Page 142 of Anyone But Her

"He hurt you too by treating you the way he did."

"I know, but I didn't want to bring all that up today. I want us both to get past it. My dad and I will never have much in common but if I do stuff with him, stuff that he likes, I think we'll get along better."

"When are you going to the baseball game?"

"I'm not sure. I told him we were leaving tomorrow so it'll have to be whenever we're back in town."

"Why don't we just stay?"

"Stay where?"

"Here. We could start figuring out how to fix up the house and you could spend some time with your dad. I wouldn't mind hanging out with your mom. She's not as bad as you made her sound. She was even asking me about golf."

"She was?"

"She wants to learn how it works so she can understand what's going on when she watches you play."

"My mom's going to watch me play? She said that?"

"She wants to go to one of your tournaments but it has to be close by. She doesn't have money to travel."

"If she really wanted to go I'd pay for it. I'd love to have my mom there."

"What about your dad?"

"He'd never go. He hates golf."

"Maybe he will if you guys start getting along better." I glance around the room. "I think a gray-green color on the walls would look good. And maybe switch out the navy curtains with white ones to brighten the place up. And then maybe we could—"

"Taylor." Luke lifts my face up to his.

"What? What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just had to tell how much I love you for doing this." He rests his hand along the side of my face and looks in my eyes. "Do you have any idea how happy you make me?"

I smile. "You make me happy too."

"When I was ten Albert told me to find something I love to do and then find a way to make a living doing it. He said that was one of the two secrets of happiness."

"What was the other?"

"He wouldn't tell me. He said I was too young. Then right at that moment I looked at the TV and saw you standing behind your dad. I couldn't stop staring at you. Albert noticed and said I might be ready for him to tell me the other secret to happiness."

"So what was it?"

"You."

"Me?"

"Not you specifically. He said someday I'll meet a girl that I like that I'll eventually grow to love, and if she loves me back I'll know happiness like I've never known before. At the time I couldn't imagine anything making me happier than golf, but now I get what he meant." Luke smiles. "You make me even happier than golf."

"Luke," I say, tearing up a little. I love the way he's so open with me, always telling me how he feels. He says the sweetest things. Things I never thought I'd hear a guy say to me.

"And the fact that you came here with me and met my parents and offered to help me with the house...it makes me love you even more." He kisses me. "Let's get out of here and see if we can talk to that lawyer. If he's not there we'll just start our trip. I'll try to call him later."

"Our trip? I thought we were staying here."

"Taylor, you know I wouldn't make you do that. We planned a trip together. We talked about it the whole drive here."

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