“How did you…fix it?”
“I wrote her sixty letters. One for every day. Delivered them to the bookstore where she worked. I even bought books to hide them in. Nearly went bankrupt.”
I smile. “And?”
“She let me buy her coffee. Then dinner. Then she told me if I ever pulled that crap again, she’d throw a bottle of bad wine at my head.”
“She still might.”
“Oh, definitely.”
I laugh. Then the ache returns.
“I’ve never been in arealrelationship. The others were just…me passing time,” I confess. “Except with Ransom. And now I don’t know what it was. What it meant.”
He puts a hand on my shoulder. “You love him?”
I nod slowly.
“Then you owe it to yourself to see if this is the car you want to buy.”
“What?” I ask, confused.
“Love is like being on a long drive. Sometimes the car’s transmission is weird. Sometimes it breaks down. But if you can see yourself in that seat for years…you owe it a test drive.”
I stare at him. “What kind of car?”
Papa thinks about it. “A Volvo?”
“A boring Volvo?” Laughter bubbles out of me.
He wraps an arm around me. “Better than a flashy convertible that breaks in a snowstorm.”
“Are you saying Ransom is like a Volvo, Papa?”
“Sturdy, older, expensive to repair if he breaks your heart, but…if he sticks around, you’ll be safe for life.’”
I lean into him.
“I’m still mad at him.”
“Good. He deserves it.”
“But….” I trail off.
“But,” Papa says with a twinkle in his eye.“Butis hope.”
“I thoughtbuttwas his ass,” I tease.
“Which you should kick,” Papa says confidently.
CHAPTER 24
Ransom
Ididn’t mean to end up at her door.
Okay, fine—I absolutely did.
