And oddly, despite all the things I’d accomplished for myself and despite my nerves and anxiety as I’d been in the stadium, it was also mine.
Chapter 10
So, this was Amy Gas, the woman that Mr. Gowan had asked me to hire so she could choose new drapes and fix up his office.
Actually, she wasn’t: her name was really Annie Whitaker-Gassman, and I’d had to do some detective work to figure that out. Then it had taken a while to schedule her visit, because she was very in-demand. As a favor, maybe since his wife was a cousin (or second-cousin or something, but they were related), she had made time to come over here. And after everything I’d done to track her down, one of her emails to me mentioned that my boss had contacted her too, so I hadn’t needed to bother. He’d had her number all along.
“It’s very nice to meet you—oh, hold on. This is my son,” she told me, and held up a giant phone to demonstrate the texts coming in rapid-fire. “Let me just answer…”
She took a minute to respond and I waited, but I was a little impatient because I did actually have something to do. Taylorhad sent some proofs of banners we’d created to promote the Junior Woodsmen at the next preseason game, and I needed to approve the designs so there was time to get them printed. The Community Relations department, which handled the booths outside of the stadium, had denied my request for one of those but they were allowing me to hang signs and have a small table. Myles Pham, the guy who had tried out for the Woodsmen with Ronan but hadn’t made the cut, was going to sit with me and talk to fans, and we had some swag to pass out.
The budget had stretched to cover the cost of that, but I was a little concerned about costs in general. I was actually very concerned about costs, especially because it seemed that this visit from Annie Whitaker-Gassman wasn’t just about drapes.
“So, I’m redoing the office!” she had first greeted me, and I hadn’t known what to say.
Then the texts from her son had poured in but now she was off her phone, so I would find out what was happening—or maybe not. “Beau said that he wants everything changed,” she informed me, but then had a follow-up question. “What do you think he’s after?”
Since I had no idea either, we tried to figure out what my boss had meant and we also discussed the limitations of transforming a room that didn’t actually belong to you. She opened her phone again to refer to the Woodsmen Stadium Complex Office Décor Policies. “According to what you sent to me, we can change out the furniture as long as we store the existing stuff onsite,” she said. “Hanging items must have prior approval, no new paint. There aren’t a lot of options for me.”
Thank goodness, because there might not have been a lot of money, either. “He specifically discussed drapes,” I said, and she nodded.
“I’m sure those will be fine. I’ll just clear it with my brother,” she mentioned, which meant nothing to me since I didn’t know who that was. “A lot of my family members are involved in running the team,” she said helpfully. “The Whitakers have their fingers in a lot of pies. Literally, since another relative just opened a bakery.” She laughed, because she seemed like a very happy person. She was also talkative. That continued as she measured the windows.
“Gravitas,” she said, repeating what I’d told her in regard to the style that Mr. Gowan was after. “Serious curtains. Ok, I’ll give it my best shot. I have a pair that another client rejected and my partner is an amazing sewer. We won’t have to farm this out and altering those will save him some money, which he may need…never mind.”
“I was at his house, so I saw that it’s empty,” I told her. “I was only there because he wanted me to climb around and take down the curtains in the dining room. I think it was a dining room, but as I said, there was no furniture so it was hard to judge.”
“Yeah, the situation is a mess,” she said, sighing. “Celestine owns the house. Well, her dad does. I knew they’d taken back his car but I didn’t know that they’d cleared out the furniture. Where is Beau living now?”
I shrugged. “I thought it might have been here, in the stadium somewhere.”
She dropped her tape measure and got very upset. “Oh, no!” she exclaimed. Then she had many questions for me and I asked her a few, too. She wasn’t trying to gossip but a lot of the story came out.
Later, over dinner, I explained my pieced-together version to Ronan. “Celestine Whitaker, who is now Celestine Gowan, was cheating on my boss,” I said. “Do you want another helping of this?”
He did and I spooned more of the pasta we’d made onto his plate. “They split up?” he asked.
“I guess it was more like they drifted and then boom, adultery. I got the impression that she’s trying to keep things quiet because she doesn’t want people to know that she’s a big jerk. But he was also a big jerk, because he was living off her and her family for all these years and he only took the job with the Woodsmen because she was so sick of the mooching. Of course, I don’t think that she has a job, either.” I’d started to wonder how my boss was going to hold on to the good thing he had going with the team—if it was dependent on his wife being a Whitaker and they were getting a divorce, then where would that leave him? And me?
“They sound like a great couple,” Ronan commented. “Made for each other.”
I nodded. “He stayed in the house but she took all the furniture, and then her dad did something to boot him. That was why he looked so disheveled before.”
“I remember. You thought he was perfect.”
“I thought helookedperfect,” I corrected. “He must have some place to stay now because he cleaned himself up.”
“So, he’s back to looking great. That’s a relief.”
I stared at him. “Why? Why do you care?”
“It’s sarcasm, Cate,” he answered. He rubbed his head. “I’m in a shitty mood.”
I had noticed that but had hoped that food would help. It was strange because in general, he was a very even-keeled kind of person, very reliable in terms of his mood. It made it easy to come over, because I never had to worry that he’d be going crazy about something when I opened the door. That had been a concern for me in the past with my dad.
“I’ve never seen you like this,” I said. He’d been anxious around the tryout, he’d been tired, and he’d been annoyed before. Now he just seemed…off.
“As far as I’m aware, there’s nothing to prevent me from being moody. There are no formal prohibitions.”
