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“Sounds like a tyrant,” Ember muttered. “I wouldn’t want to work with him at all.”
I silently agreed.
Breakfast after that went by smoothly.
Though the food took a little longer to arrive due to the number of people at the diner, when it finally did it was just as delicious as always.
Conversation flowed smoothly, and not once did Riel shift in discomfort.
I counted it as a win. Especially when the sun popped out over the umbrella we were sitting under and shined directly on his face.
Not once did he move to the shadows.
“I guess I need to be going,” Riel finally said. “As much as I want to stay, I have to be at work today. Do you want a ride?”
Ember immediately also offered to give me a ride home.
“Actually,” I said as I stood up. “I really need to be going myself. And I know y’all want to go talk to a few of those guys in there. So, I’ll go ahead and hitch a ride with Riel.”
Ember grinned.
“You know Gabe so well,” she laughed.
After exchanging hugs with everybody, Riel led me back to his truck.
His hand brushed against mine, and I found myself longing for the feeling of it once again wrapped around my own.
Suddenly, I blurted out the first thought in my head.
“Would you happen to want to go to the beach with me?” I asked curiously.
He frowned. “What?”
“The beach,” I said. “Every year we go on an end of the year class trip to celebrate making it through. This year, we’re going to Destin, Florida.”
He frowned.
“I…” He paused. “I don’t know.”
I could tell what he was thinking.
He didn’t want to be at the beach where he could be ogled and stared at. The poor guy was so self-conscious about himself that it literally broke my heart.
“I’ll think about it,” he said. “I’d have to ask off of work, and me being so new, it may not even be a possibility.”
I could understand that.
And, sensing that he wanted to change the subject, and fast, I chatted with him about a patient I had the day before.
When he dropped me off at my house, leaving me once I’d made my way in the front door, I turned around and watched him stare at my house for a few long seconds.
While he was doing that, my eyes took him in.
I saw the sorrow there.
The emptiness.
The loneliness.
And made a decision.
I wouldn’t fight where this led.
Not anymore.Chapter 9Doesn’t everybody have their tree up in October?
-Text from Frankie to Riel
Frankie
December
Months passed by, and like usual, Luca didn’t show.
Riel, however, did.
Every single day I either spoke to him or saw him in some way.
Slowly, piece by piece, he was healing my heart.
I wasn’t sure how.
I wasn’t sure why I was letting him.
But there I was, answering his text with a smile on my face.
Riel: Dinner?
Frankie: Absolutely. As long as you bring it to my house. I’m decorating.
Riel: Decorating what?
Frankie: Everything.
I still dreamed about Luca every single day.
Every single morning, when I woke up from my sleep, it was with Luca’s voice in my ear.
I still slept in his clothes.
Still thought about him every single hour.
But, I also thought about Riel.
Thought about how nice his hugs felt—just as nice as Luca’s.
Thought about how his voice sent a shiver down my spine—just like Luca’s used to.
Last week, I’d walked out of my house to find Riel running past it early in the morning.
I’d fallen into step behind him for our run that started happening that day all those months ago when he’d first come to my house. But instead of running beside him, I ran behind him, my eyes taking in all the delicious muscles that covered the man’s body.
Needless to say, I was falling for Riel.
And… I didn’t feel like I was betraying Luca as I did it.
I couldn’t explain why.
I should’ve felt bad.
I should’ve felt like I was giving up on Luca.
But… I just didn’t think that I was doing anything wrong.
Riel was everything right in my world.
“I’ve decided to go with you,” he said as he eyed my pile of suitcases in the corner. “You said that you have your own place, right?”
Would you happen to want to go to the beach with me?
I wasn’t sure why, but I’d asked him that exact thing originally a few months ago when he’d returned to Kilgore. I’d reminded him again a couple of weeks ago. He’d told me he was still thinking about it.
And honestly, I thought for sure that he wasn’t going to go. That he was just going to ignore my invitation and act like I’d never asked to begin with.
I nodded once.
“My dad and Cora plan to come up halfway and take over the rental of the house for the next week. And since I was only staying for four days, I decided that was a good deal. Plus, I don’t have to share a room with anybody,” I told him honestly. “There are three bedrooms. Eventually the kids will be showing up with them, taking over the third bedroom, but I’ll just sleep in that room with them while we’re still there. You can have the other.”
