‘So why not go for it?’
‘I just got out of a marriage…’
‘Two years ago.’
Crap. Apparently, he’d already filled Jack in on the timeline of his heartbreak.
‘I’m not ready…’
‘To be happy?’
‘I just…’ Elliot trailed off because Jack was clearly not listening anymore. Gabe, the gardener/handyman/Jack’s crush, had just walked in the door covered in grass stains with a low-slung tool belt around his hips. Elliot was pretty damn straight, but he could see the appeal. Gabe looked… confident. Competent. Elliot would love to feel the way Gabe looked striding into the inn with a screwdriver in one hand and a stepladder in the other.
And now he had an answer for Jack.
‘Why not ask Gabe out?’ he said, and Jack nearly choked. He smacked Elliot on the arm.
‘Shh! He will hear you!’
Elliot laughed. ‘Okay, so, you’ve been drooling over him for months. Ask him out.’
Jack glared at him. ‘No way.’
‘Why not?’
‘He’s clearly out of my league…’
‘That’s bullshit.’
‘I just…’ Jack sighed. ‘Lookat him, he has heartbreak written all over him.’
‘Exactly,’ Elliot said, leaning his elbows on the front desk, mimicking Jack’s pose as they both watched Gabe climb the ladder to change out a bulb in the chandelier hanging in the middle of the sitting room off the lobby. ‘You’re afraid. Which is the same reason I will continue to fake-date Daisy. We are cowards.’
That was the truth of it. Elliot was not ready to try again, with anyone and certainly not with a woman who had no interest in him.
‘Am not,’ Jack muttered even as he frantically started stacking business cards on the desk as soon as Gabe glanced in their direction.
Elliot waved hello and Gabe smiled back.
‘Well, all I know is I cannot survive another failed relationship, so I will stick with my fake one, thank you very much. Oh, and he’s coming over here.’
‘Shit,’ Jack hissed as he fumbled the business cards, and they scattered all over the desk and floor.
‘Hey, Jack,’ Gabe said with a bemused smile as Jack shoved the cards aside with one clean sweep of his hand. Half went fluttering over the keyboard, a few landed in the muffin basket.
‘Oh, hello, Gabe. I didn’t see you come in.’
Elliot stifled a laugh, and Jack jabbed him hard in the ribs.
Gabe’s smile grew as he ran a hand through his hair. It looked effortlessly messy but somehow fell right back into place. Perfectly mussed.How did he do that?Elliot wondered while Gabe talked to Jack.
‘So do you want me to change the lights out back today as well?’
Jack blinked. Apparently, he had also been hypnotized by the hair.
‘Uh… right… yes. That would be great.’
‘Will do. Anything else?’
