Page 8 of Forever Yours
“Happy New Year!”The sound of the crowd cheering broke them out of their daze, but now the woman looked stricken. She put her hand to her mouth with a gasp, turned, and dashed out of the door.
Gabe was propelled into movement, running around the bar, dodging a kissing Greyson and Prudence as he ran to the door, but he was too late. She was too fast and had disappeared into the cold night. He closed the door behind him, leaning against it for support.It’s her.
“What the hell was that?” Annabelle asked as she walked up to Gabe. “What did you say to Devlin? Where did she go?” She shook his arm “Gabe? Where did Devlin go?”
Gabe snapped back to reality. “That’sthe Devlin you’ve been talking about?” he asked, although he now knew the answer.
“We should talk,” Prudence offered as she and Greyson joined them, the sounds of the midnight ballad fading.
“I have a plan!” Annabelle exclaimed, pushing her shoulder into Sebastian’s chest to move him back as he’d come to stand with the group.
“No, not one of your schemes, Annabelle.” Gabe ran his hand through his hair in frustration. He sighed. “All right, I’m listening.”
“First,” Annabelle demanded, “tell us everything. If I’m going to come up with a plan I need to know all the details.”
Gabe was uncomfortable with all the attention. He decided they weren’t going to leave him alone and motioned for them to follow him to the back room, shutting the door once they’d all filed in. “Listen, the details aren’t important. The last time I was in Boston I met her in a bar, and we spent one night together, I didn’t know her name.”
“Nice, man,” Sebastian said, then yelped as Annabelle pinched his arm.
Gabe continued, “I thought what we had was special, not just a one-night stand, but she was gone the next morning. No note, no clues to her identity, so I moved on.”
“What about when she moved here last year?” Prudence questioned.
“What?” Gabe noted the lack of surprise on his friends’ faces. “What the hell is going on?”
Annabelle shot a quick look at Prudence, who nodded. “Devlin moved here last year and opened Books and Beans. She told us that she ran into you one day, you guys talked and decided what happened between you was in the past and you’d just move on from it.”
“I haven’t seen or spoken to her since Boston,” Gabe insisted.
“How have you not noticed her around town?” Prudence asked.
“She’s literally two doors down from you, Gabe,” Annabelle added.
Gabe hung his head, letting out a sigh. “I guess I have, now that I think back on it. She was familiar, I got this weird sense of déjà vu one day when I saw a woman outside the bar, but by the time I got to the door to see who she was, she was gone. Was I supposed to track her down and say, ‘hey, was it you I had mind-blowing, life-altering sex with one night a year and a half ago in Boston?’ How well do you think that would’ve gone over? I’d end up looking like a shallow asshole no matter what. So, I just left it. I figured our paths would cross one day and I’d know, but that never happened.”
“By never happened, do you mean you’ve been avoiding her on purpose so you wouldn’t have to know?” Annabelle asked.
“Why would Inotwant to know, Annabelle?” Gabe snapped.
“Hey, I’m just saying,” Annabelle placated, “sometimes it’s easier to leave the unknown alone and live in blissful ignorance.”
“The person I was with never told me her name and was gone by the time I woke the next morning. Andthatgirl”—he pointed to the office door— “looks nothing like who I was with in Boston. She had long blonde hair and…her eyes. I didn’t know for sure she was the same person until I saw her eyes.” Prudence started to say something, but Gabe cut her off, holding up his hand. “And by the way, she was the one who ended up outside my window. If she wanted to say something, she could have. Plus, she lied to you both.”
“I get it,” Greyson soothed. “Either way, you don’t come out looking great in this situation and that sucks.”
“Okay,” Annabelle said. “So, Devlin knows you live here, but she’s been avoiding you and we don’t know why.”
“We?” Gabe asked the group. “Who exactly iswe?”
Prudence and Annabelle raised their hands.
“Wait, you knew, Pru?” Greyson asked.
“The story wasn’t mine to tell, Grey,” she sighed. “But it’s out in the open now. We’ve only known since the Fall Festival. She didn’t go into the whole story with us, she just filled us in on the barest of details before asking us not to say anything. We didn’t push her, we figured she’d tell us more if she needed to.”
Annabelle nodded. “Everyone has a past, and some people want to leave theirs behind. But” she added, looking around at the group, “that doesn’t mean we can’t do something about it now. I really do have a plan.”
“Are you being serious, Winters?” asked Sebastian, who had been silent since Annabelle had pinched him.