“My point exactly.” Bass turned to look at me, his tone all business now.
“Seriously? Are you guys worried about this? We’re fine. Everything is good. What’s the problem?” I asked, my voice coming off more defensive than I meant it to.
“Dude. You’re in the most serious relationship you’ve ever been in, and she’s fucking leaving,” Brody said. “This is not a fling. This is not a friends-with-benefits situation. This is a disaster in the making.” He shook his head in disbelief, as if I should have known this.
“We’ll be fine. We’ll figure something out.”
But I knew he was right. I was trying not to let myself even go there. Not to admit that I was clearly headed for exactly what I’d always avoided. Because I was in love with this girl, and when she left, it was going to shatter me. We had no idea what the future held, and she might leave and never look back. I mean, of course we’d always be best friends, but this was so much more now. And the idea of it ending scared the shit out of me.
“Have you discussed it? I mean, you could try the long-distance thing,” Bass suggested.
“She’s moving to New York. That’s on the other side of the country. How would that possibly work?” Brody leaned back in the booth and reached for his mug.
I scrubbed a hand down my face. “Listen, things got a little more complicated than we planned. I know that. I didn’t expect this to turn into what it has. Maybe it’s because we have a history. Maybe it’s because we were already best friends. I don’t fucking know. But we have a plan, and I’m fairly certain she wants to stick to it.”
She’d made that clear. She was the one who was leaving. The ball was in her court.
“I don’t know that it’s going to be that simple, Heart.” Bass did not hide his concern. “I’ve never seen you like this. And you’ve always been the happiest dude I know. But you’re just—happiest when you’re with her. So I don’t know how you’re going to handle being away from her.”
“It’s not like you can pack up and move to New York. You have a business here. Have you guys discussed it?” Brody pressed. “Does she know how long she wants to stay in New York?”
“No. We don’t talk about it. We’re just—aware that it’s coming, you know?” I tried to keep my tone calm, but I knew this was not going to be easy. “And she’s excited about New York. So I don’t want to fucking dim her light. I would never do that. But I’m not sure how this works when she leaves. We had rules in place, rules that I laughed about because she insisted on writing them down in her notebook. But it was always clear that it would end, and we’d just go back to being best friends.”
These guys knew me well, and they were right to be concerned. I was concerned.
The only person who didn’t seem concerned was Gracie.
She was confident about our plan, or at least she acted like she was.
She never talked about what would happen when she left. We were just always in the moment, but also very aware that there was an end date.
“Will it bother you if she starts dating when she moves to New York?” Bass asked.
My jaw clenched at his question.
“That’s a fucked-up question. Don’t ask me that,” I hissed.
“Well, I guess I just got my answer.” He gave me a look. “This is a wake-up call, Heart. You need to get yourself in check. Because she’s leaving in less than a month, and you two are shacked up like you’re in for the long game. We’re just worried about you, brother. Hell, we’re worried about her too.”
I glanced down at my phone to see a text from my mom.
Mama
Hey, sweetheart. I was just talking to Uncle Bridger about Christmas, and I told him you might be bringing your girlfriend. Is that still going strong?
I groaned and set my phone down.
“What’s wrong?” Brody asked.
“My mom is obsessed with meeting my mystery girl. She asked me if I was in love yesterday.” I rubbed my face.
“Are you?”
“What? I mean, of course I love Gracie. I always have. But this is—different. At least for me it is. But I’m more than aware that this wasn’t supposed to be her end-game. She doesn’t think I’m that guy. She’s also made it clear that she doesn’t want to be in a serious relationship right now. That’s why this works. For the first time in her life, she wants to focus on her career andherself. I know that. So what am I going to do? Fuck it all up for her and tell her I’m madly fucking in love with her?”
“Well, yeah. That’s kind of how it works when you fall in love with someone. You’re supposed to tell them.” Bass smirked as he picked at the fruit on his plate and popped a piece of cantaloupe in his mouth.
“And what if I’m not that guy? What if I put it all out there and then I fuck it up? This is Gracie. I can’t risk that.”
