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From the moment we ordered dessert, the entire vibe of our date had changed. It had gone from being serious and intense as I shared the truth about my situation with him to being lighthearted and fun.
I’d started laughing before we even left the restaurant, and now my stomach was in stitches, because I’d been laughing so much. Even my face was beginning to hurt, since I seemed to have a permanent smile now.
“I’m going to fall,” I announced, gripping Griffin’s jacket tighter as we trudged through the snow back toward the camper.
Griffin’s hold on me tightened. “You’re not going to fall. I’ve got you.”
“I hope you know what you’re talking about, because this is your warning. If I go down, you’re coming with me,” I advised him through my laughter.
He let out a laugh. “I’d be honored.”
Honored.
This man had just said he’d be honored to fall to the ground with me. Was he insane? Had he lost his mind? Or was he just crazy about me?
I wanted to blurt out that question, but the single glass of wine I’d consumed with dinner wasn’t enough to have me losing all my inhibitions.
It wasn’t easy to ignore, though. Because somewhere over the course of the last few days, things had changed drastically.
He’d done something to heal my heart, to make me feel joy again. Sure, I’d had a couple of good moments throughout the last several months, but for the most part, I’d felt miserable and completely downtrodden about my situation.
Griffin had turned it all around for me. He got me to see that I didn’t need to focus on the worst parts of what happened and use them to dictate how I lived my life moving forward.
I could still be cautious.
I could still be smart.
But I didn’t need to close myself off from ever feeling happiness again, because I was afraid of making another mistake. Maybe things weren’t that simple.
Life was more nuanced than that.
From the moment we were born, life was meant to teach us lessons, so we could learn and grow and be happy.
Maybe I could look at what happened with my former job, Travis, and the decision I’d made to join him in a new business venture as a steppingstone to something greater for all the things I’d learned.
And that’s precisely what I was going to do.
I was still going to be the Indy I always was—Griffin wouldn’t catch me on a snowboard any time soon—and I could still open my heart to finding love and happiness again.
Leaning into that, wanting more of what I was feeling now, I said, “Wait, wait.”
Griffin slowed to a stop and asked, “What’s wrong?”
I looked off in the distance, saw the camper parked right where we left it, and returned my attention to Griffin. Smiling at him, I declared, “I bet I can beat you back to the camper.”
He cocked an eyebrow, his lips twitching. “You were just freaking out over the possibility of falling.”
Shrugging, I returned, “Are you afraid of my determination, Griffin? Are you worried I might win?”
He hauled my body against his, keeping one arm wrapped firmly around my waist while he lifted his other hand up to the side of my face, where he brushed a lock of hair away.
“I think it’s adorable you believe you can beat me, sugar,” he said softly.
He had no idea.
I brushed my lips back and forth against his and hummed. “I think it’s sad you’re doubting my capabilities.”
“Can you blame me?” he said softly. “You haven’t exactly shown me much physical prowess.”
