Page 48 of Made for You
I laughed out a breath of relief. “Me, too.”
“Good.”
I crossed to her, unwilling to let her go without more contact. I enveloped her in another quick hug since her arms were out of commission, then kissed her temple, her cheek. “Let’s get dinner tomorrow night.”
Her smile soft, she seemed almost relieved as she nodded. “See you then.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
Nikki
On the way out the door to meet Catherine, Gram stopped my progress as she grabbed her keys.
“Where are you heading?” I asked, gathering my sunglasses and purse.
“Off to meet a friend for brunch. You?” Her brows arched high, and her makeup looked perfect. She didn’t wear much day-to-day, but it looked like maybe she’d taken extra care, likely because she was going out. She had a definite social butterfly pace to her life. I’d always known she had friends, but again, that wholeher needing helpthing had made it feel like maybe she’d slowed down.
She definitely hadn’t.
“I’m meeting Catherine and Dove at the new coffee shop. I guess they’ve been in once and it was super cute, so they wanted to go again.”
She smiled. “That was nice of them to include you. I’m so glad you’re getting along.”
I chuckled but nodded. Not as though we were teenagers fighting, yet a fair enough statement considering there’d been a time whengetting alongwasn’t in my repertoire. In fact, the last time I’d lived in Silverton over a decade ago, I’d had no friends. I’d held myself aloof from the small-town effect here, sneering at the close-knit community rather than becoming a part of it. Doing my course work online had only aided me in staying apart from anyone who could’ve been a friend.
How different my life might’ve been if I’d allowed myself to get sewn into this little tapestry, another thread in the bustling local life.Alas.Something about both parents dying, toxic foster situations, feeling alone in the world at one of the most volatile times developmentally… I’d forgiven myself for the missed opportunity for the most part.
“It is. I’m grateful.”
Her gaze sharpened, and she turned to me. “Don’t be grateful, Nikki. Just stick.”
I swallowed. How many times had I heard that, a phrase that’d become a kind of catch-all, even when I’d left. I had definitelynotstuck before, and part of me ached with the memory of it even after all this time. Still, I got it, and I nodded in agreement. “I’m going to. I am, Gram.”
The shudder of self-doubt that arced through me got elbowed into a corner. I hadn’t everstuckbefore, but I’d never had a reason to. Or, when I had, I hadn’t been in a place where I could. Now I had reason, and I wanted desperately to believe I had the ability, too.
Gram had proven she’d stick. I’d pushed and pushed when I first moved here. I’d tested her in a hundred ways, but she hadn’t wavered. And even after I’d left—another way of trying that faithfulness, that love of hers—she’d stuck. She hadn’t guilted me or condemned me. She had supported me, loved me, visited me.
She had stuck and had shown me the beauty in it.
Needing her to understand that I wasn’t going to abandon her and go back to California, that I would be here if something happened again, or even if it didn’t, I took her hands in mine. “You stuck with me, even when I moved. And I’m sticking with you. I’ll be here,right here, and nothing’s going to change that.”
Her brows pinched for a moment, and her smile looked a little wobbly, then she pulled it up into a grin and clucked. “I’m not worried. But Iamabout to be late, and I bet you are, too. Let’s go be fabulous women about town, and I’ll see you for dinner?”
My stomach flipped. “Actually, I’m having dinner with Bruce.”
The smile this time was all genuine and pleased as mimosa punch. “Of course you are. You can stick with him, too, if I have my say.”
I huffed, but the grin pinching my cheeks gave me away. She waved as she backed out of the garage and I followed, doing my best not to look too many times at Bruce’s house. I’d slept decently well considering the earth-shattering kiss and then the agreement we’d made.
Maybe it hadn’t actually been an agreement, but it’d felt like we both knew this—whatever was going on between us was something important.
With a slow exhale, I silently prayed for that to be true, and more so, that I wouldn’t mess it up. I’d never felt so much for a person so quickly, and that in itself should’ve been terrifying. Except whenever I did feel that fear edging in, he’d do something like simply hug me. Not push for more physically or even emotionally. He’d just… connect. And that touch settled the wild thing in me that hadn’t ever had something like this with anyone but Gram, though of course with Bruce it was different.
By the time I pulled into a lot at the end of Snow Street and found Cat and Dove sitting at a small table inside Joe, I’d mostly quelled the nerves over my date with Bruce tonight and shifted into anticipation for seeing friends.
“Hey, girl! Oh my gosh, I love that top.”
I was learning Dove was the kind of person who led with compliments and enthusiasm. In a world full of criticism and envy and comparison, it proved kind of startling because there was nothing false in it. I hadn’t known her even a week, yet I knew she meant it.
