A s he left the Lost and Found office, Gabe wracked his brain, trying to puzzle out what he could get Julie. It was kind of difficult to come up with just the right thing. They were at a place in their lives where if they wanted or needed something, they could just go out and buy it. Maybe he could get her some fabric for the quilting she'd taken up recently. No, he wouldn’t have any idea of what kind to get her or what color or anything .
The creative direction had some potential, though. Maybe he would go to a craft store and wander around. Perhaps inspiration would strike .
Actually implementing the plan, though, was a little harder to do. When he parked his truck in the Jo-Ann’s Fabrics store parking lot, he was suddenly overcome with a sense of dread. The lot wasn't full, by any means, but something held him immobile. Then Gabe remembered Duncan's words about finding direction when he got stressed. He could do this. He had direction. Julie . Julie deserved a great Christmas and he was going to make it happen .
He slipped out of the truck and headed toward the door, determination strengthening his steps. The pain in his right leg from the gunshot wound disappeared and he forgot about his worries as he focused on Julie. She was the most important part of his day, his life, his world, and he needed to honor her somehow .
That was all well and good until he walked into the huge store. Colors, smells, and bright lights bombarded his senses and he had to pause inside the automatic doors. Then, conscious of people coming in behind him, he stepped to the side of the door. Even with the sunglasses still shading his eyes, he felt under attack. Sensory overload was a very real thing. Moving instinctively, he headed toward a less populated area of the store and started wandering the aisles .
Gabe considered himself a worldly man, but he saw so many items in this store that he had no idea what they were for or how anyone would use them, that he almost felt like his brain would explode. Julie loved going shopping at Jo-Ann’s, he knew that, he'd seen the bags in the recycling tub. But what she bought here was a complete mystery to him— hmph, some investigator he was .
"Can I help you ?"
Gabe looked down at the little woman that had appeared at his side and cursed to himself. What a great SEAL he was, being snuck up on by a little grandma type. His only excuse was that he was too wrapped up in being overwhelmed. "I, uh, don't know. I'm looking for a Christmas present, but I'm not sure what I should get ."
The woman, Kate her name tag read, nodded as if she'd heard the words before and pushed her glasses up on her nose. "Is this for your wife or girlfriend ?"
He almost said wife, then wondered why he didn't. "Wife ."
"You're in the flower arranging section. Is that what she likes to do ?"
He glanced around at the strange green foam pieces and spools of wire. So that’s what this stuff was for. "No. She likes to quilt ."
The woman smiled at him. "Ah, perfect! Follow me ."
Gabe followed her through the brightly lit store, dodging people and carts and yelling kids. He kept telling himself that this was for Julie. She needed to know how special she was to him. He needed to show her how special. He tried to tell her as much as he could, but even that got lost in translation sometimes. And their schedules didn’t help either. Half the time they were on opposite schedules, passing in the hallway or maybe having a meal together, usually breakfast .
The woman led him to rows upon rows of fabrics, then a row beyond to more strange looking items .
"I need to ask you a few things. Is she a beginning quilter or has she been doing this a while ?"
Gabe frowned. "Well, she said she learned it from her grandmother but she's just taken it up again recently since we moved here ."
"Does she do everything by hand or does she use a machine ?"
The woman held a hand out to an oddly shaped white machine .
"We don't have one of those in the apartment, I know that much ."
Finally , something he was sure about .
"Well, these are a little pricey but if you're looking for something amazing this would be a very nice gift. Once she puts the pieces of fabric together to make the quilt top, they have to be quilted onto batting and the backing. This machine can handle all of that ."
Gabe leaned down to look at the machine, and the little display .
The woman pointed out several buttons and levers. "She can do all of her piecing on this machine and do the quilting, too, as long as the quilt isn’t too large. Many times, quilters have to send their quilts out to be quilted, but she wouldn't have to do that with this machine ."
Gabe looked at the price tag, and it was a little expensive—about the cost of a nice Glock… or two—but Julie was worth it. "I'll take that. Definitely. What else can I get her ?"
The woman smiled and walked him along the aisle, pointing things out. Gabe thought Julie might have a rotary cutting tool, it looked vaguely familiar, but he got her another one anyway. As well as pins with colorful heads; wide, see through rulers, and special mats that she could cut things on. Kate assured him that even if she had these items already, they’d be welcome gifts because they were all extremely useful for a quilter. The saleswoman disappeared at one point to go get him a cart, and Gabe was amazed at the amount of stuff that they piled into it. He looked at the gray-haired woman. "Thank you for helping me. I had no idea what to get her ."
She rested a hand on the edge of the cart and gave him a smile. "Yeah, you had that look about you. We have a lot of military guys come in here looking for something special, but they have no idea what .”
Gabe chuckled, for the first time feeling like he was kind of normal. "How did you know I was military ?"
Kate gave him a look over the top of her glasses, her laughter gone. "You have the look of a man hurting and lost, even with the dark glasses on. I saw you when you came in the store and knew I needed to talk to you,” she smiled softly. “You remind me of my son Charles. He was a Marine and loved his wife like there was no tomorrow, but he had the same kind of look to him for a long time. It wasn't until my grandbaby was hit riding her bicycle that he came around and started being there for them. Little Dahlia recovered and after that he was so much more... present in every way. He'd been a walking ghost for a couple of years when he came back from the war, but Dahlia's accident woke him up finally ."
Gabe swallowed, struck by the ghost analogy. Yeah, that's what he'd felt like for a long time, since he'd come out to Colorado. He felt ephemeral and insignificant. Unless he was with Julie. Maybe it was because she'd been there for so long, through all of his transitions, shifts and transformations from one life to another. She had been his one guiding star, his true North .
He held a hand out to Kate. "I can't thank you enough for everything that you've done. I'm very glad that your son came back to his family ."
The woman smiled again and nodded her head. "He just needed a little direction ."
Gabe walked away from her feeling more solid in his mind than he had in a long time. As he was walking toward the cash registers at the front of the store, something caught his attention. It was a plaque, about two feet by two feet square sitting on an end cap display. 'Man, just like a compass needle, will wobble before finding his true North. You are my true North .'
The sense of rightness that settled into him was significant. He didn't generally believe in coincidences, but between talking to Kate and seeing the sign, he felt like he was meant to be there. Grabbing the sign, he set it in the cart as well, then chose a line to check out .
Now how the hell was he going to wrap all this stuff ?