Page 60 of Just Like the Brontë Sisters

Chapter 37: Gavin

Gavin lay in bed, alone.

It had been months since he’d stayed at his parents’ home. He didn’t really have a place of his own, not unless you counted his Grandpa’s cabin. He did stay there sometimes but it was so remote, making his commute to the bakery four times longer than it needed to be. He would stay with Skylar whenever she let him, but now, with Mitch and the baby there, he doubted his regular invitation still stood. Other times he’d crash with Joseph and Elizabeth, who lately were more like parents to him than his own parents were, but he knew he had to leave them alone to grieve.

That left Gavin with only one option. He’d been putting it off, because he hadn’t wanted to face his mom and dad’s questions and criticisms. Why aren’t you going to college, Gavin? Do you really believe you can make a good living as a baker, Gavin? Are you turning into the person you want to be? The person he wanted to be was the man who Skylar loved, pure and simple. But maybe he wasn’t enough for her. That doubt clung to him, like how flour stuck to the walls of the bakery no matter how often they swept and scrubbed.

“Honey, I just want to know that you have a plan,” his mom had said that night when they sat in the breakfast nook sharing tea and a couple of pumpkin bars from the batch he’d brought with him. “Yum!” His mom’s smile after swallowing down that pumpkin bar was probably the best compliment she’d ever given him. “Gavin, these are delicious.”

“Thanks Mom. I came up with the recipe myself. It’s one of my specialties.”

But then the conversation inevitably turned and his mother asked him all those questions he couldn’t answer, his sense of inadequacy building with each word she uttered. When are you going to continue your education, Gavin? He didn’t know. Do you really want to be a baker for the rest of your life? Possibly. Don’t you have any higher aspirations? God yes.

Now, alone in bed where he’d spent countless miserable hours staring at the ceiling and wishing for escape, he knew his mom was right. He needed a plan. Skylar was never going to settle for someone like him. He was almost like her brother as he worked for the family business and let her take him for granted.

Okay, I need a plan, he whispered into the night. What’s it going to be?