by Amity Hope
Ava immediately wished she had not brought up the status of Gabe’s employment. Or, rather, unemployment. “Gabe doesn’t think working with Rafe is a good idea. On the way home from my parents the other night, we picked up a newspaper. He was going to go through it again today to see if anything looks like it’s worth checking into. I also helped him pull up a few sites on-line that will hopefully help him find something.”
“Does he have anything in mind?” Molly wondered.
“Nothing in particular but I’m sure he’ll find something. It doesn’t bother me nearly as much as it bothers him. Ever since my parents brought it up, it seems to be all he thinks about. Of course it’s complicated by the fact that he can’t remember what job experience he has. Not that it even matters because I don’t think he ever worked outside of the family business,” she mumbled, “and he’s sure not going to ask Rafe for a reference.” She took a bite, not so much because she was hungry. It just gave her an excuse to not have to talk.
“Have you talked to Julia lately?” Molly asked as she decided to switch topics. The current one seemed to be depressing her friend.
Ava shook her head. “I did try to call her to invite her to lunch but she didn’t answer.”
“Something’s up with her,” Molly noted. “She was all goofy and happy the last time I talked to her. When I asked her why, she told me there was no reason. The last time she was all sappy like that was the end of sophomore year when Mitch tripped over his shoe laces. He collided with her, knocked her down and landed on top of her in the hallway in front of the trophy case. Do you remember that?”
This got Ava’s attention and to her surprise, she giggled. “How could I forget? So, you think it’s a guy?”
“I know that sounds unlikely, because Julia is so…well, Julia,” Molly said, with a shrug. “However, she’s been working a lot lately. Almost as much as you. I think she’s even been picking up extra shifts.”
“Why?” Ava wondered. Julia didn’t really need the money.
“Exactly. Good question. Which makes me think maybe it is guy related. Maybe a hot coworker? Or maybe Mitch became a caddie,” Molly pointed out with a grin. That seemed the most likely. “I did tell her the three of us should get together tomorrow, though. If you’re okay with that. We all finally have the day off.”
“Sounds good,” she glanced at the clock again. “I suppose I should run.”
Molly nodded. “You two little workaholics are making me feel like a slacker. Not that I mind too much because I’m heading off to the beach with Oliver while you slave away.”
“Have fun!” Ava said with a laugh as she headed back to work.
***
Gabe’s motorcycle was parked out front, now that he didn’t necessarily need to park it out of sight. It was the first thing that Ava saw when she pulled up. So of course she expected him to be home but the cabin was empty. For a terrifying moment, she felt panic spear through her. Then she noticed a note on the kitchen table and had to smile that Gabe, of all people, had actually taken the time to write a note. It seemed so oddly domesticated.
I’m with your Dad. Be home later.
She stared at the note for longer than necessary. Why would Gabe be with her dad? Her head started spinning with all sorts of unpleasant explanations. Instead of sitting there, idly fretting over it, she decided to get a start on dinner. She pulled out some chicken, cheese and tortillas to get some enchiladas going.
By the time she had them completely prepared and in the oven, Gabe still wasn’t home. She was pouring brownie batter into the pan for dessert when she heard her dad’s car drive up. She rearranged the enchiladas to make room for the brownies and was getting ready to go outside to see what was taking them so long when Gabe walked in with her dad only a step behind.
“Do I even want to know where the two of you have been?” she asked, her voice laced with teasing suspicion.
Gabe was standing with his eyes closed, inhaling deeply. Ava couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of him.
“Of course you do,” he finally said. “It smells so good in here,” he muttered as he leaned in, as if to give her a kiss. He seemed to think better of it with her dad standing right there. Instead, he swiped his finger across the side of the bowl to get a mouthful of chocolate.
“Okay, then, where have you been?”
“Thanks to Divine Intervention, I was able to stop by earlier to see if Gabe could help me with a few things,” Daniel explained. “One thing led to another and we were gone longer than we’d planned.”
