Cato doesn't stay away as I'd expected. If anything, he's at the saloon more, though he avoids Haymitch like the plague. Aunt Effie also comes by again, this time she sits with Annie and I on the Everdeen's porch. To the surprise of almost everyone she hugs Evelyn, for a long time when she arrives. The two share a quiet conversation and dry tears before they go off their separate ways as if it never happened.
"Aunt Effie?" I wonder aloud
"Yes Madge?"
"How do you know Evelyn?" her expression changes to something wistful but sad, overwhelmingly sad
"She and I were both friends with your mother and your Aunt Maysilee before they died. Evelyn helped me deliver Cato"
"You told me once it was through Maysilee you met Cato's father, met Haymitch?"
"What a mess I've made" she dabs her eyes with a hanky "of course it was bound to happen one day" I know Annie is wearing the same curious expression as me when Aunt Effie looks at us because she takes a deep breath before continuing "Haymitch and Maysilee were married" she sounds heartbroken "they married very young, no one could have stopped them and no one wanted to. They were very much in love. But Mays got sick, like your mother only much much worse. She was so much younger getting sick, it changed her. Some nights we'd find her in the woods, clothes torn and crazed. It broke our hearts. She died just 17 and we got roaring drunk, all of us, your father as well. Haymitch and I were the only two left standing" She glances at each of us once before looking out at the meadow and the mountains beyond it "I can't ever regret what we did but ... Cato is the very best of us born from the very worst" Annie reaches over and takes Effie's hand, I would have if I could and the older woman smiles with wet eyes "Haymitch left town, your parents got married, I had Cato and Ev went off to study medicine"
"It must have been so hard Effie" Annie comforts her "raising Cato by yourself"
"Not always. He was a very well mannered child"
"Did you love Haymitch?" I ask, almost without thinking but thankfully Effie's demeanour doesn't change too much
"Not in the sense you mean. We were all of us very close and loved one another very much but no I wasn't in love with him"
"Excuse me" Gale clears his throat as he reaches the porch and interrupts Effie's reminiscing "can I talk to you?" he asks, pointing at me without actually looking at me
"I suppose" I agree then remember the chair "you'll have to-"
"I've got it" he cuts me off, taking all three porch steps in one stride and ceasing my awkward manoeuvring of the chair by picking us up. This might be the most embarrassing thing that can happen to a person on a regular basis "I'll take her to dinner later Annie"
"Alrighty" Annie grins mischievously and wriggles her fingers at me in a little wave
"Do you want me to read to you again?" I ask as we cross the meadow to his cabin
"If you'd like. I was hoping you'd keep me company?"
"While you work?"
"Yeah, I'm out here so much and I haven't got anyone to talk to. Thom seems to think I haven't got any people skills" I almost laugh at the reference to their altercation yesterday but smother it with a cough "he's adamant I should apologise to you but I never actually said any of those things. You did"
"So I should apologise?"
"No, you should let me explain" he smiles as if amused at me "I picked that book because it reminded me of you. Not because I think you should be braver but because I think you are brave"
"I'm not"
"Annie tells me you want to go back?" he says it stiffly
"You won't let me"
"No we won't but don't you see that's brave? You'd go back to death probably because you're worried about what that man will do to us"
"He's hurt people because of me before"
"You watch what happens if he does anything like that again"
"What do you mean?" I try to turn so I can see his face when he answers but I can't twist my body enough
"The only reason that house is still standing is because you were in it. Now, would you rather sit out here or inside?" feeling Annie and Effie's eyes on us I decide inside
"Will you be able to hear me if I'm inside?"
"I'm fitting new windows today, wherever is fine".
I study the bookshelf more thoroughly today, marvelling at the hand written journals and the handsomely printed book covers
"Do you have a preference?" I call, hoping Gale will hear me wherever he is and again he startles me by his proximity
"You can pick"
"What about this?" I ask holding up one of his ancestors journals full of folk law
"You know what those are don't you?" he chortles raising one eyebrow high on his head
"Ghost stories. I don't scare easily Mr. Hawthorne" I grin, dropping the book in my lap and wheeling my chair in to the main room where his work is laid out "unless, you do?" I tease
"Just read the spooky stories already".
Come midday my belly is growling but I'm enjoying myself too much to care. After the first ghost story was finished Gale disappeared and used the back entrance to sneak up on me. The jolt from the initial fright hurt but it was the ensuing laughter that made my ribs burn. I'm finishing a tale about an eight limbed man when Gale comes inside and leans over my chair
"Come on lunch time. Put your arms around me" hesitantly I do as he says and he's careful in lifting me from the chair "I thought we could have a picnic"
"A picnic?" I repeat, blushing pink. Rye and Delly go on picnics, Cato has been taking Levy on picnics
"I'm sure you're getting fed up of that chair? Here, try and get comfortable" Gale lowers me to a large blanket laid on the long grass in front of the cabin and starts handing me cushions
"Thank you"
"Is it comfortable? Are you in pain?"
"I'm fine"
"Then are you hungry?" he smiles at me the way I like and begins pulling parcels from a wicker basket "we have some cold chicken, don't tell Katniss I commandeered a couple of her cheese buns, left over mystery pie from Finnick, a couple of apples and these. I was told they're your favourite" he holds a paper bag out to me warily as if I might reject it but of course I don't. Inside are at least a dozen shiny pink strawberry hard candies
"You got these for me?" I ask eventually, shocked and touched if he has
"It's just some candy"
"They're expensive and frivolous and they're my favourite"
"I wanted to" he shrugs
"That's very kind, very sweet of you"
"It was the least I could do, by way of an apology" he smiles tightly
"I thought you weren't going to apologise?"
"I'm not apologising for things I didn't say but what I did upset you and that was never my intention"
"You're a very smart man you know" I tell him, truthfully but with a teasing tone
"How do you figure that?" he laughs, taking a bite from his apple
"Most men think that if they're not intentionally trying to hurt someone then no one has the right to get upset but that isn't at all the case. You're a higher species of man Gale Hawthorne"
"Was that a compliment or an observation?"
"Both, definitely both"
"Well common courtesy states I should repay you a compliment so I will" he leans back on his elbows so he's no longer facing me and I take the opportunity to study his features. I'm thinking about all the compliments I could pay him when he speaks again "I haven't wanted to know someone outside of family since my dad died. I haven't let anyone in but I'd like to let you, if you want?" I take a moment to watch him some more, to take in the expression of his eyes and the set of his jaw
"Was that a compliment or a confession?" I wonder but get no reply. I suspect it wasn't the answer he was hoping for so I give him another "I'd like to know you better too".