Chapter Twenty-Seven
“One last hug?” Grant asked as he carried Hope’s bags out to the car for her, wanting to wring every precious second out of their time together.
He was glad she was moving closer. Living so far away from his loved ones had been agony, and he couldn’t wait until that was over.
Julia had said they needed to move by March. Grant could hold out that long.
He’d already held out a lot longer, and this Christmas had given him a lot more strength than he was used to having.
Besides, he had Sunny to help him. He couldn’t stop smiling every time he thought about that.
Hope threw her arms around him, squeezing tight. She was getting tall, fast. One of these days she’d be all grown up, and Grant would be left wondering what the hell happened.
He had plenty of memories of exactly what the hell had happened--birthday parties, and scraped knees, and childhood crushes, and all the things that were a part of growing up, but it still felt so soon, as though he’d been holding her wrapped in blankets only last week.
Today, it didn’t feel as though twelve years had passed. He felt like a young man again, with his whole life ahead of him.
Sunny helped with that. Sunny helped with alotof things.
“I love you, honey,” Grant murmured in Hope’s ear as he held her, his heart tugging as he was eventually forced to let go. “You wanna come over two weekends from now? I can show you around the city.”
If he was lucky, Sunny would help him with that, too. He seemed to like Hope, and Hope seemed to like him.
Grant could break the news that daddy had a new boyfriend later. He was starting to think that all the worrying he’d done about whether or not Hope would be okay with that was stupid.
She’d be excited. There wasn’t really a jealous bone in her body. Like everyone, she got a little nervous around change, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t be happy.
And they could take it a step at a time. If anyone would understand, it was Sunny. He had a way of understanding everything.
Grant was still pretty sure he was some kind of Christmas miracle. An angel sent to help him out, like something out of a crappy holiday movie.
As long as he got to keep him, though, Grant didn’t really care where he’d come from. As long as he stayed.
Hope turned to Julia, bouncing with excitement. “Can I? I promise I’ll be good.”
Julia smiled over at Grant, nodding in approval. “I think we could arrange that. We need to start looking at places anyway, so…”
“You can stay with me,” Grant said. There wasn’t enough room in his apartment, but he’d figure it out. There was a couch. He’d be happy sleeping on that if it meant he was a step closer to having everyone he loved a little closer than before.
Julia glanced behind him, over at the cabin. Grant knew Sunny was standing in the doorway, watching them from a safe distance. “I think we can figure out a hotel nearby,” she said. “Considering how loud you were last night.”
Grant blushed to the tips of his ears, the cold air making them feel even hotter than they otherwise would have.
He looked down at his feet for a moment to compose himself, then cleared his throat and looked back up to meet Julia’s gaze. “Yeah, well. Consider it payback for when you started bringing Joon over.”
Julia chuckled. “I’m glad you’re happy. I just don’t wanna sleep in the next room over.”
“Fair,” Grant said. “And thank you. Your blessing actually means a lot.”
“You don’t need it,” Julia said. “But you definitely have it. It’s good to see you smiling again.”
Grant could barelystopsmiling. He was afraid it was starting to get obnoxious.
“So I’ll see you in a while? We can work out arrangements whenever.”
“I’ll book flights in the car and text you the details,” Julia said. “Don’t worry. You’ll see so much of us soon that you’ll get sick of us.”
Grant shook his head. “Never. I love you guys.”
