Page 30 of Below the Far Horizon
“Oh goodness. Stop already.”
They started down the lane, and he said, “I’m sorry. What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that after talking to Mrs. Donegan, she was so happy that our parents were happy, and I thought…we should do everything we can to get them together. You know? I mean, not that I’ve been trying to keep them apart, because I haven’t. But the idea of us doing what we can to help the relationship along. You know?”
He considered it. “Like…you and I will make excuses to be together so that our parents can be together too?”
“Kind of. I don’t know. I didn’t really think of any specifics, I was just thinking about the general idea of wanting to help them. I want them to be able to have this second chance at love at their age, because it could be twenty or thirty years that they get to spend together. That’s longer than my marriage lasted anyway.”
“It’s longer than a lot of marriages last,” he said, hoping that made her feel better. It was true.
She smiled at him, as though she appreciated his effort.
He felt his gaze cut to hers, and the same feeling that had been swirling around ever since they met on the lane took hold inside of him.
He wanted to say something to her. Wanted to suggest that maybe they could be more or see if she wanted to do something with him, just for the sake of being with him.
But before he could say anything, she said, “If we can convince our parents that they need to be together in order to encourage us to be together, I think we’ll have it made. They’ll spend as much time as they possibly can together, because… I think they both want us to be happy.” She lifted her shoulder. “I saw that last night with your dad. I mean, beyond the oddness of seeing him with my mom and hearing him call her Gita Baby, there was…a feeling I got when I watched how he looked at you. It was just the look of someone who wants the very best for their child.”
“I haven’t been a child for a while.” He didn’t know why that exact statement came out of his mouth. He understood what she was saying. But… He didn’t want her to think of him as a child. It bothered him that she had been looking across the table at them and thinking about him as less than what he was.
“No. I know that.” She paused. “Trust me, I know that.”
Her reply made him look at her. But she wasn’t paying any attentionto him. She had her gaze on the ground and one lip pulled in between her teeth, deep in thought.
He wanted to ask what she was thinking about, but maybe he didn’t want to know.
“What do you think we could do?”
“I was trying to think of activities we could all do. Your dad seems to be pretty athletic, but my mom… I don’t know if she could keep up with him. Especially with her hip. She’s really been coming along fast, though.”
“We could rent double kayaks. They could be in one, we could be in the other.”
“That’s a great idea,” she said, her eyes shining as she looked up. She met his gaze, and he had to focus in order to continue to think about what they were talking about, instead of being distracted by how he felt about her.
“Grace?” he asked, even though he didn’t know what he was going to say.
“Yes?” she said, looking at him with her brows raised, almost as though she were expecting him to add to her suggestion.
“The worst pain in my life was the pain when you left.”
Why did he say that? He didn’t want to take away from the happy time that they were having. Didn’t want to bring her down from the smiles and laughter that they’d been sharing. From the good feeling he had from making Mrs. Donegan smile. But it was the truth. When she’d been talking about her heartbreak and her husband cheating and all the pain in her life, and the lessons that she learned, that had been his worst time.
As he had been afraid of, her face fell. Her shoulders slumped, and he knew he hurt her. He hadn’t meant to.
“I’m so sorry. I know it doesn’t make anything any better, and I know we talked about how our trials make us stronger and all of that, but can I just say that was the worst mistake of my life?” She lifted her brows and looked at him.
He wasn’t sure what she was saying. That walking away from him was the worst mistake of her life? Leaving Raspberry Ridge? Or leaving their friend group? Maybe it was just riding out of town with a feelingof superiority and the desire to make her life successful. She alluded more than once to her arrogance and how dumb she’d been. Even if she didn’t use those words exactly.
“That helps,” he said. It did too. He couldn’t go back and make the pain less. Or make it last a shorter time. It was gratifying to know that if she could do it over, she wouldn’t have done it.
“Maybe you don’t want to try to spend time with me in order to get our parents together. Maybe you don’t want to be with me at all and would prefer our parents don’t end up together?”
“No. None of that’s true. I would spend time with you, even if it weren’t for our parents. But,” he hurried to add, lest she think that he wanted something real, which he did, but he didn’t want to say right away. “I’m happy trying to get our parents together. I think they’ll find a lot of joy and meaning in life if they share it. I do think life is better when shared.”
“I agree. Being that I’ve been alone now for the last year, and I’ve been trying to separate my life, my life now anyway, from the life I had been building together with someone else, it was nicer when there were two of us. Someone to talk to, share with, get advice from, and do things with.”
Those were all the kinds of things he wanted to do with her, but maybe it was a little bit early to talk about it.
