Page 107 of You Know You Wanna

Her eyes suddenly snapped back to mine, a whole storm of emotion brewing behind them. She stared at me like I’d just suggested a trip to Mars. Uncertainty shone brightest of them all, and I could see that she didn’t know what to do. I could tell that she was overwhelmed.

It sucked that she didn’t just throw herself into my arms and say yes, but I understood I was springing this on her. I had run through this exact conversation a thousand times on the trip over, but she was having it for the first time.

I probably should have thrown her a text before I showed up, but where was the fun in that?

“Look,” I said gently, holding her hand just a little bit tighter. “I know that you can’t just leave your life behind overnight, but I’m hoping that we can talk it through. Figure it out. Together. There’s no pressure⁠—”

Her eyebrows shot up and she interrupted me. “No pressure? How is there no pressure, Remington? You came all this way for me with your daughter in tow, and now you want me to go back with you! That’s pressure. That’s a lot of pressure. How many days do you even have before you need to go back? Two? Three? That’s not a lot, and it means that there is pressure. I need to clear my head.”

She dropped my hand like it was made of molten lava and shot up like a bullet, taking off and literally running away from me. Struck dumb, I was rooted to my spot on the dock.

Okay, I definitely should have texted.

56

BIRDIE

I ran directly to Gracie, sprinting into the bar like I was desperate for a drink after a decade of sobriety. She took one look at my face and walked out from around the bar with her arms already open. I didn’t stop moving until I reached her, wrapping my arms around my friend and hugging her tight.

“I heard they were here,” she murmured into my ear and stroked my hair. “Declan told me they’d surprised him too. I thought you’d be happy to see them, though. What’s wrong? Please tell me he didn’t come all this way to break up with you.”

“He didn’t,” I responded in a tearful whisper. “He wants me to move to New York. Can you believe that? He asked me to go with them when they go back.”

For a long minute, she didn’t say anything, just holding me and stroking her fingers through my hair. Eventually, she released me and took a quick look around the bar. At this hour, it was completely deserted. She nodded, spinning on her heels and marching over to the door.

I didn’t think I’d ever seen it closed during working hours, but she shut the door and flicked the lock into place for good measure. Satisfied, she came back and motioned for me to take a seat next to her at the table beside us.

“Sit,” she said. “You look like you need it. How far did you just run?”

I hadn’t even realized I was out of breath until she said it, but my legs suddenly felt like jelly. I collapsed onto the chair and gratefully accepted the bottle of water she brought me. “In case you were wondering, hiking down to the lake, doing a session there, hiking back up, immediately back down again, and then sprinting back to the resort a few minutes later seems to be the limit of what my legs can handle.”

“Pfft, amateur,” she said with a little smile. “What happened, Birdie? Did you really run back here because he asked you to go to New York with him? That has upset you for some reason?”

I nodded, struggling to know where to even start. “The nerve! He left me here, pretending to be asleep in my bed, with all kinds of whispered promises and sweet nothings about how much I meant to him. Then he fell off the map. Then he pops up, kisses me like nothing has happened, and tells me they want me to go to New York with them when they leave again. I mean…” I shook my head and huffed out a breath.

“You mean what?” she prompted when I trailed off. “Isn’t this what you wanted? More than just what you wanted, even. Isn’t this what you’ve been preparing for? Training Lexi for? Sure, you haven’t actually said you were going to New York when you left, but we all knew you’d end up there. Obviously.”

“No, I⁠—”

She arched an eyebrow at me. “Before you spin out completely, allow me to talk some sense into you.”

My shoulders slumped and I wasn’t really ready for sense, but I nodded anyway, leaning back in my chair and hoping that whatever she said would make my head stop spinning. “Love is scary, Birdie. I feel a certain type of way about Declan too and I never intended for it to happen. You know I didn’t. But it happened anyway and now I’m in the same boat you are, except that I own a house right here in town and I have my job at the school, which I love.”

Well, that’ll do it. My racing thoughts came to a jarring stop and I jerked a bit at the force of it. “What?”

She smiled. “There you are. Welcome back.”

“Thanks,” I muttered and took a long drink of water. “I suddenly feel like I’m hungover.”

She chuckled. “It’s the shock. And the running. We’ll get you some more when that’s done, but for now, just keep sipping and listening to me.”

“That seems like a good idea.”

She winked. “That’s the only kind I have. Okay, so I’ve admitted my darkest, deepest secret to you now. So tell me the truth. Do you love him? No more avoiding the question or only saying it when you’re rambling. Look me in the eyes and give it to me straight.”

“I do,” I said softly. “I love him.”

“Excellent.” She grinned like a Cheshire freaking cat. “I’m glad you finally just said it outright. It’ll make this much easier for me.”