Page 45 of Forever Yours
“Mata Hari, the famous spy—”
“I know who she is,” Sebastian interrupted. “But that’s not athing.”
“Oh, it’s most definitely a thing. It’s the exact definition of a thing. In fact, I just witnessed it happening.”
“You did fall for it,” Prudence pointed out, standing and taking a small step closer to the notes on the table. “I, for one, was very interested in your answers.” She sat on the arm of the chair next to Sebastian, a look of rapt attention on her face while she glanced sideways at the notes.
“It’s amazing how the printing press has— Hey!” Sebastian swiped the notes into a pile and flipped them over. “That’s enough from the both of you.”
“What happened?” Devlin asked.
“Grey and I had left the room for maybe ten minutes, and when we got back Annabelle was draped all over Sebastian asking inane questions about printing.”
“She wasn’t draped all over me,” Sebastian said.
“Draped is a nice way of saying it,” Greyson confirmed. “Neither of them noticed us coming back into the room, so we sat down and watched what was happening. It was so apparent that Annabelle was studying Gabe’s proposal notes during Seb’s long-winded replies.”
“Hey!” Gabe exclaimed. “Those are confidential, man.”
“I’m sorry, Gabe, I didn’t know she was doing it. I thought we were having a real conversation about something that interested both of us.”
“Do you think she could decipher your chicken scratch?” Gabe asked.
“She’s the only one at work that can,” Sebastian groused.
Devlin was secretly excited that Annabelle had got to see Gabe’s plans, but she couldn’t let him know that. “I’ll talk to Annabelle,” she promised. About what, she didn’t say.
“That was the nicest she’s ever been to me,” Sebastian muttered.
“It’ll happen again,” Prudence promised, gesturing to the window. “Hell has officially frozen over after this storm.”
Prudence stood and walked into the kitchen, passing Devlin along the. “Hey, the radio was down there!”
“Yep,” Devlin confirmed, holding it up. “We tried to get reception downstairs, but all we got was static, then the batteries ran out.”
“Is it a creepy basement?” Prudence asked.
“Anything is creepy without lights on,” Devlin answered. “Gabe knew where the other switch was and that gave us some light. I didn’t see any ghosts, though.”
“I might have heard some moaning,” Gabe said, his tone casual. Devlin’s eyes widened at this, and Gabe continued, “But I think you’re right, it’s probably just the wind. It seemed to pick up while we were down there.”
Greyson grabbed batteries from a kitchen drawer and handed them to Gabe. “Here, try these. I swear the radio wound up.”
Devlin watched as Gabe popped the batteries in and extended the antenna. He pressed the weather button and they all waited with bated breath as the static turned to a weather signal stating that the state was in a blizzard watch until the end of the day.
“That was more than a blizzard,” Gabe said, “the whole sky dumped down on us.”
“Would a local station have more information on when things will clear here?” Devlin asked.
“I’m on it.”
Devlin watched Gabe’s strong fingers play over the radio knob and felt her face flush, knowing where those fingers had been no more than a half an hour ago. Gabe lifted his eyes as if he sensed what she was thinking and tilted a half smile at her as a local disc jockey crackled on talking about the storm. Annabelle had come back into the room by this point, and they all listened as he repeated, probably for the one hundredth time since the storm ended, that they’d received almost three feet of snow, but the wind made the drifting seem like more. Crews were out working on the roads, the mountains would be cleared by Monday evening at the latest, and no further snowfall was expected.
Prudence had made a makeshift charcuterie board by the time night had settled in, and they were all gathered around the fire still listening to the radio. Crackers, smoked oysters, olives and pickles were being eaten and tea was poured as the group settled into a comfortable routine of conversation followed by silence as a captivating news story came on then conversation again as they discussed what they’d just listened to.
Devlin and Gabe were next to each other, and Devlin used all her willpower to not lay her head on his shoulder or grab his hand. The coziness of their surroundings made her long for what she couldn’t have, at least not with Gabe. It made her want to have a brood of children running around, playing with dollies or wooden cars, the youngest one nestled in her arms, sleepy, warm and ready for bed. She felt herself listing toward Gabe, and straightened, needing to speak to stay awake from the heat of the fire.
“I feel like I should be darning socks or crocheting a sweater while the men smoke pipes,” Devlin ruminated during a commercial break. “This is what our grandparents did when they only had a radio. Sit around and just listen to what was happening in the world.”