It's Only Love(44)
She sent it off to her dad via e-mail, hoping to avoid another sex toy conversation with her father. No one ever said there wasn’t a downside to working for the family business. She couldn’t wait to share this story with Gavin when she saw him later.
Ella thought of him while she ate the ham sandwich he’d made for her while she made his for him. She pictured him eating his sandwich and thinking of her. She’d made it with lots of mayo, just the way he wanted it, while he spread a thin layer of mustard on hers.
It was such a small silly thing, but she’d absolutely loved making lunches with him. Inside her brown bag, she saw a piece of paper and pulled it out. Hope you’re having a good day, he’d written. You’re standing right next to me, and I can’t wait to see you later.
Ella sighed with pleasure at the sweet words and the sweeter sentiment. It felt so damned good to let loose all the feelings she’d kept contained for so long, to let the whole world know how she felt about him.
With her heart full to overflowing with love for him, she sent off an e-mail to Dylan, telling him what she wanted to do and asking if he’d be willing to help put her plan into action.
She moved on to other things, trying to forget about the message she’d sent to Dylan. Until her e-mail chimed with a new message and she immediately clicked right over to read it.
Hey Ella, Dylan had written, so nice to hear from you, and I love your idea of surprising Gavin with a trip to the wedding. It would mean so much to me to have him there. I can easily add you to the reservation at the resort. They’re holding a couple of extra rooms for us until the week before, so good timing. Am I holding one room for you guys or two?
He included some other details about the wedding and a link to the resort where it would take place.
Ella clicked on the link and began to drool at the sight of the crystal-clear blue water, white sand, palm trees, sunsets and breathtakingly romantic rooms. Imagining herself in paradise with Gavin was further impetus to make this happen.
She wrote back to Dylan. Thanks for all your help. The resort looks AMAZING! One room will do. Thanks again and congratulations!
He replied right away. Sounds like my buddy Gavin has been keeping secrets . . . Happy for you guys and especially happy for him. It’s high time he got back to the land of the living. See you soon, Ella.
Bolstered by Dylan’s kind reply, she logged on to a travel website to discover there were still plenty of seats available on flights. They’d leave from Boston the day after Thanksgiving—Black Friday, she thought with a gulp—and return the following Friday. Before she could purchase the tickets, she had to see about putting Charley in charge of the floor during one of the busiest weeks of the year in the store.
Ella checked the time on her computer. Just after three. She had an hour before she wanted to head home to start cooking and needed to make it count.
CHAPTER 14
They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love,
something to do, and something to hope for.
—Tom Bodett
Gavin’s workday had been a study in crisis management, beginning with the equipment failure in the mountains that had forced them to halt all operations for the day. He’d sent his mechanics to figure out what was going on, but in the meantime, the men who worked the north woods were at a standstill.
Standstills cost him money.
He’d no sooner dealt with that when two of the men working at a local job returned to the yard, one of them cradling his bloody hand while the other went in search of a first-aid kit. With one quick look, Gavin could see that the wound needed stitches.
“Get him to the ER,” Gavin said to the man who’d brought him back to the yard.
“What’s in the water today?” asked Clinton, his second in command, when the other two had left for the hospital.
“Who the f*ck knows? And why would they come here instead of the hospital when he’s bleeding like a stuck pig?”
“Um, well, sometimes they aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed?”
Most of the time, the guys who worked for him were reliable and bright. But sometimes they weren’t. “Did they say what happened?” Gavin asked, dreading the reams of paperwork that resulted from an on-the-job injury.
“Something about a strip of bark and a fall.” Clinton checked his watch. “I gotta jet. We have Trish’s ultrasound appointment at four. She’ll skin me alive if I’m late.”
“I remember. Go ahead, and good luck with that.”
“Thanks. Call me if you need anything.”
“Surely we’ve exceeded the day’s quota for catastrophes.”
“Knock on wood,” Clinton said with a smirk.
“Very funny.”
Clinton went spinning out of the parking lot a few minutes later, waving to Gavin as he left. He was happy for his longtime employee and his wife, who’d been trying to have a baby for a while now and were finally getting their wish.
He went into the office, hoping to hear from the mechanics with an update about the repairs being made to the equipment up north. While he waited, he paid some bills, caught up the accounting software and used the office line to return customer phone calls. His employees would know to call his cell phone.
His corner of Butler was one of two areas, Colton’s mountain being the other, that had reliable cell service. And he was damned thankful for that. It would be much more difficult to run his business without a cell phone.