Chapter Twenty-Four
Despite his exhaustion, two hours after he went to bed, Sunny found himself still staring at the ceiling, wide awake. His brain wouldn’t shut up long enough to let him get even a few precious minutes of sleep, and no amount of tossing and turning or finding a more comfortable position to sleep in seemed to change that.
The problem wasn’t the position he was lying in, or the number of blankets he had on, or whether or not his feet were sticking out of them.
The problem was that Grant had left.
Or rather, that Sunny had let him go.
He’d spent the evening telling his parents how great his new boss was, his stomach tied up in knots the entire time with fear that he’d seen the last of him.
Grant was easily one of the best things that had ever happened to Sunny, and knowing that he’d driven away without knowing how Sunny really felt was killing him.
He was in love with Grant. He’d never loved anyone before like he loved Grant.
And Grant…
Grant had been about to say that he loved Sunny, too. He wasn’t as subtle as he thought he was. He wasn’t subtle atall, not when it came to his feelings.
He’d known there was something up. Maybe he’d even known that Sunny was planning on slipping quietly out of his life, leaving him to get on with it and not getting in the way.
His job was to make Grant’s life easier, not more difficult.
His mom had always told him that sometimes, if you loved something, you had to let it go.
He’d let Grant go. He’d walked away without looking back, his heart in his throat the entire time, his mind still reeling over Grant’s Christmas gift to him, as well as the note inside.
Thank you for being my Sunshine.
Everything about it told him that Grant wanted him in his life, but that had been before. Before everything that had happened over the past forty-eight hours or so.
This was after. And Sunny wasn’t sure how things were in theafter.
The only thing he was sure of, at this point, was that he’d never sleep until he found out.
He threw his blankets off, sitting up on the edge of his bed and grabbing his phone, opening up a new text to Grant.
The tiny phone keyboard mocked him, his eyes refusing to focus long enough to type anything. His thumb hovered over the call button in the corner, temptation making it twitch.
No.
He needed more than a phone call.
He needed to do this in person.
Sunny tapped on his phone to switch to a rideshare app, biting down on his lip as he wondered whether anyone would be working tonight out here in a sleepy little suburb.
Sunny put in the address of the cabin and waited, shivering in the cold of his room without his nice, warm blankets.
Or possibly, shivering with fear about how this would go. What if he went all that way and poured his heart out and Grant said thanks, but no thanks?
It would have shattered Sunny’s heart to pieces. And then he’d be all alone in the middle of nowhere.
His phone vibrated in his hand, surprising him out of his thoughts.
Someonewasworking.
Sunny swallowed.
Well, it was now or never. If he wasn’t brave enough to do this tonight, he knew himself well enough to be sure that he’d let Grant slip away from him. Lose the best part of his life, the future he’d seen glimpses of, the ready-made family he could see himself as a part of.
He’d seen everything Grant came with yesterday, and it only made Sunny want him more. He was perfect, everything included.
He confirmed the pickup and forced himself to stand, looking around for clothes and spotting the blanket he’d accidentally forgotten to give back to Grant before he got out of the car.
He’d have to return that. At least that gave him the world’s flimsiest excuse to show up at one in the morning, on the verge of tears, about to rip his heart out of his chest and offer it to a man who wasn’t really in a position to accept it, even if he wanted to.
But if he didn’ttry, he’d regret it for the rest of his life.
That was all Sunny really needed to know.
