed and turned all night. I decided I’d take him up on spending the night in the future.