Page 4 of Forever Yours

“It’s going to be a two-shot kind of morning.” She paused and took a deep breath as if sensing something. “I can feel something in the air.”

* * * *

After Annabelle left, Devlin let her mind wander to the festivities planned for the night. The theme was the 1920’s and, despite Annabelle’s previous protestations regarding Devlin’s weight, the dress she’d selected had turned from a loose costume into a body hugging, cleavage bearing, try not to sit for too long because something might pop off, outfit.And I look damn good in it. The underlying white fabric was set aglow by silver bits and bobs sewn all over and sequined accents with long strings of beads falling from the hemline at her knees to her ankles.

She could go the whole night without seeing Gabe, she knew she could. Sure, at some point he’d come over and say hi to Annabelle, but when she saw him heading over, she could make an excuse to leave. Plus, the night was going to be so busy, and since Gabe was working, he wouldn’t be hanging out with them, he’d be focused on running his business.

The overhead doorbell chimed, and a regular customer walked in. Devlin put on her best business smile and told herself she’d deal with whatever happened tonight when—if—it happened.

The morning flew by. It had been busier than she’d expected but the stream of customers was down to a trickle by the time she closed the shop in the early afternoon. Her mind had been occupied all morning by her work and her patrons, but now that she had a moment to think, her mind wandered, as it did most days, to Gabe. She scrubbed at some dried-on caramel syrup harder than she had to then threw her rag on the counter.

“Enough of this,” she muttered to herself. “You have a full and rewarding life. You came to Amber Falls to start a business, not a relationship. Get your mind off that man.”

The gods were not listening. She cursed Hades as the one person she didn’t want to think about strode past her shop. Gabe stopped and, without warning, turned and reached for the door, trying to yank it open then peering through the glass when it held firmly shut.

Devlin was surprised to find herself ducking down behind the counter, her heart pounding. The door rattled once more then went silent. She wished she knew who the god of good luck was and offered vague thanks that she’d remembered to lock the door, sure the right deity would intercept it. She inched up to peer over the counter, relieved to see her doorway empty once again. If that wasn’t a sign to get the hell out of there, she didn’t know what was. She finished her work and grabbed Annabelle’s coffee. She crept to the door, feeling so much trepidation that she ended up tiptoeing. She wasn’t sure what she expected, but when Gabe failed to appear outside the door, or in the immediate vicinity, Devlin hurried the few blocks to The Amber Falls Bee.

She went straight to Annabelle’s office but had to go searching for her when she wasn’t behind her desk. She cocked her head to the side, listening for the familiar strains of—ah, there it was—the now familiar raised voices of enemies in the wild. The thought crossed her mind to leave the coffee on Annabelle’s desk, but she remembered they needed to finalize the details of tonight’s plans. Plus, no one wanted cold coffee, and who knew how long they’d be if someone didn’t interrupt them. She followed the raised voices to Sebastian’s office.

“Winters, it isn’t going to snow. They’ve forecast two storms this year that ended up being some wind blowing around tiny amounts of flurries. Each of those storms had front page headlines for a week predicting a ‘snowpocalypse’ that never happened.”

“This storm is a Nor’easter, sir,” Annabelle explained to Sebastian in a voice meant for school children.

Devlin leaned into Sebastian’s office in time to see the most baffled expression cross his face. It looked like he’d been pacing the room while Annabelle had one of her hips propped against his desk, her arms crossed.

“I don’t—” He stopped pacing and raised one of his hands to his temple like he was massaging away a headache. “What the hell is the difference?”

Annabelle mimicked his gesture. “Do you even read your own newspaper? The articles we’ve printed have gone into minute detail about the differences,” she snapped, adding at his glare, “Sir.”

“Hey, guys!” Devlin chimed in.

“Devlin!” Sebastian broke into a smile. “It’s good to see you.”

“I didn’t know you’d be with Annabelle, otherwise I would’ve brought you something, too.” She held up the coffee.

“That’s nice of you to say, but Winters and I are done here.” He turned to face Annabelle. “You’re dismissed.”

Devlin could see the pressure building in Annabelle’s lithe frame and grabbed her hand, pulling her out of the office and throwing a quick bye over her shoulder. She whispered to Annabelle, “You have to print something about the Nor’easter.”

Annabelle looked like she was ready to go back in and battle it out with Sebastian but took a deep breath and stated loud enough to hear throughout the office, “It’s already done, it’ll be on the front page tomorrow.” A loud crash came from Sebastian’s office. He’d heard. Annabelle propelled them down the hall to her office. “I was just letting him know as a courtesy that the front page was changing with the new forecast.”

“You think it’ll turn out to be a bad one?”

“I’ve heard reports of three feet, Dev, but it could be a lot more.” Annabelle took the coffee and settled into her chair. She slid off her boots and took a sip. “Wanna sit? I have a few minutes.”

“Not today. I do want to try to get a nap in if I still can.”

“I hope you take one long enough for the both of us.”

“How’s the workload coming?” Devlin leaned her shoulder against the doorway. “Will you still be done early?”

“We’ve had to change the entire front page around now that the new forecast has come out.” Annabelle glanced at the clock. “I can’t see us being out of here any earlier than eight.”

“That’s fine by me, no need to rush on my behalf.”

“How about this, I’ll finish up here and grab dinner on the way over to your place. That way we’re not spending the whole night at the bar?”

Devlin nodded. “Great idea. I’ll run over and get your bag.”

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