I wanted to tell her I’d take care of her for as long as she’d let me. When I was in the military, I didn’t spend much. Didn’t have much to spend it on, so I had a nice little nest egg squirreled away for a rainy day. I could give Grace the life she wanted, but I knew money wasn’t the issue. For Grace, it was more than that. She needed to feel wanted. Needed. Valued.
“And we have no intention of letting you.”
“Then what’s your solution, Gabriella?” Grace asked directly as she shifted her weight.
“Stay and work with us.”
“At the B&B?”
“Yes!” Georgia exclaimed.
Grace shook her head again. “You don’t need me. This place is already amazing. You have it all sorted. I don’t want to mess with that,” Grace told them.
“You’re right—” Grabriella confirmed, but Grace cut her off.
“Glad that’s sorted. Now we should head back. There’s a yard full of people who, I’m sure, are wondering where we all snuck off to.” Grace wriggled from my grip and started back to the house.
“Grace!” Georgia called out, halting her in her tracks. “Would you just stop and listen for a second?”
Grace huffed and rolled her eyes. “Fine. Let’s hear it then,” she invited, folding her arms over her stomach.
As if drawn to her by an invisible string, we all moved toward her.
“You’re right. We can do this without you. We have been. But not because we wanted to. We did it because we had to. You weren’t here and we had to keep going.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Grace, don’t apologize. You had to go out into the big, bad world and figure it out. I never wanted that,” Gabriella confessed.
“We’ve worked seven days a week for as long as we can remember and we’re tired. So we have a proposal for you. Work with us. Help us.”
“How would that even work?” Grace asked, and I internally fist-bumped. She wasn’t outright dismissing the idea so we were in with a chance.
“We’ll work out a roster. We each take our turn, and all get some much-needed time off,” Georgia explained.
“And that’s what you want?” Grace asked, her eyes darting from Georgia to Gabriella and back again.
“Yes! It is. I’m not just tired but I’m ready for something more …” Gabriella told her.
“More?”
“Yeah. More,” Gabriella repeated vaguely.
I looked at the sisters and felt like I was intruding on something I shouldn’t be witnessing but I couldn’t walk away. My feet felt like they were encased in concrete.
“This is crazy!” Grace declared with a laugh that warmed me from the tips of my toes to the hairs on my head. “A roster?”
“We each do five days then get two days off. There’s always two of us on each shift, and if someone needs to swap then we figure it out.” Gabriella had it all worked out and I wanted to kiss her.
“You can have your room here or …”
I cut in. “You can stay with me.”
Grace’s head snapped back so quickly I was surprised she didn’t give herself whiplash. “You want me to stay?”
I refused to leave any doubt in her mind. I moved into her personal space, crowding her. When I cupped her face in my hand, my whole body trembled. “I want you to stay,” I gritted out. “Stay forever.”
Grace’s eyes went wide and filled with tears. “Cole …”
