“He’s got a thing for Cameron,” Hunter said. “A bit of a crush, if you will.”
“But wasn’t she the one who hit him that time?” Amelia asked.
“He’s decided not to hold it against her,” Megan replied.
Though her heart was broken into a million pieces by the confrontation with Gavin at her house, Ella watched the goings-on with a detached sense of amusement. How could you not be amused by a moose that had a crush on your sister-in-law? With the doors and windows open, they could hear Cameron and Hannah speaking with Fred, asking him to move along and let them by.
Ella kept thinking about Gavin and his desperate pleas to talk to her. Her heart had nearly leaped from her chest when she saw him in her driveway waiting for her and looking as if he’d been there all night. She’d sent her brothers out to tell him she wasn’t interested in what he had to say, but that wasn’t exactly true. She was very interested, but after her siblings had been good enough to offer her a ride to Boston, she wasn’t about to make them all late.
What she and Gavin had to say to each other couldn’t be said in a minute or two. And it was going to have to wait until she got home. With Fred blocking their path out of town, Ella wondered if the moose was trying to help her—and Gavin—by keeping her from leaving with things unsettled between them.
That’s giving a moose an awful lot of credit, Ella thought.
After a loud “moo” that made Amelia jolt in her seat, Fred ambled off into the woods. Will, Cameron, Nolan and Hannah got back into the car.
“Can we please go now?” Nolan said.
“Yes, dear,” Hannah said. “We’re all set. Fred knows when Cameron will be back, and he’s promised to keep an eye on things around here while we’re gone.”
“You’re all tapped,” Nolan said. “Seriously tapped in the head.”
Megan laughed. “I think so, too. For the record.”
“Thank you,” Nolan said to her. “I feel like I’m surrounded by lunatics who actually think a moose, a wild animal, cares what they have to say.”
“You can’t really argue with our success, though, can you?” Hannah asked him.
“Spoken by the chief lunatic.”
“Awww, he loves me so much.”
Ella loved the banter between her sister and her husband, who had the patience of a saint when it came to his wife and the moose she seemed to understand so well. But seeing them so happy together, expecting their first baby and overcoming the obstacles life—and moose—put in their way made her doubly sad for the way things had ended up with Gavin. All she’d ever wanted was what Hannah and Nolan had, what her other siblings had found with their life partners.
And she wanted it with him. Was it too much to ask to spend forever with the man she loved? It was beginning to seem that way.
“How’d you manage to get free of the diner for a week?” Hannah asked Megan.
“Butch of all people. He heard us talking about the trip and how I couldn’t possibly make it work, and he told me to shut up and go, that he was more than capable of keeping the place from burning down while I’m gone. We’ll see if that’s true.”
“And Gramps is going to check in every day,” Hunter added. “As the proprietor, of course.”
“He’ll be more trouble than he’s worth,” Will said with a chuckle.
“I think that’s his goal. He’s afraid Butch might put him to work.”
“We’ll see who causes the greatest disaster,” Nolan said. “Butch or Skeeter, who’s in charge of the garage against my better judgment.”