Page 149 of Should Our Hearts Catch Fire

Rage bubbles under Ellis’ skin. He pushes it down so as not to upset Gabriel further. “I don’t get it. Why didn’t he offer to sell to you first?”

“He did. Sort of. He spoke to Zeke. Let him know there’s a potential buyer, but that he wanted to give us a chance. But it’s too much. The other guys offered a lot of money.” Gabriel lets out a dejected sigh. “Zeke and I spent the whole night yesterday doing the math, but I’m still paying off my student loan, and he has a mortgage. They’d never lend us the money.” He forces a smile. “Hey, it’s okay. The business will keep running. Just not here.”

While that’s true, it doesn’t sit right with Ellis. And not with Gabriel either, otherwise he wouldn’t have reacted like this.

“But you love this place.”

“Yeah,” Gabriel says softly. “But sometimes you have to learn to let things go. Do me a favor and don’t tell my mum when she comes over. She’s a worry-wart. Kind of like you.”

“Gabriel…” Ellis reaches for him, wanting to wipe the tears from his face and tell him it will be okay.

“Coffee!” Gabriel announces suddenly, moving out of Ellis’ reach. “You need coffee. And a cinnamon roll. You look like Lola kept you up half the night.” There it is again. That forced smile and cheerfulness.

It’s so wrong it makes Ellis sick to his stomach.

He’ll fix this. He’ll fix it if it’s the last thing he does.

Chapter 28

For how nervous andapprehensive Ellis has been about celebrating Christmas with Cal and Dawson, he feels remarkably…okay. Maybe celebrating with Gabriel and his mum had put him in a Christmassy mood? He hadn’t known he even had that setting. Or maybe Gabriel secretly used his mojo on him again, boosting his mood or whatever. He doesn’t care either way. He’s just glad everything’s not awkward and tense.

Dawson clearly went all out decorating the apartment, no doubt utilizing his artistic skills. Though it’s obvious that Cal ‘helped’ decorate the Christmas tree, given how messy and disorganized some of the ornaments are. The tinsel, too, looks like it’s been haphazardly thrown on. Kudos to Dawson for not pointing it out.

Ellis’ own apartment doesn’t look much different. He’d had no intention of getting a tree, let alone other rubbish, but Gabriel was so excited about the whole Christmas ritual that Ellis didn’thave the heart to deny him. He stayed out of the decorating, though. It looked exhausting.

“This is amazing,” Dawson says with the biggest smile on his face as they all sit down to eat. “You have no idea how happy it makes me that you’re both here.”

Donut, too, has joined them at the table, sitting on his haunches and waiting for something to accidentally fall on the floor (or straight into his mouth).

“Thank you for inviting us,” Gabriel says. “How was your first Christmas?”

“Really nice!” Dawson gnaws at his bottom lip. “And a bit weird. My sister is still pretty distrustful of Cal, so…”

Gabriel snickers. “Judging by Cal’s expression, ‘pretty distrustful’ is an understatement.”

Cal indeed does look like he ate something very bitter. “I completely understand her reasoning.” He says that, but his body language makes it obvious he’s bummed about it.

Dawson places a comforting hand on Cal’s shoulder. “She’ll come around. You just have to give it time.”

The way Cal looks at him can only be described as utterly smitten. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Ellis looks away, feeling weird intruding on such an emotional moment.

“How about you?” Dawson asks, looking at Gabriel. “Your mum was here with you, right?”

“Yeah. Only stayed for two days, thank god.”

Dawson laughs. “Too much?”

“I mean,Ican handle her, but poor Ellis here was at his wit’s end.”

“I was not,” Ellis protests. “It was fine. I’m getting used to her.”

“I take it she’s a handful, then?” Dawson asks.

“That, and she shamelessly flirts with Ellis,” Gabriel says, managing to sound amused and annoyed at the same time.

Ellis’ face grows hotter by at least ten degrees.