Page 87 of Crossed Lines

I hate it, but I understand.

I’ve been spending a lot of time on the ranch, especially with Brooks, Aspen, and Harper. Now that Brooks and Aspen have their baby boy, Noah, they’ve been busy. And it’s fun watching Brooks be a dad again. Surprisingly, his older son Zach has been coming around more often to see the baby. Brooks couldn’t be happier.

There’s a lot of work around the ranch that needed to be done while Brooks was tending to Aspen and Noah, so Harper and I picked up the slack. It’s been nice being extra busy to remind myself that I’m not lonely. But hopefully that all changes today.

Willow has given me no hints about where she’s going once she graduates. To be fair, I haven’t asked. I think I’m scared to know the answer. But I know she’ll let me know today. I just feel it.

Jade and I find Sawyer in the crowd of people at the university. While Sawyer might be mad at me still, he’d never deny my daughter. When he sees Jade, he takes her hand, and the three of us move through everyone else to find good seats. Jade sits between us, acting like a barrier. She’s practically vibrating with excitement. It’s been awhile since she’s seen Willow. On days when I have Jade, I try to focus solely on her, so I haven’t taken her on any road trips to see Willow which she certainly isn’t happy about. But it’s what I felt was best for us.

“When does Willow come out?” Jade asks.

Sawyer answers. “When they call her name.”

“But when is that?”

I thumb through the program I grabbed at the door and flip to the Bs. I find Willow’s name and point to it. “Right here. So she’ll walk after all these people.”

“That’s a lot of names,” Jade says.

“I told you this was gonna be long.”

She wiggles in her seat. “That’s ok. I can take it. I brought snacks.”

The ceremony starts a little while later, and it is long, but I can’t even explain the immense amount of pride I feel when Willow walks across the stage to accept her diploma. Sawyer feels it too. He stands and shouts the second her name is called. She’s worked so hard for this.

After the ceremony, when Jade has gone through all of her snacks and has resorted to playing games on my phone, we shuffle through the hordes of people to find Willow.

Finally we spot her. She’s standing with her friend Macy and a few other people I don’t recognize, but as soon as she sees us, she rushes over.

She hugs Sawyer first. He holds her tight and congratulates her. I haven’t seen him smile this much in a long time.

Then she gets a hug from Jade, who is super excited to finally get to see Willow.

Then Willow turns to me.

“Congratulations, baby,” I say.

She falls into me, and I wrap my arms around her, whispering in her ear, “I’m so proud of you.”

“Thank you.”

I hug her for longer than I should, but it’s always hard letting her go. Eventually, Jade starts asking questions, so I have to let Willow go. Sawyer is looking everywhere except at us as if me hugging his sister is the absolute worst thing in the world. I understand why he feels the way he does, and I’m sure I would feel the same if the situations were reversed. But I hope one day he’ll understand. Willow means the world to me. I would do anything for her. Just like he would.

“Should we get out of here and go celebrate?” Sawyer asks.

“Let’s go!” Willow agrees.

Willow picked a restaurant close to her school that she likes.

We’re seated quickly, and I don’t fail to notice that Sawyer sits as far away from me as possible, next to Willow and across from Jade. I can’t pretend that it doesn’t completely suck that my best friend for my entire life doesn’t want to be near me anymore. After everything we’ve been through. But I push the thought out of my head because tonight is not about Sawyer and me; it’s about Willow.

We order our drinks, and I look over at Willow to see her practically wiggling out of her seat.

“You good?” I ask.

“Yeah. I’m great, actually. I’ve just got something I want to tell you all.”

“Alright…” She’s certainly got our attention now.