The Choice - Nicholas Sparks [79]
“Bummer,” she said.
“What?”
“And here I thought I was going to find you wearing an orange jumper.”
“Sorry to disappoint you.”
“Maybe there’s still time. What do you think, Sheriff?”
The sheriff didn’t know what to think, and a moment later, he left them alone.
“Thanks for that,” Travis said once the sheriff was gone. “He’s probably considering your suggestion.”
“Don’t blame me. I’m not the one attacking doctors on doorsteps.”
“He deserved it.”
“I’m sure he did.”
Travis smiled. “Thanks for coming.”
“I wouldn’t have missed it, Rocky. Or would you prefer I call you Apollo Creed?”
“How about you work on getting me out of here instead of trying to come up with nicknames?”
“Coming up with nicknames is more fun.”
“Maybe I should have called Dad.”
“But you didn’t. You got me. And trust me, you made the right choice. Now let me go talk to the sheriff, okay?”
Later, while Stephanie was talking to the sheriff, Adrian Melton visited Travis. He’d never met the local veterinarian and demanded to know the reason for Travis’s assault. Though he never told Gabby what he said, Adrian Melton promptly dropped the charges, despite protests from Mrs. Melton. Within a few days, Travis heard through the small-town grapevine that Dr. and Mrs. Melton were in counseling. Nonetheless, the workplace remained tense for Gabby, and a few weeks later, Dr. Furman called Gabby into the office and suggested that she consider trying to find another place to work.
“I know it’s not fair,” he said. “And if you stay, we’ll somehow make it work. But I’m sixty-four, and I’m planning to retire next year. Dr. Melton has agreed to buy me out, and I doubt that he’ll want to keep you on anyway, or that you’d want to work for him. I think it would be easier and better for you if you take the time to find a place where you’re comfortable and simply put this awful thing behind you.” He shrugged. “I’m not saying that his behavior wasn’t reprehensible; it was. But even if he’s a jerk, he’s the best pediatrician I interviewed and the only one who was willing to practice in a small town like this. If you leave voluntarily, I’ll write the finest recommendation you can imagine. You’ll be able to get a job anywhere. I’ll make sure of it.”
She recognized the manipulation for what it was, and while her emotions cried out for retribution on her behalf and that of sexually harassed women everywhere, her pragmatic side asserted itself. In the end, she took a job in the emergency room at the hospital.
There had been only one problem: When Gabby found out what Travis had done, she’d been furious. It was the first argument they had as a couple, and Travis could still remember her outrage when she demanded to know whether he believed she was “grown-up enough to handle her own problems” and why he acted “as if she were some silly damsel in distress.” Travis didn’t bother trying to defend himself. In his heart, he knew he’d do the same thing again in an instant, but he wisely kept his mouth shut.
For all Gabby’s outrage, Travis suspected there was part of her that had admired what he’d done. The simple logic of the act—He bothered you? Let me at ’im—had appealed to her, no matter how angry she’d appeared, for later that night her lovemaking had seemed particularly passionate.
Or at least, that’s the way Travis remembered it. Had the evening unfolded exactly like that? He wasn’t sure. These days, it seemed that the only thing he was certain about was the knowledge that he wouldn’t trade his years with Gabby for anything. Without her, his life had little meaning. He was a small-town husband with a small-town occupation and his cares were no different from anyone else’s. He’d been neither a leader nor a follower, nor had he been someone who would be remembered long after he passed away. He was the most ordinary of men with only one exception: He’d fallen in love with a woman named Gabby, his love deepening in the years they’d been married. But fate had