Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Tessa spoke next. “Caleb’s not been himself. He’s going to work, but he’s lost his sparkle.”
Rhys frowned, not wanting to believe her. “Maybe he was just having a bad day when you saw him.”
“No,” Jonah said. “I’ve never seen Caleb look so sad. Until a few days ago, he always had a smile on his face when I walked into Cloud Nine, but he no longer looks like he’s full of sunshine. He used to match the colorful walls and the brightly decorated menus, but now he’s like a rain cloud.”
The thought of Caleb being sad instead of full of sunshine made Rhys feel like his dinner might come back up. He lay back against the couch and tried to remember how to breathe.
“We’re not telling you this to make you feel worse,” Tessa said. “But we want you to understand that Caleb is affected by this. He wants to see you again, but he also knows that it needs to be you coming to him.”
Rhys was sure everything they said was true, but he wasn’t sure if he had the strength to do it, no matter how much he wanted to.
“What do you want, Rhys?” Jonah asked. “If you knew you could fix this, what would you want?”
“I want to be with Caleb, but I don’t want everybody watching us, talking about us, making us the center of attention.”
“Okay, now what do you want here in Frostwick Harbor without the ability to change everyone?”
Rhys took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and let himself imagine the different paths he could take. He could run away from Frostwick Harbor, but he didn’t want to do that, no matter how scared he was.
He could apologize to Caleb but say that it was just too hard to have a relationship, and they could go their separate ways. That might kill him, because no matter what, he was going to see Caleb all the time, and now all his friends and probably half the town knew there was something between them.
Or he could apologize to Caleb and tell him he didn’t care what anyone else said; he wanted to see what it was like to be together publicly, openly, for as long as they could make it last. Eventually, he would tell Caleb that he loved him. Or maybe he should start there, but that was the scariest idea of all.
“I want to be with Caleb.”
“Good answer,” Marianne said.
Tessa had a huge smile on her face as she said, “Let’s figure out how to get you there. He deserves an apology and an explanation. He cares for you, but you’ve got to make him believe that this time, you’re not going to run.”
Rhys blew out a long breath. “Are you sure that’s even possible?”
“With all of us working together,” Finn said, “it’s absolutely possible.”
CHAPTER 31
Rhys was as prepared as he was going to get. He’d written out what he wanted to say to Caleb, knowing he’d freeze up if he tried to improvise, and he might forget in the moment, even if he had the words memorized. His ability to think was likely going to disappear the second he was with Caleb.
He’d made sure Caleb was working at Cloud Nine that afternoon. Tessa had done some detective work for him and figured out that Caleb’s favorite dinner was spaghetti and meatballs. He’d raved to her about some of the Italian places he loved in Boston’s North End. Rhys knew his ability to cook pasta and heat up a jar of sauce wasn’t going to be good enough, so he’d driven to Portsmouth for the best Italian food on the coast and convinced them to sell him a container of sauce and one of their meatballs. He bought a premium brand of pasta and would make that at home and top it with the prepared sauce. He’d even gotten a loaf of Tessa’s Italian bread to make garlic bread.
If things went his way and Caleb came over for dinner, he was going to tell Caleb how he felt. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to figure out how to put himself back together after a rejection. That would be even more hellish than the last few days had been.
All of his friends believed in this plan. He wasn’t great with explaining feelings, so he’d taken part of his plan from Trapped with the Cowboy. The characters had the best reunion and happily ever after. Maybe he and Caleb could have that too.
Rhys and his friends had brainstormed together, and they’d all been supportive and encouraging, but now it was all up to Rhys. None of them could help him anymore. Rhys had to face Caleb alone. He would apologize and hopefully convince Caleb to give him another chance.
Caleb was rushing through cleaning up at the end of the day while Natalie spruced up the decorations out front. A few of their pumpkins had been nibbled by squirrels, and she’d gotten some new ones to replace them. The festival setup was in the town square, but there would be tourists in town all weekend, and he wanted everything at Cloud Nine to look as perfect as possible.