Page 60 of Grumpy Darling

I sighed. “Clearly you’ve never seen me around my mom.”

He sat on the couch opposite me. “Want to talk about it?” He said it so gently, I knew I didn’t have to tell him anything if I didn’t want to, but he was also giving me the space to vent if I needed. I wished my dad was more like Danny Darling.

“She wants me to make a plan for my future,” I explained. “But I have no idea what I want to do with my life.”

“Ah.” He nodded. “Well, it’s never a bad idea to have a plan. They don’t always work out, but it can help point you in the right direction.”

I knew that Danny, like his sons, had been a hockey player with hopes of playing professionally. Everyone always said he was destined for the NHL, but that dream came to an end when he injured his knee in college. He’d ended up working as a mechanic and now he owned his own garage. It wasn’t his original plan, but it was easy to see how much he loved what he did.

“How did you decide you wanted to work with cars?” I asked.

“I’ve always liked them,” he replied. “And I’m good at fixing things, so it all came quite naturally.”

“And what about Amy?” I asked. “Did she always want to be an accountant?”

“I don’t know about that.” He chuckled. “But she always had a knack for numbers, so I guess it made sense.”

“That’s my problem,” I explained. “There’s nothing I naturally excel at. Nothing I feel truly passionate about, the way you do. I’ve been working through a list of things this year, trying to find something I’m good at, but I swear I’m hopeless at everything.”

“I find that hard to believe,” Danny said. “You’re pretty good at talking to people.”

He wouldn’t be saying that if he’d seen my display with Damien on Saturday night.

“You make Grayson smile,” he continued. “Which is a near impossible task. And you’ve always been great at finding the good in not-so-good situations.”

“Not sure my mom would approve if I told her I want to make a career out of chatting with people, being positive, and making Gray smile,” I said.

Danny laughed. “I suppose not. But don’t discount those qualities either. They’re skills you can use in lots of different careers. It’s great you’ve been trying new things, but don’t put too much pressure on yourself to have it all figured out today. You’ve got plenty of time.”

“Do I? I’ll be graduating soon, and I haven’t even started applying to colleges. I just don’t want to make the wrong choice and be stuck somewhere I don’t want to be.”

“College is just part of the journey,” he said. “And it’s about more than helping you get a good job. Just choose somewhere you think you’ll be happy, and then enjoy the ride.”

“You think?”

“Of course.” He smiled. “Sometimes, when you stop looking ahead and focus on what’s right in front of you, that thing you’ve been looking for all along finds you.”

I felt my shoulders relax, and I smiled across the room at him. “Thanks, Danny.”

“No need to thank me, I’m just saying it how it—” He was distracted as the ceiling lights flickered and he released a heavy breath. “I really should get around to checking out those faulty wires.” He gave a quick shake of his head and stood. “But not tonight. It’s getting late and you should get some rest. You won’t solve your problems by staying awake fretting about them.”

“No, probably not,” I agreed.

I was feeling slightly more optimistic about them anyway. Danny’s attitude was so different to my parents’. They made me feel like the world might end if I didn’t have every little detail of my future planned, while Danny made it seem as though everything would work itself out, one way or another. I wasn’t sure who had it right, but I was hoping it was Danny.

I left the living room and made my way back upstairs. But as I approached Cammie’s room, I couldn’t stop myself from looking toward Grayson’s door. A part of me wanted to go back into his room, lie down next to him, and finish our movie, but the sketchy fragments of my dream were still floating through my mind. Too scattered to piece together but clear enough to stop me from moving closer to his door. Whatever this was, I needed to sleep it off. Fast.

“You look like crap,” Parker said when I entered the kitchen the following morning. “Bad night’s sleep?”

Despite Danny’s advice, I’d lain awake far too late. My mom’s words had played on repeat in my mind, and I was nervous that sleep would bring more inappropriate thoughts about my best friend.

I stifled a yawn and tried to smooth down my hair. It had gone a little crazy overnight thanks to all my tossing and turning, and the bathroom had been occupied this morning, so I hadn’t had a chance to shower and wash my hair yet. I usually needed the fresh spray of hot water to clear away the final dregs of sleep.

“I slept just fine, thank you, Parker.” I reached over and swiped the box of cereal from his hands before taking a seat on the stool next to him at the kitchen counter.

He grinned brightly at me. “Paige Price, are you actually...grumpythis morning?”

“I’m not grumpy.”

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