Page 62 of Forever Yours

“It’s okay, Sebastian,” Devlin soothed, “that’s good to know. But no, I haven’t submitted mine yet.”

“The deadline is tomorrow, though. Will you get it there in time?” Sebastian asked.

“Are you serious, Sebastian?” Annabelle snapped. “Read the room for, fuck’s sake.” She lowered her face into her hands and a muffled, “I just can’t with this guy,” escaped.

Prudence, who had been whispering into Greyson’s ear until this point, sprang to attention at the shift in conversational tone. “What’s the matter?” she asked.

Gabe saw Annabelle shoot Prudence a look with a slight shake of her head. Unsure what the look was supposed to mean, he told the truth.

“I submitted my proposal to the town council the day after we got back from the cabin. It was done and as good as I could get it and I didn’t see the point in waiting.”

Devlin turned her back to the group and spoke to Gabe in a hushed voice. “The point might have been that we continued sleeping together when we got back.”

“Yes, and we agreed to keep seeing each other, nothing else.”

“I believed we had become more than that.”

“Devlin.” He reached out to take her hand, surprised when she pulled away. He glanced over her shoulder, very aware now that the rest of the group was silent and listening. “We didn’t agree to anything else. We knew what would happen.”

Her eyes widened and he heard a sharp intake of breath from someone behind her.Fuck.He had surpassed critical error territory—this was bordering on a full and total meltdown—but he’d already stepped in the quicksand and was getting pulled deeper and deeper.

“C’mon, Dev. Whatever happened to girl power and every man for himself?” he tried to joke.

Devlin got quieter if that was possible, and the air seemed to be sucked out of the room. “I decided not to submit my proposal. I tried to tell you tonight but we kept getting interrupted.”

Gabe’s head flew back as if he’d been struck. “I don’t understand. We’ve both been planning this for a long time, long before we got together. Our plan was to take what happened after the proposals and figure it out then. We made no promises.” Gabe knew he was digging a hole he might never get out of, but the words flowed out of him against his control. “Our businesses are everything.” Gabe knew he was digging a hole he might never get out of, but the words flowed out of him against his control. “Our businesses are everything.”

“Oh, Gabe,” Prudence moaned at the same time Greyson said, “Oh no.”

Devlin looked around at these exclamations, seemingly surprised that the four friends had witnessed their conversation.

“I’ve gotta go. Don’t come over tonight.” She gathered her purse and fled the bar.

Gabe stood in a stupor, staring after her. He tried to move, just like he had the first day he’d seen her in Amber Falls, but he was rooted to the spot once again.

“Gabe, what the fuck?” Annabelle’s words broke him from his reverie.

“What just happened?” he asked.

“Bro, you know what happened. You told Devlin that your business came before her after she admitted she didn’t submit her proposal because of you.” Greyson looked perplexed. “Did you not just have that conversation with her?”

“I don’t—” He was cut off by Prudence.

“How could you do that to her, Gabe?”

“I didn’t do anything other than follow the plan that we came up with at the cabin.”

“Those were some harsh words, though,” Sebastian pointed out. “Whatever you agreed upon doesn’t mean you should treat her like that.”

Gabe’s brain started to hurt as he had flashbacks to New Year’s Eve and being yelled at in the same place by the same people about the same person. He fought the urge to relent. He should’ve used nicer words with Devlin, she did deserve that, but he’d only stuck with the plan they agreed upon by submitting his proposal.

“I submitted the proposal the day we got back to town. Everything that’s happened since then wasn’t expected.”

“So what?” Greyson countered. “That was cold, and not like the Gabe Atwood I know.”

“She’s a human being, Gabe,” Annabelle added. “Your business is just a business. She had such a hard time after she moved here making friends and opening up to people.”

“I know, we’ve talked about it.”

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