Julie crossed her arms and stared at her maternal grandmother. Stubbornness ran in the family, as did avoiding the doctor—something she was looking to fix. “Grams, it could help with the pain. At least give it a try.”
Grams haughtily lifted her head. “I don’t like needles.”
“Do you like having swollen, painful knuckles?”
“They have their uses,” she said, running one of them down Julie’s cheek. “And the pain reminds me I’m still alive and kicking. Now, tell me all about your fancy life.”
“It’s less fancy and more…” What was a good word for it? “I love my job, and I’m a fan of the warmer weather. I miss living close to my family, of course.”
“Nice save.” Grams guffawed, and then she glanced at her watch. “Isn’t Gavin coming to pick you up soon?”
Julie peeked at the delicate gold clock face on her grandma’s wrist. “Yeah, he is. I told Mom I could drive, or wait to head to the Frosts with them, but she insisted I should change.” She gestured at her tattered T-shirt and threadbare yoga pants, and infused sarcasm into her words. “What’s wrong with what I have on?”
“I suppose she’s afraid it won’t impress a certain fellow.”
The frustration Julie had felt since last night rallied its strength—evidently, that question wasn’t as rhetorical as she’d thought. “She really needs to give up on her attempts to force Gavin and me together. It’s been years and years of her and Darlene’s schemes. If we were going to get together, we would’ve done so by now.”
The fib tasted bitter on the way out. Whether from it not quite ringing true anymore or from the disappointment it caused, she wasn’t sure.
Behind her glasses, Grams’s overly magnified blue eyes widened. “Hmm. Interesting.”
“What’s interesting?” Had her poker face slipped? Were her wishful thoughts displayed in her features? Where had she gone wrong?
Surely Grams couldn’t know they’d slipped across the line a little, just to realize all the reasons they couldn’t.
Right?
“Well, I meant that Cohen boy—Kory, I believe it was—and you mentioned Gavin.”
Busted. “Oh.” Julie pulled a face. “I sorta forgot about Kory. It makes sense that he’d attend the big Christmas pageant with the rest of the town, though. But shouldn’t my mother have mentioned that as she was putting on the pressure to wear something nice and curl my hair?”
“I suppose that she, like me, sensed your heart doesn’t lie with Kory,” Grams said. “I have my doubts she ever thought it would. Perhaps all the constant matchmaking, meddling, and mistletoe have finally kicked in.”
Julie adamantly shook her head.
Cool, veined hands sandwiched one of Julie’s, and Grams gave her a consoling smile. “You’re really gonna stand here and tell your grandmother that nothing’s changed? Even though I see that twinkle in your eye whenever Gavin’s name comes up?”
“Friendship is nice that way,” Julie said, sticking to her denial guns without totally lying.
“I notice you didn’t deny things had changed.”
An unexpected lump formed in her throat, and were tears seriously forming? Jeez, emotions, way to give away her ruse. “It doesn’t matter. He doesn’t feel it as strongly as I do, not to mention our lives have gone in completely different directions. Even if we could overcome that, the timing’s off, and…” A tear slipped down her cheek as she repeated the shaking of her head.
Grams wound her arms around Julie. Equally short in stature, Grams gave the tightest hugs in history, and right now Julie needed every last newton of force. “We love the both of you and how exponentially our family has grown since the Frosts moved to Crystal Springs. As much as we all hoped it might work out, I suppose none of us fully thought through the various complications, how bumpy the path might be, or anyone ending up with hurt feelings.”
Pain lanced Julie’s heart. Part of her had been holding out the tiniest bit, the glimmer of hope a beacon she couldn’t quite let go of. In a lot of ways, having Grams validate her concerns was a step in a positive direction. It’d help stifle all the what-if questions that were constantly swimming through her head. An idealistic notion about what love could conquer wouldn’t do anyone any good. If anything, it’d lead to a bigger crash when she returned to her Phoenix apartment and found herself alone and as boring as Brad accused her of being.
“But,” Grams said, pulling back to look her in the eye. “I’d also like you to indulge an old woman and allow her to give you some hard-earned life advice…”
After all the head shaking, it was a relief to nod.
“On top of being a total”—Grams lowered her voice to a whisper—“bitch, timing is a myth. When it comes to what you want, often you just have to seize the moment.”
…
Gavin struggled with the buttons on his shirt for more minutes than he wanted to confess to, unsure whether it was because of his injury, or his messy thoughts, or both. It wasn’t like the run-in with Kristin had been bad; more like it’d reminded him of what he’d already decided.
After strained pleasantries and a couple sentences of idle chitchat under the guise of catching up, Kristin didn’t bother holding back. It seemed she’d had the words at the ready, too, presumably because she’d been wanting to speak her mind on the subject and how everything had gone down between them for a while.
All those wasted years… Gavin did his best to smother the rest of the words that’d replayed on a loop and messed with his emotions and his mind. Long story short, it reinforced his earlier conclusion: he didn’t have any business considering any type of dalliance with Jules.
“Grr.” Releasing the two sides of his shirt, he crossed from his room to the office and knocked.
“Yeah?” Julie called, and when he opened the door, a black ball of fur barreled into the hallway. The cat seemed offended to find Gavin there. After taking a second to convey as much, Kylo Ren pranced across the hall and leaped onto the rumpled sheets and comforter strewn across Gavin’s bed.
“Sure, go right ahead, dude. Make yourself at home.” Gavin stepped across the threshold and scanned the room. He was sure Julie had answered, but there wasn’t another way out of the office and—
“Hey,” she said, popping out from under the desk. Not that he’d admit it, but he jumped the slightest bit, thrown off by her sudden appearance.
And speaking of appearance… Holy. Shit. The navy dress hugged her body as if it were made for her, and with every movement, the fabric shimmered and sparkled in the overhead lights. Under other circumstances, he might tease her about it having only one sleeve, but due to her exposed shoulder and the flare of her hips, he’d instantly become a fan.