Because even after all of that, it will end in heartbreak.
28
DONOVAN
Saturday morning, Maeve came in to work with me. I never asked her to work on weekends, but she knew we had a lot to get done, and she said she felt bad for taking so much time for Cora that week. I didn’t mind coming in over the weekends because it always felt like I got so much more done without the pressure of the weekday obligations. Around noon, Maverick texted her, telling her to run over to Grá. He had installed a countertop in Cora’s store that he made before they split. They had talked about it at darts, and because it sounded so cool, my curiosity got the best of me, and I went with her to check it out. It was pouring when she got the text, so I drove us down to the store.
As I imagined, it was phenomenal. Hell, the entire store was phenomenal. I would only use Maverick from there on out for any builds or renovations I needed–that is, if he came back to Savannah Springs after the thing he’s doing in California. I still didn’t quite have a read on what was going on there. We stayed for a little while, but he took off soon after so Cora could check everything out. She was up in herapartment waiting for him to leave because she didn’t want to see him. In a surprise move, Maverick invited me over for goodbye beers with the guys before he left, but I thought that would be a little much. Karaoke and poker, fine, but this went quite a bit deeper, so I declined. Besides, the mood in the store was heavy. If he was so upset about going, why was he doing it? Even hanging out with them a handful of times, it was clear there was a fire between him and Cora. And that’s excluding the tryst I saw go down in the hallway when he had her pinned to the wall and they were making out at darts. Did they think they were being sneaky? Hell, I even caught Maeve snapping a few photos of them looking at each other with the equivalent of hearts in their eyes.
I was about to follow suit and take off, but Cora walked in. Then it felt like I had missed the opportunity to leave, so I stayed put, as awkward as it was. Bennett had his camera out as Cora’s hands went to her mouth. Never in my life had I seen someone more heartbroken than her as she looked around. Even I had to blink back a couple of tears at the overwhelming emotion. She ended up running out the back of the store. Audra walked in not two minutes later, smiled a sad smile at me, and then did what she came to do. She and Maeve went out the back in search of their friend.
“Shit, I can’t believe you recorded that, B,” Murphy said. “Mav isn’t going to want to see that.”
Bennett shrugged. “I did what he asked me to. Maybe this will be the catalyst for him to stay?”
“That was rough,” I agreed.
“Why can’t you come for goodbye beers? Hot date? Whatever it is, it has to be better than watching your friend make the biggest mistake of his freaking life.” Murphy shook his head. It seemed like nobody was on board with him leaving. And a hotdate? Ha. Besides the fact that I hadn’t been on a single date in the fourteen months I’d been in Savannah Springs, I was certainly only interested in one individual who made my world spin with a single kiss.
“I have a ton of things at work going on.”
“Better not be a date,” Bennett threw in before Murphy talked over him.
“Oh, because Maeve is leaving, right?” Murphy mentioned. I froze. I didn’t know who knew what and if I was privy to any of that information. Thankfully, he kept going, and my question was answered organically. “Shit, Tuck, what are you going to do? You can’t propose before you go. Not when Cora is in this hell. Maeve would kill you and then say no to your corpse.”
“Don’t I know it, jackass. I’ll bring the ring to Hawaii. But now that she has her heart set on roasting marshmallows in lava, it’ll be a disappointment. By the way, thanks for that, Wright,” Tucker said, rolling his eyes.
I laughed. “Honestly, I don’t think that the volcano is flowing right now, anyway. At least it wasn’t in active eruption earlier this year, so it might be a moot point. And, this was almost a decade ago, so things may have gotten stricter anyway. But there are so many unique spots on Big Island that I’m sure you will find something perfect. What about a Mauna Kea sunset tour that gives way to stargazing?” My mind started racing with ideas of unique things I’d done there. “Regardless, you’ll be away from this train wreck. Why is Maverick leaving anyway? No one, including him, seems to be happy about it.”
“There’s not enough daylight to unpack it. The man is deep in his own head about how he isn’t worthy of Cora, and now he’s running. At least that’s what I understand,” Tucker said. Seeing as Cora went to their house after the initial blow and had been spending lots of time with them, I’d say hewould have the most intimate knowledge of the situation. That surprised me, though. The way he carried himself could hardly be interpreted as unconfident. And he certainly wasn’t poor. I think he owned one of the most expensive, unsuspecting cars in this town. Cora didn’t come across like the people from my past who only cared about that kind of thing, either. There had to be a lot of history or pieces that I just wasn’t privy to.
“Are you really working all day today, Wright?” Bennett asked. “We own bars and don’t work the entire weekend.”
I looked between them and sighed. “Honestly, no. I do have to get a little more done, but this seems like more of a close friend affair. I appreciate the offer, and I enjoy spending time with you guys, but I’m going to sit this one out. Next time, I’ll be there.”
“Anyone want to grab one now? We can talk shit about Maverick, and the Braves are playing.” Murphy interjected.
“That I can do,” I said. So the four of us headed down the street to Flyers. The rain had let up, so I just left my car as we all walked over.
We were there quite a bit longer than I expected. We drank, got food, and sat there most of the day. When they started talking about doing the Death March to Maverick’s, I knew I had to make my way to work to check a couple more things off my to-do list before I headed home.
Thanks to a slow pace and an endless supply of food, I had a little buzz, but nothing that would impact my ability to work effectively. The day was about hanging out and having fun, and I was surprised at how welcome these guys made me feel. Between poker, the invitation to the planet party, and the couple of other times I’d been around, I felt like I’d known these guys for a while. I still couldn’t get over how quickly Ihad let people in once I dropped my wall. I was a completely different person than I was two months ago.
When I finally got to work, I was so immersed in my tasks that I lost track of time and ended up leaving the office around 11:30 p.m.
I had to walk back to Grá to get my car, but the weather had done a 180 from that morning. It was perfect. Saturday night was electric, and the band at The Yard must have ended recently because people were milling about. It was the kind of evening that brought everyone out. It smelled like spring and was a happy preview of summer nights that were just around the corner.
Enjoying my stroll, I stopped abruptly when I saw a certain brown-haired beauty outside Grá with her hand on her neck. Shamelessly, I looked raked my eyes up and down her body. Even in yoga pants and a shirt, I still appreciated the view. From where I stood, I couldn’t tell what was going on, but her slumped shoulders and hanging head suggested whatever was happening wasn’t good.
“Audra?” I said loud enough for her to hear.
She spun around quickly and grabbed her shirt by her chest. “Oh! You scared me, Donovan!” And she breathed out a sigh strong enough to puff her cheeks. “Let me guess, you have some telepathic bat signal that activates when I’m in distress so you know to come to my rescue?”
So she wasn’t acting weird like I was worried she might be after that mind-altering kiss, which I appreciated.But what distress was she in right now?I wondered “I mean, Audra, I bet you can guess who my favorite superhero was. Are you sureyou’renot telepathically creeping on my childhood?” Because, of course, it was Batman. Eccentric billionaire with awesome gadgets moonlighting to save the world. Count me in.
She laughed that light laugh I loved to hear, and I could see some of the tension ease out of her shoulders.
“But what’s up? Why did you summon me tonight?”
