"And I may be living in California but I will always be a Kentucky girl at heart." I quickly sombered. "I don't want to waste any more time. If something comes up anywhere, I don't care where it is in California, you take it. I'll commute or we can visit each other on the weekends until we're living in the same place again. Wewillmake this work." I was determined.
"God, I love you, woman," he groaned as he pulled me up again for another searing kiss.
***
"Baby, please don't cry," Harrison begged, even though his own eyes had a gleam in them.
We were standing outside my apartment in San Francisco at six a.m., and his Uber was ten minutes away. In ten minutes, Harrison would place his one bag in the trunk of some stranger's car before it carried him away from me—back to Ashburton. Granted, it was temporary, but I was still devastated nonetheless.
I sniffled as I buried my head deeper into Harrison's neck, clinging onto him, never wanting to let go. He pulled back and framed my pained features in his hands.
"I'm just gonna miss you so much."
"Sweetheart, it's only for a few weeks while I finish out my notice. We have the rest of our lives to be together," he reminded me.
I nodded, wiping the tears from my face and giving him a watery smile. "I know, babe."
The week after our reunion had been filled with last-minute wedding prep. Amelia and I had smoothed things over with each other after she apologized profusely for overstepping. I'm not going to lie; if things had gone belly up with Harrison, Amelia may have found herself sans a Maid of Honor.
Truthfully, I was impressed that she had found the time to play matchmaker on top of planning a wedding. I would never tell her this, as I didn't want heroversteppingagain, but I was eternally grateful to her forstronglyencouraging me to give Harrison a chance.
Worryingly, Amelia was so thrilled by our coupling that she had pushed the idea of a double wedding.
"C'mon! It'll be fun. All of our friends and family are invited to the wedding anyway. You'd be killing two birds."
When Liam set appalled eyes at us, Harrison quickly intervened to diffuse the situation.
"As lovely as that sounds, I haven't even proposed to Gracie yet."
I glanced at Amelia, both of us widening our eyes at each other and communicating silently the way only best friends could.
Yet, we wordlessly squealed to each other.
"And when that happens," his lips lifted slightly at the strangled yelp we both made, "I want Grace to have the chance to be as crazy as you are with her wedding plans."
We were too busy attempting to muffle excited grins over Harrison's promise of future commitment before we finally registered his backward compliment.
"Hey!" We both chorused in mock indignation.
"Fine, then just name your firstborn after me, and we shall call it even." My best friend bargained, her eyes glittering excitedly, overjoyed that her grand plan had been successful.
"Honestly," she confided, "I didn't know how deep your feelings for Harrison went. At the very minimum, I knew you might be attracted to him, so I hoped that you would at least get a good fuck outta it," she joked. "This went so much better than I thought!" She rubbed her hands in glee.
Amelia and Liam's wedding went off without a hitch. The day was beautiful, filled with happy tears that the long-term couple finally got their dream day. There was also a lot of laughter, especially at Harrison's Best Man speech, where he hilariously recounted their roller coaster friendship.
For the final two weeks in Ashburton, I moved in with Harrison, determined to spend every second together. Our families were over the moon that we were a couple and they wasted no time gathering together for dinners. I loved Harrison's dad and brother, and my parents were quick to adopt them into the fold.
Unfortunately, the consequence of having an overly involved family was that Harrison, his dad, and his brother were added to our family group chat. Harrison, at first, was excited, but after hearing his phone ping all night, he took my advice and muted the chat.
"Just check in every now and then with a "haha" or a "hey, fam," and you'll be good," I advised him.
I was dreading my time in Ashburton coming to a temporary end, but I was excited to show Harrison my home away from home in San Francisco. He stayed in my apartment while I worked, and in the evenings, we cooked, watched TV, or went out to dinner. We were like a normal domesticated couple, and I loved it.
Well, I thought wryly,a domesticated couple that fucked like rabbits. Given the loud banging we did, I probably wouldn't be showing my face to my neighbors for a good year. But hey, sometimes you needed to christen all surfaces—at least three times.
On weekends, I showed him around my adopted city. I rarely did touristy things anymore, so it was nice to get out and see San Francisco and neighboring towns through my man's eyes.
The best part, though? Coach Holloway had called Harrison with a job interview for a coaching position at a high school in Oakland. He nailed it and would start after Summer break once he worked out his notice at Ashburton High. I would then fly back out and have a farewell dinner with our families before leaving with Harrison and starting our lives together. He still planned on keeping his house in Ashburton and would probably rent it out. But for now, he was happy to have Ryan and his dad take care of it until he decided what to do.
