Page 97 of Holding Out

For a moment her heart went wild, and then her practical self took over.If Griff had wanted to talk to her, he knew where to find her.He didn’t have to send an advance guard.

Someone where?

At KidsUp.

Jed.

A FaceTime request chimed through on her phone from Nate and she accepted it.His face flashed by, canted at an angle as he passed the phone, and then the screen filled with Jed’s face.

“I got a B on my paper.”A small, pleased half-smile tugged at one corner of his mouth.“The one you helped me write.”

A buoyant feeling rushed through her chest.

“He came in just to tell you,” Nate said in the background.“I told him you weren’t here but that you’d want to know.”

“I do want to know.”She nodded to Jed.“That’s amazing.I’m—” she hesitated, thinking about whether she had the right to say what was on the tip of her tongue.“I’m proud of you,” she said finally, because it was the truth and worth saying.

The wariness hadn’t left his face—she guessed it almost never did—but he smiled.Then he frowned.“I have to write another one.About something I did that changed my life.I wanted to know if you’d help.I thought if you did, maybe I could get a B-plus this time.”

Becca looked around her at the shop.The lobby where she sat was elegant, with shelves full of expensive beauty products that she earned a sizeable commission by selling.She was making more money here than she’d made at Julia’s or at R&R, but—

“I told him you’re in Seattle now,” Nate said, but his face held a question.

Shewasin Seattle.

She was in Seattle and not in Tierney Bay.Even though pretty much everything she cared about other than Jenina was in Tierney Bay.

Jenina had been right.New Becca had been so busy trying not to get hurt that she’d run away from the things that were making her happy for the first time in her adult life.

For the first time, I know I’m good enough, and I’m going to treat myself like I deserve the best,she had told Griff.And in this case?It means I won’t set myself up for failure.

It had felt so true that night.

But now she saw it differently.

She’d pushed Griff away.She’d put several hundred miles of geography between them because it had felt like she would always be living in the shadow of the woman he truly loved and could never forget.She didn’t give herself enough credit for being someone Griff could feel that way about, even though Griff was constantly reminding her not to sell herself short.

She’d been so scared of being told—in actions, if not words—that she wasn’tenoughthat she’d completely forgotten how hard it would be for a man who’d been hurt as badly as Griff to try again.

Of course he’d gotten angry at her.He had crossed a chasm a mile wide and she’d rewarded him by kicking him in the nuts.

On her phone screen, Jed still waited patiently.He’d been scared to write his English paper but he’d written it anyway, and he’d come back to tell her he’d done it.

Becca knew that the reason Jed had warmed to her was that she had made herself vulnerable to him.And she had had the courage to do it in large part because Griff had made himself vulnerable to her.

It was a small, sweet, human miracle every time one person coaxed another out of their armor, the way she and Griff had managed to do with each other.And the thing was, if you had to get hurt sometimes doing it, well, fuck it—that was the price of making miracles.

She drew a deep breath and smiled at Jed.“When’s it due?”

“Next Friday.”

“Like a week from tomorrow?”

Jed nodded.

“Can you come back in to KidsUp tomorrow?”

He looked up, presumably to where Nate was standing off screen, then back at her.“Yeah.”

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