Page 81 of Kiss the Girl
Finally, he sighed and stood up. “I wouldn’t hold you back from that. I guess I was hoping to get you to rethink even applying, but if you already have a job, that’s different. And it’s great,” he said. “I mean that sincerely. You’ll be amazing at anything you decide to do.”
He walked to the door, and I followed him halfway there, stopping when he turned. “I’m glad you get to do something you love, Grace. I shouldn’t have tried to talk you out of that. Congratulations.” Then he slipped out the door and was gone.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Noah
Grace was leaving.
I drove home with that mantra in my head. Every time a thought tried to intrude about how I could change her mind or convince her to stay, I pushed it out. “Grace is leaving.”
I walked in to find Paige and Evie on the sofa watching my TV because Evie preferred it for watching Pixar movies.
“Hey,” Paige said. “How’s your ridiculous plan with my boss going?”
“About as well as you predicted it would.”
She’d told me no less than a dozen times that I was an idiot for not asking Grace out for real and that this plan would never work.
Paige shot a glance at Evie, who was absorbed in the adventures of Woody and Buzz Lightyear. She turned up the volume slightly and followed me into the kitchen.
“What happened?”
I shook my head. “She got a job offer with Boeing. She’s moving to Charleston.”
Her forehead furrowed. “When?”
“January.”
“You look like you don’t feel great about that.”
I shrugged. “It’s…whatever.”
“It’s more than that, obviously. Say what you want, Noah, but that kiss at Thanksgiving didn’t look fake.”
I took a beer from the fridge, normally only a weekend or Monday night football indulgence, and popped the cap, not even caring when I missed the trash can with my toss and it clattered to the tile. “We put on a good show.”
She called my bluff with a pointed swear.
I sipped and didn’t bother denying it. There was nothing to say.
“Why are you being so stubborn about this?” Paige asked. “You guys are perfect for each other.”
“I’m not denying it,” I said. “I went over there tonight to talk to her about making us official, and she told me she’s leaving.”
Paige took me by the shoulders and looked into my eyes, hers gentle. Then she shook me hard. “Change. Her. Mind.”
I broke her hold. “It’s not that easy.”
“It’s exactly that easy,” she countered. “Women want to know they matter enough for you to fight for them.”
“Not Grace,” I said. “It would feel disrespectful to try to change her mind about this.”
“Disrespectful?” she repeated in a tone of disbelief. “Are you kidding?”
“I’m dead serious. I’m not going to ask her to give up a career to deal with customers who talk to her like she doesn’t know a bolt cutter from a hole in the ground.”
“Then go to Charleston. Convince her to spend her time left here doing this for real, do long distance for five months until school is finished, then move out to Charleston and give it a shot.”
