Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 128156 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128156 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
He turns to face me better, his eyes downcast. “I like to think there was nothing I could do to mend our relationship, but the old man in me isn’t so sure that’s true anymore. She was my daughter, and I shouldn’t have ever let her go. If I had just found a way to be there, found a way for her to allow me in, maybe I could have fixed what I broke. I could have met your father and seen the way she turned her life around, and I wouldn’t have had to wait twenty-three years to meet you.”
I squeeze his hand, shaking my head slightly. “My dad tried and did all of those things. She would get clean and make all these plans, ‘believing it in her own heart’ is what he had said, but then something would happen. A stressful moment or a run-in with an old friend. A song or a short walk to the store where no one was watching. A reason or no real reason at all, and she’d be gone again. Until one day, she was gone gone.” I lift a shoulder, telling him what it took me some time to realize myself. “There was nothing anyone could have done and it’s no one’s fault.”
“You’re a very smart young woman, Paige. Smarter than I was at your age.”
“I doubt that but I appreciate it all the same.”
He chuckles, letting out a small sigh. “Do you remember much of her?” he asks, almost hopefully, but I shake my head. “I’ll have to share some stories with you sometime.”
“I’d like that.”
He nods, and I think I see a glossy sheen fall over his eyes, but he blinks and then it’s gone. “Well, your class is over now, so how about we get some lunch?”
“I can’t today. I told Chase I would be back in time to have lunch with him and I really don’t want to cancel.”
My grandpa watches me closely, and I will my cheeks not to heat under his stare. I’m not sure we’re the kind of close where I’d talk about my dating life quite yet, even if he has a direct interest in the subject. But I did tell him Chase was over late, didn’t I?
He smiles then. “Not a worry, sweetheart. Prescott is always free for a lunch date with me. I swear, the man is as lonely as I am.”
Guilt washes over me, and I consider asking him to join us but decide on something else instead. “I’ll be heading down to Oceanside to check on the studio and a few things Friday morning. If you’ll be in that area, I’m free that evening.”
“Then that is where I’ll make sure to be.”
We pull up in front of the campus and with a quick goodbye hug, I climb out, spotting Chase sitting on a bench just a little ways away.
He stands the moment he sees me, a smile on his face, and I can’t help but mirror it with mine.
We meet in the middle, his knuckle instantly going under my chin and tilting my head back so our gazes are locked. “Angel.”
My pulse seems to pound a little harder from nothing more than the look in his hazel eyes, and maybe the reminder of the things he does to my body. Repeatedly.
Eagerly.
“Hi.” I don’t mean to whisper.
His mouth curves into that handsome smile of his, and the knuckle beneath my chin runs along my cheek. “Hungry?”
This time, I only nod, and his smile turns into a bit more of a smirk. He totally knows what I’m thinking, and he likes it.
Chase takes my hand, and together we head to the cafeteria, where our friends will be waiting. A group lunch date he has done his best to be a part of since the two of us became an us.
I can’t help but feel like my life is coming together in ways I never expected. I have a family member again, and a friend who means the world to me. A boyfriend that I am borderline obsessed with and, well, hope that everything will work out in the end. Maybe there is a happy medium I can reach with my grandpa now that Chase and I are together and my studio can still be saved.
That is the mantra I carry with me in the week that follows, and I find that my mornings aren’t plagued by stress and uncertainty anymore.
I spend my days in class, my afternoons at the field watching Chase and the boys practice, getting my schoolwork done, and every other evening, I teach a quick class at the after-school program for the local elementary schools around town. There is no payment involved, but it allows me to learn a little about how different programs work and leaves me with several ideas I might like to incorporate into my own.