Page 147 of Anyone But Her

My heart sinks. Luke is moving? Now I'll never see him. I was counting on him being here when I came back on school breaks. But now he'll be somewhere else. Probably someplace even farther away, like Texas or Florida.

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?"

"Because I wanted it to be a surprise."

"A surprise? That's a horrible surprise! Having you leave Arizona means I'll see you even less. You won't be here when I come home on breaks or at holidays or— "

He stops me with a kiss. "I'll be here for all of that. We'll come back here together."

"What do you mean?"

He takes my hand and holds it. "I'm moving to California."

"Back to San Diego?"

"No. To a small town in northern California. It's a college town. There's this girl who goes to school there. I'm totally in love with her and can't live a day without her so I really have no choice but to move there."

"You're moving?" I smile. "You're going with me to Camsburg?"

"I won't be going to school there but I'll be living in the town. In an apartment not too far from campus. I was kinda hoping you might live there too."

My eyes widen. "You're seriously moving there? You already have an apartment?"

"I found one. I haven't put a deposit down yet. I wanted to talk to you first. See if you were okay with me living there."

"Are you kidding?" I hug him. "Of course I want you there! I can't believe you didn't tell me this sooner!"

"I just decided it the other day. I kept thinking about how much I was going to miss you and wondering how I could go all that time without you and decided I just couldn't do it. It's like asking me not to golf for months. It's impossible. So I started thinking about how I could make this work. I can golf anywhere but leaving my golf coach was going to be hard. And then, by some miracle, my coach tells me he's moving to California in a month. He's been hired to do golf instruction at some private club just south of Napa. I'll have to drive an hour to meet with him but that's a lot closer than Phoenix."

"Albert did this," I say, smiling. "He totally got your coach that job."

"Could be. All Albert ever wanted was for me to be happy and he knows how happy you make me."

I stare at him, my mind still processing this. "So you're really moving? This is real? I'm not just imagining it?"

"It's real, but I'm still waiting for an answer. What do you think about living with me? I know your dad won't be happy about it but technically we've already lived together so maybe it won't be that big a deal."

"It will be. He'll be mad, but he'll get over it."

"So is that a yes? You'll move in with me?"

"Yes! I can't wait! I'll get to see you all the time, even more than I do now."

"I'll have to travel to some tournaments so I'll be gone for those, but other than that, we'll be together. Oh, and I have some other news."

"What is it?"

"I found someone to rent the house. My dad said the bathroom tile would be done this week. My mom's going to clean the place and then it should be ready to move in."

Luke's dad lost his job in July, right after Luke and I were there. His dad needed money so Luke offered to pay him to fix up Albert's house. I didn't think his dad would agree to it but he did. So far he's replaced the kitchen cabinets and put in a new tile floor and backsplash. Now he's renovating the bathrooms. Luke's mom is helping too. She works full-time but at night she goes over to Albert's house and helps clean up the construction mess.

"Who's renting it?"

"An old lady. Her house was too big to take care of so she wanted something smaller."

"How'd you find her?"

"She answered the ad. When she called, she told me she'd been to the house before and that it was the perfect size. She said it was just what she was looking for."

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