“I do too,” he said.
“Thirteen more days,” she said.
“I know.”
“I’m not the only one with the countdown in my head, huh?”
“No.” Counting down to the anniversary of his parents’ deaths wasn’t something he wanted to do, but every year by the middle of June it was there, silently clicking away in his head.
Kira reached for his hand and he took it and squeezed it tight. “You okay, kiddo?”
“Yeah, as okay as I can be. I told Connor and he’s been… well, he’s been really great.”
“Good,” he said.
A soft smile crossed her face. “Not bad for a Willington boy, huh?”
“Not bad,” he said.
She laughed and squeezed his hand before dropping it. “Enough sadness. We’ll be plenty sad in another couple of weeks. Let’s talk about Grace’s birthday. She doesn’t want anything big, so I was thinking maybe dinner at my house. Addie’s still in New York with Harper, but we could invite Preacher and a few of Grace’s coworkers. Have some pizza and birthday cake. What do you think?”
“Sounds good,” he said. “She’s made friends with one of the volunteers through Wanda’s thing. Her name is Rayna Abrams.”
“I remember her from school. She runs the animal rescue, right?”
“Yeah. We could probably get her number from Wanda.”
“Cool, I’ll invite her then. I think having the dinner on her actual birthday, the third, will be best.” She paused, a look of annoyance crossing her face. “Do you think it’s even worth it to invite her parents?”
“They’re leaving town the morning of her birthday,” he said.
“Of course, they are,” Kira said. “God, I hate them.”
“What about the carnival?” he said. “If we did it Saturday, we could have dinner and then take her to the carnival that night.”
“Ooh, not gonna work. Connor and I are going up to Willington for a fourth of July barbeque with his parents that evening – and yep, I’m nervous as hell about it – so we won’t be back until late. Plus, Gracie, like, hates the carnival. I’ve never gotten her to go to it. I don’t know why, but she refuses to go every year.”
Fresh anger at Grace’s parents hit him like a bulldozer. He barely controlled his urge to smash his fists on his desk like a three-year-old having a tantrum. He took a deep breath. There had to be something he could do for her.
Like what? You’ll be lucky if she’s still at your house when you get home tonight. You both got what you wanted from each other and she’s not going to stick around tormenting both of you.
“Gideon?” Kira waved her hand in front of his face. “Come back to me, buddy.”
“Sorry,” he said. “Listen, maybe -”
“Gideon? Did Jonas talk to you about taking – oh, sorry.” Wanda stopped in the doorway and smiled at Kira. “Hello, sweetheart.”
“Hi, Wanda.” Kira jumped up and kissed Wanda on the cheek. “It’s good to see you.”
“You too. I heard you’re dating that handsome dentist from Willington.”
“I am. Connor’s great,” Kira said. “Hey, do you have the number for Rayna Abrams? I want to invite her to Grace’s birthday party.”
“I do,” Wanda said. “Why don’t I grab it for you now.”
“That would be awesome.” Kira waved at Gideon. “See you, bud.”
“Bye, Kira.”
He leaned back in his chair as Wanda and Kira left his office. He wanted to text Gracie, wanted to see how she was doing and if she needed him.
She doesn’t need you. You’ve made it perfectly clear that she can’t need you. Not in the way she wants.
He closed his eyes and rubbed at his forehead. Grace would be gone when he got home, and he needed to accept it.
* * *
Grace sat cross-legged on the bed in Gideon’s guest room and hit the answer button on her phone. She held the phone in front of her face as Addison’s sweet face filled the screen. “Addie, hi!”
“Hi, Gracie!” Addison said. “Why didn’t you tell me there was a fire at your place? I had to find out from Daniel.”
“Because I’m perfectly fine and I didn’t want to bother you,” Grace said. “You’ve been going through a lot. How are you doing?”
Addison shrugged. “Okay, I guess. Everything is cancelled for the wedding. We lost some of our deposits, but Harper says that Harrison deserves to lose money for what he did.”
“She’s right,” Gracie said. “Is Harper around?”
“No, she’s at work right now,” Addison said. “But I’ll tell her you said hi.”
“Thanks, love. Are you coming home soon?”
A pinched look crossed Addison’s face. “I don’t think I can. Not yet. I’m sorry, I know your birthday is coming up, but -”
‘Honey, no,” Grace said. “I only asked because I miss you. But I want you to do what’s right for you. If that’s staying with Harper for a while longer, than you should do that.”
Addison sighed. “I just can’t go back home and face everyone and their judgment. I’m sure Harrison’s been telling everyone that he broke up with me and I don’t want to see the pity on their faces. Or hear them whispering as I walk down the damn street.”
“I get it,” Grace said. “But if it makes you feel any better, I haven’t heard anything about you and Harrison breaking up in the town rumour mill. So, maybe – oof! Tank, down!”
The big dog had jumped up on the bed and he sniffed Grace’s hair before collapsing next to her and putting his head in her lap.
“Grace, where are you?” Addie said.
“At Gideon’s place. He offered to let me stay here after the fire thing.”
“Wow…” Addison blinked at her. “That was… nice of him.”
Grace didn’t reply and Addison leaned a little closer to the screen. “Is it going okay? Because if it isn’t, you can stay at my apartment. Daniel has a spare key to my place.”
“It’s going fine,” Grace said. “I mean, it’s only been a couple of days, but…it’s going fine.”
Addison stared silently at her and Grace said, “We had sex.”
“Holy crap!” Addie nearly dropped her phone. “You had sex? When?”
“Last night,” Grace said. “The tension between us was, well, it was intense, so we decided to just…”
“Bang it out?” Addie said.
“I guess.”
“Did it work?”
She shrugged. “Maybe? He went with me this morning to my place to go through some of my stuff and I was pretty upset about it, so I wasn’t really thinking about what we did last night. When we were finished, he went to work, and I came back here. He’ll be home soon though.”
“Are you going to sleep with him again?” Addie said.
“No. We agreed that it would just be the one night, to get it out of our system.”