Where Love Finds You (The Unspoken Series) (20 page)

“No, Dee. It’s not me. It’s Gavin.”

“But she said she remembered your shoes. The Converse ones.”

I laughed. “Of course. And that may be true, because the night Gavin saw her in the cafe I happened to be standing right beside him.”

“What kind of weirdo wears the same shoes for ten years?”

“A boring story for a rainy day. Right now, we need to find Ella. Gavin is searching Philadelphia for her as we speak.”

“Wow. This is amazing. Okay, well, here’s the problem. We just went out to eat and I think she’s probably already at her apartment by now. She said she wanted to walk home to get her car and drive to the beach to watch the sunrise. Something she used to do in her past and hasn’t done in a while. She’s trying to live a little, I guess. Her heart is broken. She thinks it was you.”

“I know. Alright, when does she plan to come back?”

“Tomorrow, I guess.”

“Where does she live? Can you give me her address?”

“I’m not sure. It’s that really pretty building. Almost looks like a hotel. It’s not far from the shop.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“What?”

“All this time she has practically lived right next door to us. I bet she could hear my piano when I left the window open.”

I hung up with Dee and called Gavin immediately, told him what happened, and asked him to please try to get some sleep tonight.

“Definitely ain’t gonna happen.”

“Are you going to drive to the beach?”

“Maybe.”

“You’re probably running full speed back here to get your car, aren’t you?” 

“About to.”

He hung up and I put my phone back in my pocket. Lydia and I said our goodbye’s. I begged her to stay longer, but she had to work early.

I finished my interview, closed up the shop, and Dee and I walked to a restaurant to meet up with Sarah for dinner. We talked about nothing important, per my request. I had enough people asking questions already. I knew I’d get a call from someone in my family asking me why I had to be so rash and close down the shop before the settlement was confirmed. Hence the turned off phone. I wanted to move on. Just be done. And that’s all there is to it.

Dee, Sarah, and I parted ways after dinner. Sarah decided to drive to her boyfriend’s house. Mystery man. Dee walked to her apartment in the opposite direction. So thankful for all of her help. We packed the entire shop up in one day. Everything I wanted to keep fit in my car, along with the paintings I needed to try to return.

I decided to walk home, get in my car, and drive to the Jersey shore. Alone. Like old times.

On my way back home I passed
Chances
. Emptied. I stopped and pressed my face against the glass where it said
Chances
in white script.

The violin someone purchased for me sat in a box by the counter. I forgot.

I pulled out my key one last time and opened the door, walked inside, and sat on a chair in the middle of the room. Bare walls. Kind of like my life. Anything goes now, I thought. Where will life take me?

I walked to the counter and picked up a piece of paper, wrote something, and taped it to the window with packing tape.

Sometimes when you take chances you lose chances. And sometimes when you lose chances, you gain something else. Don’t live for chances. Sometimes it's better to lose chance and gain purpose. Live for today. You’ll find so much more joy.

Kind of a note to myself, to be honest. But I figured so many people saw me on the news and it couldn’t hurt to inspire them a little. I wasn’t as depressed as I probably came across on television.

Or was I?

I turned back to the violin case, picked it up and took the instrument out, then ran my fingers along the strings and stopped at the neck. Some strange fear still lived inside of me. Fear of failure. Fear of chasing dreams after killing the life of another person. A little boy. Fear of placing the violin on my shoulder, running the bow across the strings, and not being able to play a single note like I could before.

I sat down facing the counter, put the violin to my shoulder, and waited. 

The clock on the wall haunted me with its rhythm, begging me to add a melody. A melody from the past.

“Okay, clock,” I said. “I will play something for you, but not a melody from the past. A melody from the future. And yes, I’m going to be hopeful. Bear with me here.”

I picked up the bow and straightened my shoulders. I started soft and low, shaky, then found myself in the midst of the beautiful, soft sound of Pachelbel’s
Canon in D
. Back and forth, back and forth. I closed my eyes. Let my fears go. Saw Parker’s face and tried to imagine him running around in the grass, blowing bubbles and popping them as they fell. I played with more passion than ever before. The song swelled. Echoing and bouncing off the walls. Filling me with something I hadn’t felt in so long.

Something I couldn’t even describe.

The song picked up pace. I loved this part. So beautiful. I imagined myself walking down the aisle. To someone else. Someone even better. White dress trailing behind me. Veil covering my face. A tall, dark-haired man smiling at the altar. Waiting for me. For us. For our life together.

Someone knocked on the window.

I stopped. Turned. Violin still in my hands, I saw a man outside holding a small piece of paper against the window, covering his face. A little scared, I walked toward him with the bow and instrument dangling at my sides. Not sure who looked crazier, him or me.

I could barely read the small letters on the note. I squinted.

The best things come to those who wait.

Confused, I peeked around the note to his face.

His face. His eyes. His smile. The same smile. The same eyes. The same face. From all those years ago.

I dropped the violin and the bow. I tried so hard not to cry. He looked at me. I looked at him. Frozen on the other side of the glass, one tear started down my face and turned into a stream. 

Tears landing in his smile, he laughed. So did I.

I put my hand on the window while I covered my mouth with the other. He touched his fingertips to mine, then ran toward the door and into the shop. Into my life.

We embraced. His warm arms tight around my body. My face pressed into his chest. No words needed. We stepped back. His eyes on me. My eyes on him. We said, “Hi,” over and over again, held each other, and repeated, until he pulled away and held my hands.

We stared at each other, through each other, like we had been together in this moment for years. He touched my cheek, then my lips. I closed my eyes as his face inched toward mine. Soft and sweet, we kissed as ink began to cover the bare walls of my life. The story continued. Better than I could’ve imagined.

I opened my eyes. Looked into his. Smiles lighting up the room, he finally broke the silence by clearing his throat. I realized I hadn’t heard his voice before. I didn’t know his name. And all that would change. Right now.

He smiled and shook his head. “What are the chances?”

Gavin’s one of the most sensitive and emotional people you’d ever know, except you’d never know it. Trying to find out how he feels is like pulling a one-hundred pound bucket of water out of a seventy feet well. But when he finally falls in love and meets the woman of his dreams, who is set on getting to know every part of him, for better or worse, his walls crumble as he is forced to stand face-to-face with the past he’s been avoiding. 

Continue to follow the stories of your favorite characters from
Where Love Finds You
in the sequel,
Down from the Clouds
, written from Gavin’s perspective.