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She reached across to take his hand. “I do know that whatever comes next, I want to share it with you.”
“Good, because whatever I do next will be about building our life.”
“I’m not holding you back from anything, am I?”
He gave her hand a squeeze. “Hell no! You’re not holding me back; the way I see it, being with you opens everything up. I’ve already lived the career I wanted; I’ll find something that I enjoy doing wherever we end up.”
Tori sucked in a deep breath then blew it out slowly. “Okay, I’ll call Mom now and tell her that we’ll see them tomorrow.”
“We can get to the lake by tonight.”
She made a face at him. “I know, but if I tell her that she’ll invite us to stay with them. I don’t want that – do you?”
He chuckled. “I’d rather not, no.”
He smiled to himself as he listened to Tori talk with Alexandria. From what he could gather from this end of the conversation, Alexandria was just happy to see them. He was hoping that by spending a bit of time with her mom, Tori might loosen up and come to see that nobody expected anything of her. He hated that she was so hard on herself – especially when she compared herself to Bentley and Willow. He knew without a doubt that her mom loved her just as much as she did her brother and sister, even though she was nothing like them.
~ ~ ~
Tori felt a lot more relaxed as she drove. Her mom had been so thrilled to hear that they were almost there. She hadn’t pressured for them to stay with her and hadn’t asked about their plans. Tori wasn’t sure whether her mom had changed – loosened up – way more than she’d realized, or whether she was the one who’d loosened up and was actually listening to what her mom was saying rather than dreading what she might be expecting of her.
She glanced over at Xander, who was fiddling with his phone. “Are you okay over there?”
“I’m good. How about you? Have you had enough, want me to drive?”
“No! I’m enjoying myself. I think, if you don’t mind, I’ll swap back with you when we hit Route 20 – that road winds through the mountains before you get to the lake. I’ll let you drive that bit. I’m fine until then.”
“Okay. I –” He frowned when the sound of his phone ringing cut him off, but his smile was back when he checked the screen. “Mind if I take this? It’s Cameron.”
“I don’t mind. Say hi to him for me?”
“Hey, Cam! How’s it going, man?”
Tori didn’t want to listen in on his conversation, but she couldn’t exactly avoid doing so.
“Yes, that’s right. It’s been awesome.” He glanced over at her. “We’ll get to Summer Lake this evening, and we’ve said we’ll go to see Alexandria tomorrow.”
Tori tried to keep her attention on the road, but she couldn’t help wondering what Cameron – and the others – would think about her and Xander driving across the country like this. Not that it mattered. Everyone was happy for them when they found out that they were together.
“Thanks, man! That’d be great.”
She gave Xander a puzzled look as he grinned at her.
“Yeah, no problem. I’ll call you when we get there. I appreciate it.” He ended the call with a big smile on his face.
“What’s going on?” Tori asked.
“Cam just offered us his house to stay in while we’re there.”
“Oh! He did? That’s good of him. Is Piper okay with it?” She knew that Cameron had bought the house in Summer Lake where Piper was living when he met her. Piper had fallen in love with the place, and Cam hadn’t wanted her to have to give it up so that she could be with him.
“It was her idea, apparently. The girls were all out for drinks at Molly’s, and Willow was telling them that we were headed to Summer Lake to see your mom. Of course, that had them all joking about how Bentley and Alyssa met. Piper said that we should stay at their house rather than at the resort or the Lodge.”
Tori nodded happily. “I’ll have to give her a call; that’s so kind of her.”
“Will you be comfortable there?”
“I will. Will you?”
