Page 55 of Keep Me Never
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Paige
The shops are busy and overcrowded, and I can’t stop thinking about everything that I should be doing today.
If I’d left campus this morning around six thirty, I would have made it to my studio with enough time to get in several hours of work before lunchtime even hit. I managed to get what was left of the mirrors taken down and all the broken shards of glass swept up the last time I was there, even if I did have to shove some of the larger pieces in the corner for now. After a few dozen YouTube videos, I finally sucked it up and ordered a hazmat-looking suit, some gloves, and a sledgehammer to attempt some actual renovations on the place.
Carry texted me on Friday to say she signed for the package and was holding it for me. I don’t know how I would stay sane if it weren’t for her weekly updates. Sometimes I bug her to check in on my space every couple of days when I start to really panic, but she doesn’t seem to mind.
I took some basic measurements to price out the insulation that I was told needed replaced, but of course, when I got online, it wanted square footage, and I about broke down.
My dad would have known how to figure that out with the feet and inches I wrote down, but I don’t have the slightest clue, and I can’t trust Google when it could mean the difference in dollars—dollars that I do not have.
My savings aren’t depleted, but I have to be able to live andcover gas to go back and forth. If I can’t get there, I can’t get a single thing done, and I’ve got to dosomething, even if it’s floor washing when the floor needs replaced and pulling the baseboards off but having no way to get them to the dump.
“Earth to freaking Paige!”
My head yanks to the left. Cameron raises a brow, shaking a sparkly, bright-pink dress at me. “It’s…cute.”
“Liar.” She chuckles, putting it back on the rack. “I mean, I think it’s cute, but that was yourIt’s terrible but I’m too sweet to say otherwise in case you love itexpression.”
A small smile finds my lips, and when I look over at Ari, she shakes her head at her friend before facing me with a little tip of her chin.
“You okay?” she asks quietly, the two of us trailing Cameron around the store.
“Yeah, yeah. It’s just…the studio.”
She nods. “You haven’t talked about it much. I figured that meant it was at a standstill. I know you mentioned your grandpa could possibly help. That didn’t work out, or you don’t feel comfortable asking yet?”
“Oh, he’s offered,” I finally just admit. “He’d do it in a heartbeat, but there are…conditions.” I wince, giving her a wry smile. “That makes him sound bad, but I swear it’s not malicious on his part.”
She lifts her hands, her expression gentle. “No judgment.”
I know she means it, but I still feel the need to explain a little more. “He wants to protect his life’s work, just like I was trying to build my own off my dad’s. It just so happens we both need the other to make that happen.”
“I’m sensing abutin there…”
I smile, nodding exaggeratedly. “Buteven though I’d be getting what I want, I’m not sure I’d be getting what I want.” The last word drags out a bit and we both laugh. “Confusing, I know, but…” I shrug.
“I get it. To gain one thing sometimes means losing something else,” she says softly.
“Still worried about telling Cameron you’re going to travel with Noah during the season after graduation?”
She groans, burying her face in her hands. “We just had so many plans, you know? I don’t want her to feel like I’m leaving her. Even if Brady does get drafted, they have already cleared it with her family, fully prepared to take over her parents’ property and build up the farm even more. She wants a place for him to come home to when he can and to go right to work, and that’s great, but I just want?—”
“To be where Noah is?”
Tears fill her eyes, and she looks toward her best friend. “I know she’ll be happy for me, but it’s still tough to throw out everything we talked about for the last decade.”
“Hey, you never know. She hasn’t had to be away from Brady yet. Maybe he’ll be drafted by the same team as Noah, and she’ll want to travel too, at least for a couple years, and then you’ll be together every day.”
“Can you imagine? That would be amazing!” She beams, tears now forgotten as she pulls out a top and holds it up to her. “Speaking of Noah, you do know you could ask him for help with the studio. If he can help, he will.”
“I know, and I really appreciate you not going to him with this. He would insist, and I won’t allow him to. My initial quotes for just the bones are already astronomical as it is. My career of choice won’t exactly leave me with much profit. It’s a modest living, at best, so no loans. Or handouts, for that matter.”
Ari grabs my arm, giving me a little squeeze, and not a second later, Cam comes back around the corner, arms full of clothes.
“Okay.” She smiles. “I have full confidence one of these is going to be it!”
