Page 125 of Broken Dreams
I want to stay in Sugarloaf. I’ve built a life there and I love my home. Then there’s this really stupid part of me that’s considering him, but now, he has the money and there’s no reason to stay together.
“Grady?” He stares at me as we sway. “Is there a reason I should stay in Sugarloaf? Any reason?”
Like you want to try?
He looks to the side and then back to me. “I’m sure there are lots, but those aren’t for me to tell you. You need to follow your heart.”
Right.
No, he’s right. He’s made it very clear what we are, and I agreed to it. It’s not his fault that I want to change things. However, my heart wants something very different than my head knows I should.
“Hopefully my heart will give me some answers.”
As though he can read my mind, see into my soul, he shakes his head and then pulls me close. After a few seconds, he leans in, our foreheads touching. “I wish I was a different man.”
“If you were, I wouldn’t be here right now.”
I would be alone or trying my hand at more bad dates, but I’m not. I’m inhisarms. Withthisman who has so much love to give if he’d just try.
“That would be a travesty. God, Addy, I’m going to miss this when we get back. I’m going to miss you.”
I put my finger to his lips, not wanting him to talk about when we end. Not wanting to think about what’s to come.
“Right now, you don’t have to miss me. I’m right here. Just dance with me and we’ll deal with the future when we get back.”
This weekend may be our last and I’m going to soak up every freaking minute. It’ll be what I hold onto at night when I no longer have him.
And it makes me coming back here just a little more appealing.
* * *
“You look happy, Addy,” Blakely says as she hands me a glass of wine. “You know we can still walk away from this deal, if you want to stay in Sugarloaf...”
Grady is at the table with Emmett, talking about military life, the things they’ve done, and Blakely pulled me here because neither of us cared to hear their stories. Not that Blakely doesn’t have enough of her own as a former combat medic. It’s how she met Emmett, she was assigned to his Ranger unit, and they met, became friends, and then got married—both claiming not to have feelings for each other.
Which was total shit.
Sort of familiar now that I think about it.
“I just need to think about it. Moving Elodie isn’t an easy decision.”
“It’s back home, though. You’d have us and we’re family. I know going to Sugarloaf after Isaac died was the right move for you, but we miss you and this is a great opportunity.”
It is, but it’s also a lot. “It just kind of changes the entire point of what we did. You know that I worked doing corporate mergers before I got pregnant, and it’s not cut and dry. They’re going to want huge changes. Us having one main office here in Rose Canyon is just the beginning. They’ll change everything. Everything we do will have a policy in place and it’s just not as easy as me moving back. It would change the entire charity.”
It’s one of the things that worries me. The company that wants to come in is actually a really good one. It’s probably the only reason we’re entertaining it, but it still leaves us in a very different reality than we are now.
We’ve spent the last few years building a community around Run to Me. It’s a place where people get personal attention and their needs met on a level that corporations aren’t going to want to fund.
“Maybe we need that, though. The amount of people we can help will just be a million times bigger than we can do with our grassroots operation.”
“I know.”
Blakely rests her hand on mine. “But even with that said, I’ll support turning it down. While our mission is important to both of us for many reasons, it’s not themostimportant thing.”
I smile at my friend, loving her even more than I already do. “I appreciate that.”
“I mean it, Addy. I know what it feels like to walk away from the man I love for work. I did it with Emmett. I spent years hating myself for it, trying to come up with some bullshit reason to excuse it. Then, he served me with divorce papers, and it was like I couldn’t breathe. The thought of closing that door had me on a plane weeks later and...well, we know the outcome of that.” She looks over at her husband with soft eyes. “Just know I’ll deny this if you ever repeat it, but there’s nothing more important in life than him and if you feel even an inkling of that for Grady, then we turn this down.”
