Page 48 of Only for Love

My throat’s in a knot. “I—don’t. Oh, wow. Just thank you.” Not eloquent but exactly how I feel. All choked up and scattered beyond words. “Thank you.”

“Enough with the tears. Back to cake.” But Jeremy comes over and gives me a boss-appropriate side hug. “Sometimes good things happen out of the blue.”

My mind jumps back to Grayson. “Sometimes they do.”

Cake in her hand, Sarah steps toward me as Jeremy steps away. “One more surprise.”

“Yeah, I don’t know if I can handle another surprise.”

“You’re not going to like it anyway. At first. But Cherry and I are pretty sure it’s for your sanity, and she doesn’t even know about the Grayson phone call earlier.”

“Okay, first off, I need to tell Cherry, not you. She’s all nice about him since she thought he was dead, but she’s like Ryan. She basically wants Gray dead anyway. And second, my sanity is fine.”

“You have three jobs, plus school, plus a kiddo. Let’s not bullshit by saying you have a good grip on sanity.”

“What are you two up to?”

Sarah beams. “You’re going to say no, but don’t.”

“Sarah…”

“Cherry’s going to pick Cally up from day care. She was already going to spend the night at Cherry’s, so youdon’tpick her up, and wedogo to happy hour!”

I snort-laugh. “Yeah, no.”

“Seriously, we’ll go to Vevy’s and have a couple drinks, ring in the big two-one.”

“I need to see Cally.”

“All you were going to do is pick her up and drop her off.”

My bottom lip sticks out. “I’m not sure I’m ready to not see her off to Cherry’s.”

“A couple hours of very tame fun. I think you deserve it.”

Really, I don’t feel as though I deserve much. Every single minute of my life is directed toward getting to a better place.

“Just take a break. Take a chance.” Sarah sidesteps us into the corner. “Look, I know you grew up with the perfect family, perfect life, all that stuff. But if you don’t give yourself a breather, you’re… I don’t know. Going to explode.”

My brow furrows. “I’m not going to explode.”

“But you’re punishing yourself. It’s just a few hours out to celebrate you before you start unpacking.”

“I don’t know.”

“Cally’s cool with it, your mom swears. It was her idea actually, even though I’m going to take credit for it.”

Gnawing on my bottom lip, I think maybe I do need a breather. Just to laugh. “I’ll call Cally. If she sounds like she doesn’t need to see me before Cherry’s then… okay.”

“Yeah?” Sarah goes up on her toes. “Sweet.”

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