Page 102 of Bumping into You

“G, what is it?” she looks over at me, worry creasing her brow.

“I . . . I think I messed up, and I don’t know how to fix it,” I admit, sinking into a bench by the wall.

“About Niall?” she offers.

I nod.

“Okay, how can I help?” Holly asks, wiping her hands on her apron and then heading around the display cases toward me.

“Can you just tell me what to do?” I laugh meekly.

“Afraid not, G. But I can tell you that Niall is an amazing guy. Probably one of the best.”

“He lied to me.”

“Yes, he lied. And while that’s not okay, you can’t really put the whole blame on him. I mean, you asked him to do the same lie, to spend time with you with your little fake relationship thing. Soreally, if you both had that pact going on, and Niall agreed to do the same favor for Greg, did Niall even really lie?”

“You’ve got a point,” I admit.

“Niall really cares about you, G. Even now, after everything.”

I snap up at her admission. “You think so?”

“I know so,” she says so matter-of-factly that I can’t not believe her.

“Then I think I know what I need to do,” I say, pulling out my phone. “I need to book a plane ticket.”

I hop in a rideshare and head to the Nashville airport. With traffic on I-24 always a nightmare, I have to leave three hours before my flight. In the blink of an eye, the normally forty-five-minute drive can take an hour and a half, and I’d rather not miss this flight.

Sending a quick text to my second-in-command, Becca, I explain that she’ll be in charge for the weekend because I have to take care of something important immediately. And that, oh yeah, she’s getting promoted to senior event planner effective immediately.

I have no clue if Niall will want anything to do with me after how I treated him, but I have to try.

I love him.

Thankfully, at ten o’clock on a Friday morning, the traffic isn’t so bad. We actually make it to the airport in record time. Now, if I could just calm my beating heart.

Clyde, my rideshare driver, says, “If it’s alright with you, miss, can I drop you off at the rideshare pickup spot so I don’t have to drive all the way around to pick up my next passenger?”

I need all the good karma I can get, so I tell him, “I have no problem with that.”

“Thank you, miss,” he responds, driving toward the pickuparea.

Clyde parks and hops out to meet his next passenger as I lean down to pick up my backpack. Reaching for the door, my hand misses as the door is opened from the outside.

“Mo ghrá?” says a male voice, one that makes my heart stop.

It can’t be.

There’s no way. It’s not possible.

I look up, and sure enough, it’s Niall.

“What are you doing here?” We both say in unison.

A single tear rolls down my cheek. Stupid emotions taking over. Niall reaches out a hand to me, and I take it. Then, he wipes the tear from my face.

“Why are you crying, Gwen?” he asks, his voice cracking with emotion.

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