“That doesn’t explain to me at all what you were doing,” Ava pointed out as she stood with her hands on her hips. “And how does Divine Intervention play into all of this?”
“Oh, right,” Daniel said. “Well, I was supposed to go up to the hospital today to visit Mrs. Muldoon. I got a call from one of her daughters just as I was getting ready to leave. She wanted to let me know that she was being released today. So I didn’t need to go visit her because she and her sisters would be there and they would be plenty busy getting her settled in at home.” Ava fought the urge to tap her foot impatiently. Sometimes it felt as though her dad delivered an entire sermon while trying to answer one simple question. “Because I didn’t have to go to the hospital I had some free time on my hands. Now, I could’ve just gotten a few things done around my office but I decided to come out here to see what Gabe was up to instead. See, Divine Intervention freed up my time.” Ava nodded and motioned for him to continue. “And since Gabe happened to be free as well, he agreed to come to town with me to put in some volunteer hours on the Douglas house.”
“Ah,” Ava said, “I get it. You came out here to recruit Gabe for volunteer work.”
“It gets better,” Gabe assured her with a wink. This time he motioned for Daniel to continue.
“You know that Hanson Construction has volunteered some of their time, right?” Ava nodded. “Well, Mike Hanson happened to stop by the site to check on his crew. See, more Divine Intervention,” Daniel said with a grin. “I’d already put Gabe to work and Mike and I got to talking. One thing led to another and he mentioned that the company got a little busier than they anticipated this summer. They were looking for someone to do a little manual labor,” her dad explained.
Gabe shrugged sheepishly in a ‘who knew?’ kind of way. “Turns out I’m pretty good with a hammer.”
“I bet you are,” Ava teased. “I have a hunch you have excellent coordination to go along with all sorts of upper body strength.”
Daniel cleared his throat. “Uh, yes, anyhow…So Mike said that he’s got room for Gabe on his crew for at least a little while. Depending on if the number of jobs keeps up, or every now and then someone quits. But that said, he might be able to use him into the fall. Or depending on how things work out, maybe indefinitely.”
“Wait! You mean like a job? He didn’t just put you to work for the afternoon?” Ava asked as a smile took over her face.
“Like a job,” Gabe agreed.
“That’s so awesome!” Ava said as she tossed her arms around him. “See, I told you things would work out.” She turned to face Daniel. “Dad thanks. This really means a lot to me.”
Daniel scoffed. “I didn’t really do anything. Just put in a good word but really, Mike was already impressed. Like I said, I put Gabe to work as soon as we got there. He went about his business getting things done and Mike noticed. So, Gabe really got the job on his own.”
Gabe beamed at Ava. She knew how much getting a job on his own, for the first time in his life, meant to him.
“I suppose I better get going,” Daniel said as he pushed off from the counter where he’d been leaning.
“Do you want to stay for dinner?” Ava offered. “It’s almost done.”
“I’d love to. It smells delicious. But your mother is making cabbage rolls,” he said with an unhappy sigh, “so I suppose I’d better not.” He paused in the doorway. “I’ll see you both in church on Sunday?”
&nbs
p; Gabe nodded before Ava could respond. Daniel left with a smile on his face and Ava was hoping that despite she and Gabe living together, maybe things would smooth over with her parents sooner rather than later.
“How was it?” she asked after her dad had left and they had started their meal. “Do you think you’ll like it?”
“Maybe,” he said. “It did feel good to be out doing something. And it’s not full time so your dad asked if I’d still be willing to help with the volunteer work. I told him I would.”
“Don’t feel like you have to,” she told him. “He gets really excited about that kind of thing.”
“I can tell,” Gabe admitted. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but he’s kind of a menace on the jobsite. He was darting all over trying to help everyone with everything but it kind of backfired.”
Ava groaned. “I can only imagine. He has an enormous heart and two left feet.”
“That would explain why he tripped over the power cord and unplugged the saw while one of Mike’s guys was cutting a piece of lumber.”
“I’m not surprised,” Ava admitted as she scrunched up her face at the thought of it.
