“Eden is a good person, Gabe,” Mac said cautiously. “Just a really lovely nice person.”
Gabe glared at him. “You better have a point.”
“I would say she’s on the level. I’ll admit the Townes thing is kind of a wild card, though.”
“You know what Bud said? Beware of enigmatic women.”
“Bud Wallace? Like he’s Yoda.”
Gabe snorted at that.
“She’s really not all that mysterious, Gabe. One big secret notwithstanding, and knowing Eden, you can kind of get why she wouldn’t want to trumpet that.”
It was true. She was that smooth cool surface over brilliant fire, sweetness and warmth. She wasn’t a grandstander.
“Avalon says she met Townes, and there was zero chemistry between them. Like she was barely tolerating him for Annelise’s sake.”
Gabe went still. “When did Avalon meet him?” he demanded.
Mac hesitated. “At a family dinner last night,” he admitted. “I couldn’t make it. Couldn’t reschedule a meeting with a contractor.”
Gabe was silent, astonished at how much weightier his heart managed to get at the news. But of course. Townes was part of their family now, the Harwoods. He had more of a right to be there than he did, at this point.
And he thought about that cozy night up at Devil’s Leap sitting around the dinner table, and it was pretty much what he wanted from life.
“She could have told me that Townes was Annelise’s father. I mean, I get that it’s awkward and improbable, but I thought we were straight up honest with each other. There were even a couple of moments where she could have told me. Aaaaaand... she didn’t. I felt like a complete and total ass in that pizza joint when she was there, sitting with him. It sucked for so many reasons.”
“I agree she could have done that better. Which part of you is hurting the most? Stop me when you feel a twinge. Your pride? Your ego? Your, um, heart?”
“I get a ping off all of them.”
This wasn’t Mac’s comfort zone. Providing comfort, that was. Then again, Avalon was doing wonders with his emotional vocabulary.
“You know, Gabe, this isn’t a foxhole. I mean, she didn’t train for how to integrate a rock star into her life and yours. Maybe you can cut her some slack. Maybe she was afraid of losing you, and she chickened out when she had those chances to tell you about him. Not everyone is Joe Courage like you are.”
“JoeCourage?” Gabe snorted, incredulous.
But a second later, something Mac had just said settled on him and in sank a sort of uncomfortable truth:afraid of losing you.
He went quiet.
“Maybe she knowsyoubetter than you think. And she anticipated all of...” Mac gestured to Miserable Gabe and the beer. “...all of this. You acting like this. All broody and self-righteous.”
Of his friends, only Mac would get away with assessing him that way.
And frankly he didn’t think anyone knew him as well as Eden did. Some of it she’d learned, and sometimes it seemed she’d been born knowing him. Which was not just a luxury. It was a freaking miracle.
“The problem is,” Gabe said slowly, “and this is what kills me... is that she might have been right to end our whatever it was before we both got too deep in. Because who knows where this Townes thing is going. I mean, maybe she needs to get Annelise and her whole family accustomed to Townes being a part of her life. And that part of it doesn’t really include me at all. And maybe it shouldn’t. And maybe...” He drained his beer. “...I don’t want to sit by and watch that happen like... Brother Teresa.”
And that would have been pretty funny, if it wasn’t so tragic.
Mac laughed anyway.
Gabe shot him a baleful look.
“Huh. Do you think any of that is true?”
He took a sip of beer. He mulled that over.