(Gabriel's POV)
May 14th, 2009

I rolled over again and punched my pillow annoyed at the spinning thoughts running rampant through my brain. I was exhausted but Addy's words from last night were swirling around in my head.

The seductive suggestion of Hailey returning my feelings, made it impossible for me to sleep.

Add in that she had then turned me down and I was more confused than ever. It's not that I had expected anything with Hailey to be easy but it felt like we could never seem to get the timing right and I was worried that yet again we were going to mess it up and drift even further apart.

A lot of time had passed and she had every right to turn me down but the rejection had still stung. It didn't help in the least that, while I was talking to her I could feel Stephie's eyes burning a hole in the back of my head. I felt like I'd fled out of there with my tail between my legs, feeling incredibly sorry for myself.

I ended up going straight home, skipping my Mom's place. I knew I wanted her advice but I also recognized that I was not going to have any success getting advice from my mom in the mood that I had been in.

She wouldn't have had any patience for the fact that I had been feeling sorry for myself. At the end of the day I had no one to blame for any of this except myself. I had been the one who started the process of pulling away, damaging our friendship. Hiding my feelings.... If I had just been honest this entire time we wouldn't be in the situation now.

When I thought about all the time that I'd wasted and all the mistakes I'd made, I felt like an idiot.

Last night, I'd coped by stress eating my burger, poutine and way more ice cream than anyone should ever be allowed to consume.

But this morning, by the light of day, I was ready to do something about it.

My Mom rarely held back with her opinions. However for years, she had steered clear of talking to me about Hailey. I knew a piece of that was that she never wanted to have to pick sides. She loved Hailey like a daughter and had never wanted whatever was happening between us to come between either relationship.

I rolled around until the sun started to come up and finally realized that there was no chance that I was going to get any more sleep. I decided to stop prolonging the inevitable and go for a run.

Murphy, my German Shepherd, opened one eye as I got out of bed and watched me obviously annoyed that he wasn't sleeping any longer. He would come for a run with me but he always managed to make it known that he would rather be sleeping. He was the laziest, loyalist, loveliest dog in the world and he didn't leave my side often. It was one of the benefits of being in the construction business. Most of the  jobs that Liam and I took on were big home renovations, which meant that it was just me and Liam at a site and Murphy was welcome to keep us company. 

As I laced my runners he opened both eyes and groaned, stretching and getting down off my bed. It was as if he was one hundred years old, not two. I rolled my eyes at his drama, I knew the way that he struggled to get off my bed was complete fabrication designed to make me feel bad. "You don't have to come, you know." He raised his head and trotted to the door and I shook my head at how much I loved his ridiculousness.

I looked around as I walked to the door, taking mental notes on the jobs that we still needed to complete before we listed it.

When my Grandfather had passed away he left each of my brothers and I some money for our first homes. I had used mine to buy my first house which I completely flipped and then banked my profit and used the money again to buy my next. I was now on my third flip and knew that the process would continue.

It gave Liam and I something to work on when we didn't have a job on the go and there was something amazing about taking something down to the studs and then making it your own.

I had managed to buy a plot of land with my profits and our next big project was going to be building my dream house. It was right on the water and my plan for the summer was to work on that as well as finish the house that I was living in right now and put it up for sale.

I had always been good with my hands, loved woodworking and fell into doing this with Li almost by accident.

The plan was to use the profit from our current flip to set up shop here in Fenlon as a hometown contractor. We also needed to expand, over the last year we had needed to turn down a few jobs because we simply couldn't do so much with just the two of us.

We had big plans this Summer to hire more help and find ourselves a home base. Right now we took on jobs all over the GTA but at some point in our future I knew that Liam wanted to be closer to Addy. Hopefully, I would have someone in my future that I would want to come home to as well. I wasn't giving up hope that that that person could be Hailey.

Murphy and I set out at a good clip towards my parents place. He led the way, knowing exactly where we were going. I often would run over in the morning and have a coffee with one or both of my parents.

This morning, I was surprised to see my Dad at the table and my mom nowhere to be found.

Murphy made his way right to my dad who immediately dropped down to the ground to wrestle and snuggle him. I made my way towards the coffee, pouring myself one and looking around at the dishes.

It wasn't that it was overly messy but it wasn't the sparkling clean that it would be if my mom was here. "Where's mom?"

He gave me a little grin , knowing exactly what had given it away. "Her, Claire and Avery were having a girls night in the city last night!"

I laughed, Hailey's little sister, Avery had my entire family wrapped around her little finger, especially my mom who had never had a young girl in her life right from infancy.

She spoiled her silly and was always offering to take Avery on. It wasn't like any of us were bothered by it in the least because she was the sweetest little thing that you could ever imagine.

My Dad gave me a look, "this about Hailey being home?"

My dad wasn't really a talker, my Mom did enough of that for the two of them. But we had all learned that when he did share his thoughts it was smart to listen.

He either was going to be saying something really fucking funny or really god dammed wise. I could tell today wasn't going to be a funny chat. He pointed at my mug, "feel like some baileys in that?"

I laughed, "well I had planned on working today but I could be persuaded to have a coffee with you here and then pack up a cooler and go fishing for the day."

My dad's eyes lit up, "sounds like a goddamn plan to me!"

I walked over to their liquor cabinet and pulled out the baileys, pouring a generous amount into each of our mugs.

He took a big gulp and sighed, "so your Mom is of the belief that we shouldn't be interfering in your love life. But, I think you need a swift kick in the ass!"

I'd just taken a sip of my own coffee and choked on it, "Jesus! Dad tell me how you really feel."

He smiled into his mug and said, "that's rich coming from you, don't you think it's about time that you let that girl know how you really feel? You're miserable and you are going to continue to be miserable without her. The two of you have been head over heels since the moment you laid eyes on eachother."

There was no point in denying any of it. Everything that he was saying was completely true, at least on my part.

So, instead I voiced my biggest concern, "how do I do this without messing it up. What if I mess up again and lose her forever?"

My Dad's face lit up, "let's pack the cooler and come up with a plan out on the lake. I always do my best thinking out there."

I felt the weight on my shoulders ease as we packed up and headed out.

Somehow, knowing that one more person was in my corner and he had faith that this was what was meant to be, helped to cement my own certainty.

Now I just had to convince her stubborn ass that we belonged together.

A/N- Anyone else excited to see how Gabriel decides to woo her?

I'm a day late cause I kept trying to write it with his Mom giving him the advice. It all clicked when I realized she was away for the night. 😂 🤦‍♀️

Thoughts on his Dad helping him? 💕💕

Did the talk about his business fit? Was it too much all at once?

Get ready for some wooooing!!! ❤️🥰