Page 69 of Keep My Heart
‘But how does that work? How can you be happy there but still like being here? They’re totally different.’
‘I don’t know. I never really thought about it that way.’ He reaches past me and opens my door. I guess that means we’re leaving. I was hoping we could talk more.
‘Want to stop anywhere else?’ Nick asks as we’re driving, but he’s already heading to my house.
‘I should probably get home. So should you. You have a repair job in the morning.’
‘That’s right. I almost forgot about that. What time should I come by?’
‘Maybe around ten? My mom will be at church, but I’ll stay home so I can let you in.’
‘Could it be earlier? Like nine?’
‘Sure.’ Nine is probably better because my mom will be home, keeping Nick and me from doing anything. ‘Am I still invited to the beer tasting?’
‘Of course. Why wouldn’t you be?’
‘I wasn’t sure with our new arrangement.’
‘We were friends before and we still are. That hasn’t changed. And I’m still taking you to dinner afterward. We’re going to celebrate your graduation.’
‘Nick, you really don’t have to do that. It was a long time ago.’
‘And you never celebrated it, so we’re doing it tomorrow.’
We’re at my house and he pulls into the driveway.
‘Thanks for tonight,’ I say as I get out of the truck. ‘It was fun.’
‘It was.’ He smiles. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’
When he’s gone, I already miss him. I’m going to miss him even more when he leaves on Monday. We’ll talk on the phone, but it won’t be the same.
Why did this have to happen? I came here to grieve the loss of my marriage and ended up having the best time of my life with a guy I can’t date. I’m more sad about that than about the divorce.
Chapter 16
Nick
‘You’re goingwhere?’ Mom asks as she pours me another cup of coffee.
We just finished a breakfast of pancakes, eggs, toast, and bacon. I’m not used to eating that much. I did when I lived here, but I was a growing boy who spent hours a day working outside in the fields. Now I just sit at a computer all day.
‘To Lyndsay’s house,’ I say. ‘I’m fixing her mom’s dishwasher.’
‘That’s interesting,’ Dad says, his bushy gray brows rising as he sips his coffee.
‘I’m doing it to be nice, not for whatever you’re thinking.’
Dad glances at Mom. ‘Tell him what I did for your mother back in the day.’
‘He fixed her car,’ Mom says to me. ‘Built her a whole new engine. It was when your grandfather had to be on the road for work. Your grandma’s car completely died one day and she didn’t have the money to take it in.’
‘So I offered to fix it for free,’ Dad says. ‘Her mother liked me from that day on.’
‘Are you saying Grandma didn’t like you before that?’ I ask.
‘She called me a dreamer, thought I had my head in the clouds because I was always talking about having my own business. She didn’t think I could do it, which meant I wouldn’t be able to support her daughter.’
