Page 88 of Training the Heart

“I think you need a day out, manis and pedis on Saturday maybe? Just the two of us? You can settle the mystery then.”

I look at her, narrowing my eyes to understand what she means.

“BDE?” she says, using her hands, pulling them apart to gauge Wade’s size. “Tell me when.”

I laugh at her; she never seems to worry about a thing, and just being around her is calming.

“You don’t really need to tell me … towels don’t hide much.” She winks then giggles, and I laugh back as she hands me a mimosa. It must be too early because the smell turns my stomach. “For what it’s worth, I’ve never seen Wade this”—she searches for the word, tapping her bottom lip with her first finger—“settled, happy.” Ginger winks at me as she lifts her glass.

“So, to being happy.” She takes a sip, and I follow suit as she shrugs the conversation off as if she has no doubt everything will just work itself out.

I swallow another sip but it almost makes me gag. I decide that’s enough morning champagne as I watch the guests start to pile in, setting gifts down and hugging each other.

Ginger turns and squeezes a tiny woman she calls “Nana” as the lump in my throat grows. A pang of want washes over me. I never envy much, my fate is my fate, but what I wouldn’t give to have a family like this to stand beside me, to be there for me when I need them.

“Come on, newbie, time to meet the town,” Olivia says, appearing from behind me. She locks arms with me, grinning and pulling me right into the crowd.

Two hours later, the living room at the big house is filled with laughter and squeals as CeCe puts her head in her hands and her cheeks turn a deep shade of pink. She’s front and center amidst a sea of boxes and wrapping paper, on her second-to-last gift.

Ginger is writing down the items received in every single card dutifully beside her so CeCe—and Nash, CeCe is convinced—will have an easy time writing thank-you cards out later. Jo is on the other side, playing a gift Santa of sorts. I crane my neck to try to see what is so funny about the gift CeCe is holding. She holds open her palm at Ginger’s coaxing. It looks like a tiny silicone rose. Ginger’s endearing and very innocent little grandmother smiles and speaks up over the crowd.

“It’s the newest model, dear.”

“Granny Dan! You … shouldn’t have.” CeCe laughs, still blushing and trying to hide the gift from her mother’s prying eyes.

“I’m your mama and I’m old but I’m not stupid,” Jo giggles.

Granny Dan holds up a finger as if she’s trying to sell the device CeCe is cradling in her hand for a living. I grin instantly, knowing what it is finally, and can’t believe this little old woman that looks like the Queen of England purchased a vibrator from God knows where? Would a woman that age use the internet?

“The best part about it is that it’s very tiny and inconspicuous, a lot easier to keep in small spaces, and if you ever lose it the average person won’t even know what it is.” She winks as a doubled-over Ginger starts into a story about CeCe losing her not-so-inconspicuous vibrator in the town’s car depot.

I laugh along with them. Ginger’s story and CeCe’s guests’ laughter fade to the background as I see my phone light up in my lap with Wade’s name again. Just his name on my screen ignites something in me. I’m not used to spending the day apart from him.

After almost three months of working side by side, day in and day out, it feels odd.

A tsunami of emotion I know I’ve been fighting washes over me, crushing me. It settles deep into my bones. I can’t figure out why I’m so damn sappy all of a sudden. Is it the setting of beingat a bridal shower? Whatever it is, I can’t shake Ginger’s words as I open my phone. She not only said that Wade is happy, he’s settled, because of me.

A thousand moments flash through my mind as I search for that truth. The way he brushes my hair off my face in the morning, to kiss me on the forehead; how he is now the proud owner of every streaming service known to man, so our well of movies doesn’t run dry. How he drives all the way to Lexington to buy M&M’s in bulk from Costco for our ice cream nights. My fresh towels in the bathroom for my shower and my coffee brewed for me before he goes to the barn on the mornings when he’s got to be out there earlier than I do. Even just those moments when I hear his voice in any given space, it makes me feel warm and whole just knowing he’s around, and it hits me sure and swift. Thatisreal happiness.

A kind I’ve never felt. I open his text up and smile. It’s taken me way too long to admit it to myself but I think I’m in love with Wade Ashby, desperately in love. And if I do, in fact, have to leave him and Silver Pines behind anytime soon, it might just threaten to destroy me.

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

Wade

These boys are actually telling meMr & Mrs Smithisn’t a romance movie and I need some backup

TROUBLE

The audacity. It’s clearly an iconic love story.

Right? And it’s one we haven’t watched together yet, how can that be? I thought we’d watched them all.

TROUBLE

No clue but that’s a damn shame. Tonight’s movie then?

Sounds like a date.

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