Page 74 of Coming Home to Wishington Bay
‘Is that a problem?’
‘No. Why would it be?’
‘Because—’
‘Oh – you mean because none of this is real? A fact you like to keep reminding me of.’
‘Well, it’s not. And I don’t want you thinking I might think …’
‘Think what?’ The laughter had gone from his eyes now, replaced by something else but I couldn’t name it.
‘You know …’ I said, trying desperately to dig myself out of the hole I was creating about as fast as the one Bryan was now making in the sand. The difference was he had two paws, and yet I was managing to make a far bigger one with just my mouth.
‘Nope,’ Gabe replied, rolling his lips together as he gave a very slow shake of his head. ‘I don’t.’
Sighing, I turned to look out across the bay. Down towards the end of the crescent, I could see the village, the pastel-coloured houses lined up like choices in Angelo’s Authentic Gelateria that sat three shops down from Ned’s restaurant. I could just make out the people milling about and the sand further up had now filled with families on day trips to the seaside as well as locals coming down to enjoy the warm summer sunshine and maybe forget about their own complicated lives for a few hours.
‘You’re kind of the village …’
‘I’m really hoping you’re not going to say idiot.’
I turned, laughing, the tension broken. ‘Hardly! I was going to say hunk.’
‘To quote you, “hardly”.’
I rolled my eyes. ‘Whatever. You are. And I just didn’t want you worrying that I was going to complicate things for you by starting to think that this was more than—’
‘Pretend.’
‘Exactly.’
Gabe let out a sigh. ‘No, Hols. Believe me, I’m not worried about that at all.’
‘OK. That’s good then.’
‘I guess.’
‘So. Your turn.’
He frowned.
‘You said I didn’t know what taking time off was about – despite the fact that I, unlike you, have the entire summer off work.’ I flounced with my hands, taking in the view and the house with my gesture.
‘Because you were forced to. It was either that or get fired.’
I dropped my hands, the wind slightly taken out of my sails by the fact that his observation was entirely accurate.
‘And since you’ve been here, you haven’t stopped working, just in a different way. You’ve merely swapped figures for furniture.’
‘That’s not entirely true! I have taken time out. I’ve taken a walk almost every day, I’ve started cooking properly and I’ve even read a book! Believe me, all those things are improvements on my normal schedule.’
‘You know that says quite a lot about your normal schedule.’
There was another sigh. ‘I do,’ I said, honestly. ‘But I’m taking things one step at a time. And right now, that’s all I can do.’
He smiled. ‘I know. And that’s good. I’m sorry if it came across harsher than I meant. It’s just because I care about you.’
‘You do?’ The words were out before I had a chance to think about them. But now that I had, I felt a teensy bit silly. Of course he did. He’s a doctor. That’s his job and as much as Gabe lectured me, and stepped back his own schedule, I’d already seen for myself, and heard stories from Gigi, that he was never entirely off duty.
