“You gonna take this one?”
He let out a heavy sigh, but his arm remained solidly around me. “I suppose I should. I’d like to land before dusk.”
“I’ve heard it’s challenging to land at dusk.”
“Where’d you hear that?”
“I think when I was reading about John Junior.”
“You weren’t even born then.”
“Yeah, but my mom subscribes to People magazine. She saves every issue.”
“Hhmm.”
“But whenever she remarries, she throws out her supply. She’s yet to meet and marry a man who agrees to move boxes and boxes of old magazines.”
“How many times did you say she’s been married?”
“Five times in total. My dad was number two.”
“Any of them you liked?”
“Not really. When all you care about is whether they’re willing to marry you and whether they can pay bills, well, there’s a wide spectrum of men out there who can meet those two criteria. I wish she’d expand on her required attributes.”
“Are you close to her?”
“Haven’t spoken to her in a couple of years.” She’d been mad when I didn’t make it home for her most recent wedding. Knowing the way news traveled around our small town, as soon as Ben figured out I was an OnlyFans girl, I’d expected the phone to ring. It hadn’t.
The ferry horn sounded, and I closed my eyes, attempting to memorize the feel of him against me. His heart thudded in his chest, against my ear, and his arm wrapped warmly around me. His protective hold and his strength, it was all perfect.
“Can I…when I come back…do you think we can still see each other?”
“Like, date?”
“Yeah. I’m not ready to say goodbye.”
“I think we can be friends. I’d like to be friends. But whether we say goodbye now or weeks from now, it’s going to suck. Might as well do it now. Rip it off like a Band-Aid.”
He lifted me off his chest, and his thumb wiped below my eye. I hadn’t meant to cry. I sniffled, and he pressed a soft kiss on my cheek, then my nose, then my other cheek.
“I meant what I said last night.”
“You said a lot of stuff.” And a lot of it had been when we were joined. Heat of the moment kind of stuff.
He lifted my chin and forced me to look into his forest green eyes. “I do love you, Poppy. I meant it.”
My lips quivered, and I raised up, struggling to hold a waterfall of emotion in.
“Poppy, I wish you could see yourself through my eyes. Because through my eyes, sure, you’re attractive. A knockout. But you’re so much more.” He brushed loose hair behind my ear. “You deserve the world. Never forget it.”
That did it. My big, fat mushy heart let out a torrential downpour of tears, and there was no way I could squelch it or stop it or do any of the things to keep it together like a normal human being. I stood, pressed my lips to his fast and quick, and ran.
One long boardwalk stretched from the parking lot, along the side of the harbor, out to the Cape Fear River. I clopped my way down to the very end and climbed up on the railing, right next to a sign telling me not to sit on the railing. A woman and her young child stood nearby. The mother saw my disaster of a face and tugged on her child’s hand to move farther away, giving me space.
The ferry passed through the channel, and I stuck my arm high into the air, waving like a lunatic, with buckets of tears to match. Gabe stood on the top deck, leaning against the metal railing. He held out his phone. It took me a minute, but I recognized the movement. He snapped pictures. A memory catcher. I plastered on a smile and waved my arm back and forth until the muscles ached and the ferry disappeared across the inlet.
Chapter 29
Gabe
“Scott, I can’t tell you how much it means to me you’re giving me this chance.” I looked him square in the eye. He twirled his remaining scotch in the glass and settled back into his chair, signifying the interview component of our lunch had ended, and we were back to family friends.
“Happy to do so. I know how much you’ve always meant to Caroline. And as you know, my daughter is my everything.” His tone brought back memories of his firm greeting when I’d picked up Caroline for a random debutante event back when we were in school.
“Yes, sir. As she should be. She’s a one of a kind. How is her interior design business going? I always forget to ask her about it.” The interior design business had been her connection to my mother. I supposed my mother had probably been her mentor.
“Gabriel…you can’t forget to ask a woman about her business. Let me give you a little premature father-to-son advice. At this stage, Caroline is so over the moon with you she probably overlooks it, but you need to make them think you care about how they spend their day. You may not, really. I mean, trust me, fabric, wallpaper…” He waved his hand and scanned the room as if looking for some other item to throw into his description. “It bores the hell out of me, but you’ve got to ask and listen. It’s important.”
“I’ll take that under advisement.” If I’m ever in a relationship with your daughter. “Now, tomorrow morning, I’ll meet with—”
“Gabriel, you understand I wouldn’t be giving you this chance if it weren’t for Caroline, right? I expect you to treat her well.”
What the hell did Caroline tell him?
He slipped his black American Express into the leather folder and signed the bill, then stood and excused himself for the restroom. I watched him walk away. He nodded a greeting to a couple of the tables.
Caroline and I ended years ago. We’d gone on dates in high school. I’d taken her to some dances. We’d had drunken hook-ups
