Page 35 of Below the Far Horizon
“Yeah. We’re deceiving people, and it doesn’t feel right.”
“I’ve been shoving that thought aside, because we’re helping people, Grace and Trevor, and they deserve it. But… You’re right. It doesn’t feel good to know I’m not being honest.”
“Maybe we should confess exactly what’s going on when we’re on the kayak trip. We’ll have lots of time together to talk about it, and we can get far enough away from them that they won’t be able to hear us.”
“Just be careful, because you remember how well sound travels over the water, and no matter how far we are, if the atmosphere is right, they’re going to be able to hear us plain as day.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Maybe between now and then, we can suggest taking a picnic along, so we’ll be sure to have time alone. Plenty of it where we can compare notes and come clean.”
“Is it terrible that I don’t really want to?” Gita asked softly. She didn’t really want to examine that at all, and she held her breath before Don began to speak.
“I don’t want to either. Mostly because…I want for you and I to have a real relationship.”
“Really?” Gita said, even softer. Her heart skipped a beat and then started to beat happily in her chest.
“Yeah. Really.” There was silence on the line as Gita tried to figure out what to say, but Don spoke first. “Gita Baby?”
Her heart thrilled as he said the nickname that only he called her. “Yes?”
“I think I’m too old to know all the right words. I don’t know how the kids say this anymore, but back when we were in high school, I would be asking you to go with me right now. But that’s not all I want. I… I feel like I don’t know how long either one of us have left, but I’d like to spend all my time with you.”
Was he asking her to marry him? She wasn’t quite sure about that.But she understood the idea of going with someone. That’s what they did in high school. That was so long ago, and surely the kids didn’t call it that anymore.
“So you’re asking me to go with you?”
“I am, but I’m not playing. I… I’m going to want to marry you if you say yes to this, I’m just not sure that we ought not to wait a little bit longer. So we don’t shock the entire town and overwhelm the Blueberry Beach hospital with heart attacks.”
She laughed a little, even though heart attacks were not funny. It was the idea that two old geezers like Don and she could shock an entire town. But he was right, they would if they got married that suddenly. They were both known as reasonable, rational adults.
“Then my answer is yes. Yes, I’ll go with you. Let’s be official.”
“All right. That sounds good, Gita Baby.”
“And we can still go on the kayaking trip, and we can admit to what we’ve done, but then we can tell them that we decided that instead of having a fake relationship, we want a real one.”
“Perfect.”
Seventeen
Later that week, Grace slipped out of the house to go for a walk along the beach as her mom lay down for a nap.
Her mom was getting better and better every single day, but she still took an hour or two nap in the afternoon. She said it was the effects of the anesthesia from the surgery. That her doctor had told her it could take weeks for the effects to wear off completely.
Grace wasn’t sure exactly what it was. There was a part of her that was afraid that it was just her mom growing older. Slowing down. Tiring out easier.
But she wanted to believe what her mom said about the anesthesia and the effects, so she smiled and nodded and let her mom know that she would be taking a walk, and as always, her mom promised that she wouldn’t get up while she was gone.
Her sisters had checked in periodically and were satisfied that Grace was taking good care of their mom and that their mom was getting better.
They hadn’t stopped in over the weekend, but they had promised, both of them, to come the next weekend.
As far as Grace knew, they didn’t know about their mom and Don, and they definitely didn’t know aboutGrace and Trevor.
Grace wasn’t looking forward to that reunion with her sisters. She would have to come clean about pretending that she and Trevor were a couple. It had morphed into that without her really expecting it to.
He had gone along with it, which she appreciated but then felt guilty for, because she was pretty sure that he didn’t really want to. But it felt like he had to in order to back up what she had said.
She had all of that going through her mind as she walked down the street, past the healing garden. She was tempted to turn in and sit down there. She didn’t want to though, because she wanted to get some exercise. Not only was it important for her mom to exercise, but it was important for her to as well. It was too easy to just sit at home and take care of her mom, and neglect her own health.
