AllFreeNovel
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“Of course you can, but it won’t be very exciting. I have a lot of hard work ahead of me.”
“Maybe I can help. There’s something else I want to talk over with you. About school.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ve been considering this for a long time.”
“What?”
“I’m transferring to Colorado State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Next year.”
“You are?”
“I’m not cut out to be a people doc, Mom.”
Renie had been on a biomedical track at Dartmouth, but seemed ambivalent about what she might do with it. She wondered for a while if her daughter would take a couple of years off, and continue with the graduate portion of her education after she decided what she wanted to do with her life.
“Large animal vet, huh?”
“It’s what I’m meant to be, Mom. It’s so obvious.”
“Have you started the transfer process?”
“It’s done. Which is one of the reasons I wanted to come home this week. I need to go to Fort Collins and complete the paperwork. I can do that tomorrow, and we can still leave for Texas the day after.”
Ben thought about canceling the show in Denver, but that would go against everything he and Liv promised each other. Besides, it had sold out three hours after the tickets went on sale.
As hard as it was for him to let her go, the things Liv said made sense. Asking her to give up her life to travel with him was as ludicrous an idea as her asking him to give up his career for her.
They both agreed it would be best to focus on themselves the next few months. As Liv reminded him, the record company had high hopes for their new album, and the tour they’d schedule included venues Ben had once only dreamed of playing.
When they talked earlier in the week, he’d almost asked her to come home for this show, but he’d stopped himself. It had taken him forty-three years to get to the point where he considered someone else’s feelings as much, or more, than his own. He was determined to be the kind of man a woman like Liv could eventually see herself spending the rest of her life with.
“Believe in us, Ben,” she’d asked of him. “If we’re meant to be, we’ll find our way back to each other. In the meantime, we both have to chase our own dreams.”
It was especially difficult for him to do when every night his dreams were about being with her.
He was sitting in the dressing room when Jimmy knocked. “There’s someone here to see you. Remember that woman from Las Vegas? She’s here.”
Ben’s heart stopped. “Liv?”
“No, the other one, Paige.”
“Let her come back.” Ben tried to rub the ache in his chest away, but it wasn’t on the surface, it was deep inside.
“Hey,” he said, standing to greet Paige and give her a hug. Mark stood behind her.
“Come in, have a seat. How have you been? Glad you came to the show.”
He tried to sound enthusiastic, but after thinking Liv was here, it was impossible for him to hide his disappointment.
Mark made small talk, but Paige was antsy.
“Spill, Paige.”
“Are you going to Texas?”
“No, Paige. I’m not. Not until she asks me to.”
