Page 53 of Yours, Always
After Greyson had showered and changed, he headed over to the haunted house build site, stopping to get coffee from Books and Beans along the way. Prudence had talked a lot about Devlin, it seemed like she’d become part of Prudence and Annabelle’s close circle after moving here, and he knew why after talking with her while waiting for his coffee.
“Hey, Gabe.” Greyson held up the coffee as he entered the work site. “I brought sustenance.”
“This is great coffee,” Gabe said after taking a few sips. “Where did you get it?”
“Books and Beans. It’s almost right next door to Finnegan’s.”
Gabe turned his head away, setting down the cup and grabbing a hammer. “I’ve always got a pot on at the bar, I don’t get to coffee shops a lot.”
“You should stop in. The owner seems like your type.”
“How about you focus on you?”
“Just saying, she seems like a great kid.”
“I’ve lost you when you start going all Humphrey Bogart on me.”
“The greatest actor of our time.”
“I won’t argue with that, but can we talk while we build?” Gabe pointed to a box of nails.
Despite those words they worked in silence for a while until Greyson broke through the sound of pounding. “I’m going to move in with Prudence for the rest of my trip.”
“I figured it had gone well since I haven’t heard from you since you stopped by Finnegan’s. I’m really happy to hear things are moving in the right direction for you two.”
“It’s going better than I could’ve ever thought.”
“What did she say when you told her about the teaching position at the university?”
Greyson kept hammering, not breaking his rhythm. “I haven’t said anything yet.”
“Serious? You’ve been back for a while and haven’t left her side in at least two days.”
Greyson stopped at that and turned to grin at his brother. “We’ve had other, more important things to do. By the way, you build sturdy tables.” Gabe grimaced and waved his hammer at Greyson to move on. “But I’m going to tell her tonight at dinner.”
“I wish you all the luck, Grey. You and Pru are meant to be.”
“I’ve been convinced of that since I was fifteen. Now it’s time to seal the deal.”
“You’d better. I can’t imagine a better sister-in-law.” He looked at Greyson. “Now what’s this shit about Samantha Crane?”
Greyson shuddered. “So fucking weird, bro. Nadia wants us to do a movie together so we had lunchonce,and she seriously started talking about coming to Amber Falls with me. Not to mention how handsy she was at the awards show and after in the limo. She acted like she expected something from me. I never led her on, in fact I told her plainly that I was going on vacation, and we’d talk when I got back.”
“Damn. That’s some devious behavior, even for Hollywood.”
“I think I hurt Pru by not telling her about Samantha, but it was all just business to me. But get this, Pru thought she saw Nadia at Tater Tot Tuesday.”
“Did you see her, too?”
“It was too quick to know for sure. I can’t imagine why she’d be in Amber Falls. There was a reporter fromPersonmagazine here and possible paparazzi, but those could be coincidences. My contract is coming due, and she’s pulling out all the stops to get me to sign right away. I can’t imagine her not only coming here, but coming here and not telling me. With the teaching position and now my relationship with Pru, I want to put all that on hold.”
Gabe nodded. “No reason to jump into it, you’ve earned this break. But have you at least told Prudence what you just told me? If you think she was hurt you’d better clear the whole Samantha situation up.”
Greyson shook his head. “We sort of talked about it the night I won the award, but we haven’t since.”
Gabe pondered Greyson’s statement. “You need to have that conversation with her. Get back to work, now we really are acting like a couple of gossiping teenagers. This has to be finished by the time you leave today so the other volunteers can paint and decorate it tomorrow.”
* * * *