“He also knocked over a tray of tools and a gallon of paint. Luckily,” he was quick to point out, “the paint still had the lid on it. After about half an hour of that, Mike sent him to the store to buy supplies. He seemed happy though, still felt like he was helping. He came back from the hardware store with a huge grin on his face and a box full of doughnuts for everyone.”
“He can get carried away. If he had his way, no one would ever have free time. They’d all be busy helping others. All. The. Time,” she said with a laugh.
Gabe shrugged. “Nothing wrong with that.”
“Yeah?” Ava asked, surprised by his answer. This was a side of Gabe she’d never seen before and she’d happily admit that she liked it.
“Yeah, the house they’re working on right now, it’s for an elderly couple. They couldn’t thank us enough. She brought out cookies and lemonade. Twice,” Gabe said. “They were so grateful and I realized that if I wasn’t there, helping get something done, I’d just be sitting around here doing nothing.” He looked gloomy for a minute. “I doubt I’ve ever done anything like that before. I guess maybe that’s part of why I wanted to go with your dad when he showed up today. I figure if I’m going to turn my life around, I might as well start with the basics because I’m pretty sure the old me didn’t do a single thing that didn’t benefit himself.”
“I could definitely argue that point,” Ava told him.
“Okay, before I met you, I bet I never did a single decent thing in my life,” Gabe amended.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. I think you did what you had to do to get by.”
They ate in comfortable silence for a while.
“This is nice,” Gabe said.
“What?” she wondered.
“Just sitting here, having dinner. It feels so normal. It also feels kind of strange. But in a good way,” he admitted.
“I don’t think you ever did family dinners,” Ava told him. “No holidays, no birthdays, no family meals.”
Gabe looked contemplative as he stabbed at his last bite of food.
“Sorry,” Ava said, “I shouldn’t have brought it up. I just wanted to let you know why it might seem strange.”
“It’s okay. I kind of figured. Actually, I hadn’t really thought about it but it makes sense.” He reached for her hand across the table. “I don’t ever want to go back to that. I like what we have here.”
“Really? I kind of worry it’ll all be too boring for you. I guess I’ve always felt like that,” she quietly admitted. “That after a while you’d get tired of me and move on to something, or I guess someone, more exciting.”
Gabe looked surprised by her confession. “I’m with you because I want to be. I don’t think this,” he said motioning to her, their dinner, the cabin, “is boring at all. It’s…nice.”
Ava made a face. “There was a time when ‘nice’, coming from you, wasn’t exactly a good thing.”
“Exactly,” he said definitively, “which is why now, it’s a very good thing. I like what we have. I like it a lot,” he assured her.
“Good, me too,” she said as she squeezed his hand and then let it go.
“I think what I want is just a normal, quiet life,” he took a deep breath. “The job is great, for now. I’m glad I got it. But while I was working today, my mind was kind of wandering. I think I should probably start thinking about college.”
Ava looked at him pensively. “College where?” she finally asked.
“You’ve been accepted to Granville. That’s where you plan on going. I thought maybe I should apply there, too?” It came out sounding like a question. “It’s probably too late to get in this fall. But I could get everything ready and maybe start spring semester. What do you think?”
“If you want to, of course you should do it.”
“Are you done eating?” he asked and Ava nodded.
After a quick clearing of the table, they found themselves outside, sitting on the shore by the lake.
“You know, your dad is still not happy about the living arrangements.”
“I figured. I hope he didn’t lecture you too badly,” Ava said with a grimace.
“Nah,” Gabe said. “Not too bad. He just said he’ll feel a lot better about it after we’re married.”
Ava groaned. “After we’re married?” Actually, she wasn’t the least bit surprised her dad had said that. “I’m so sorry.”
Gabe laughed but he looked worried. “It’s okay. Actually, he had a whole lot to say about what he thinks should come after marriage.”
She threw her hands over her face. “Ugh, I can only imagine. Please, stop right there. I can’t believe my dad brought this up with you. No, actually I can.”
“I’m pretty sure I took it better than you. You kind of look like you’re going to throw up,” he teased.
She forced a laugh. “Only because I’m so embarrassed,” she assured him.
“He also told me he’s worried I’m going to disappear on you again,” he watched her expression as he told her this. Her eyebrows twitched up almost imperceptibly. “I told him I’m not. I want to be sure that you know that, too.”
“It’s nice to hear it,” she admitted.
“Then I’m telling you again. I’m not going anywhere. When I’m with you, everything just feels right. It feels familiar. Which I know doesn’t make any sense since I really don’t remember but,” he paused, “I don’t know how to explain it but sometimes, I feel like my soul remembers you, even if my head doesn’t. I know I want to be with you. For as long as you want me to be.”
Chapter 17
“Just look at her!” Molly said with a sigh. “Our little girl is all grown up.”
“Oh please,” Julia said with an uncharacteristic eye roll.
“Come on Julia, it’s exciting. Admit it,” Ava said.
A blush spilled across Julia’s pale features. “Actually, it’s nerve-wracking. I think I might cancel. Or vomit. One or the other. Or possibly both.”
“First French-fries, now dating. Who would have thought?” Molly said with a grin.
“I think I preferred the French-fries. This is going to be a catastrophe. I don’t know the first thing about dating!” Julia moaned.
“Sweetie, that’s because you refused to do it before now. Everyone has to start somewhere. You’ve taken the first step into the dating world by accepting. Don’t backslide by canceling,” Molly encouraged.
“So, where did you meet this guy?” Ava wondered.
Julia began fidgeting with the hem of the coral sundress she’d asked Ava if she could borrow. While the dress was short on Ava, it fell comfortably below Julia’s knees. Still, she wondered if it were too revealing.
“He’s been coming into the country club the last week or so. At first, I thought he seemed kind of flirty but then I thought it was probably just my
imagination. But yesterday, he asked me when my break was. I told him and he showed up and asked if he could buy me a smoothie. I let him, we talked and it wasn’t nearly as disastrous as I thought it would be. He was really easy to talk to. So easy to talk to,” she pointed out, “that he asked if I’d please go to the centennial carnival with him tonight. I said yes without even thinking about it. Of course, now I’m thinking about it and I’m kind of freaking out.” Her face turned pale and she plopped down on Ava’s bed. “No, not kind of. I am completely freaking out!”
“It’s just dating,” Molly said gently. “The more you do it, the easier it gets. He’s just a guy. That’s the first thing to remember. He’s just a guy and if things don’t work out, well, there are a whole lot more of them to pick from. If you take into consideration the fact that this is your first date, the likelihood of him being ‘the one’ is actually pretty small. So just think of him as practice. Like a trial run for when you do meet Mr. Right.”
“Uh-huh,” Julia said, not sounding the least bit convinced.
“What’s his name? What does he look like,” Molly demanded, trying to change the subject in an effort to alleviate her friend’s worries.
“His name is Cam. It’s short for something. Cameron, maybe. He’s…oh wow,” Julia sighed and a dreamy look that neither of her friends had ever seen before settled onto her face. “Let’s just say I know you’d approve. He’s at least as hot as Oliver,” she said, somewhat defensively. “He’s just…he’s actually quite gorgeous and perfect. Too perfect for me. I have no idea why he asked me out. Why me?! Maybe he didn’t mean to. Maybe it was a mistake!”
“Julia, calm down. Take a deep breath or something,” Molly ordered. “It wasn’t a mistake. You don’t give yourself enough credit. You’re absolutely beautiful. You’re sweet and completely lovable.”
“Then why didn’t anyone ever ask me out in high school? Why?” she demanded. “You and Ava went on dates all the time and no one ever asked me out. Never.”
Ava and Molly shared a look. They’d both been under the assumption that Julia hadn’t wanted to date. She’d always been a little high strung and more than a little neurotic and most of their class knew it. In a school as small as Hunter Falls High, it was hard to miss when during flu season she insisted on sanitizing her desk with each class change.