Page 62 of The Cadence
Well, now I had to admit to what I’d been spiraling over. “I thought you went to see her,” I answered. “You had told me that you got together when you went to Alabama.”
“We used to, sometimes, but she texted me not too long ago to say that she’s engaged. She moved to Oklahoma to be with her fiancé.” He tilted his head. “Were you worried about that?”
This was a perfect time for a lie, the kind that you told for the greater good. The greater good in this case was protecting my pride. “Not really,” I answered.
“Even if she had been there, we wouldn’t have gotten together,” he said.
No, of course not, because she had the fiancé. I nodded.
He continued to explain himself, although it was none of my business. “I did go out more than I usually do. The night before the game, I went with Ray Bishop, the former Woodsmen, to meet a fan. Bishop works with a lot of kids’ charities and he wanted my help with something. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to make you upset.”
“Why would I get upset?”
“I went to meet a fan of mine, a little boy who has the same cancer that your grandmother did. It’s very sad.” He watched me closely.
“Oh. I get it.” I tried not to react like he’d thought I would, but I failed a little. “Poor little guy.”
“That was what I thought, so I went over there.” This time, he took the edge of the towel wrapped around me and carefully patted under my eyes. “That’s why I didn’t tell you.”
“It’s ok.” But I did have to wonder if I was ever going to be more stable with my emotions, or if I would always be on the edge of crying like this. I missed my grandma a lot and I also missed knowing that there was somebody who loved me so much. At least I’d had it once, and that was very special.
“Are you still cold?” Will asked. He moved his legs and angled up the uninjured one. “You could sit here, and I’d block the wind for you.” He patted a spot on the towel.
It meant me moving to sit in the V he’d created. “Ok,” I agreed. I carefully positioned myself so that I wouldn’t touch his injured ankle, and then I slowly leaned back against his bare chest. Despite the little fall bite in the air, his skin was warm and he felt so solid.
“Better?”
I nodded and let myself fully relax. “You’re a nice windbreak,” I complimented.
“Good.” We both watched the water breaking over the little rocks and sand. “I hope that you’ll let me be a part of your future.”
I felt my heart start to pound and I wondered if he could feel it, too. “I hope that I’m a part of yours.”
“You don’t need to worry,” he said. “We can take on what’s coming, whatever it is.”
The thing about Will was that he meant what he said, and I believed him. I turned my face away from the waves so that my ear was against his chest, and I could hear his heart pounding, too.
Chapter 13
Ihesitated and pushed my knuckle against my lip as I wasted more time in thought. “It’s hard to choose,” I explained.
“It really is,” Annie Whitaker-Gassman sympathized. “Don’t I know it! It took me six months to pick the color for my son Theodoric’s room and I even consulted a psychic. In the end, we threw darts at paint chips and that was fun. It’s a great shade of green.” She leaned closer and studied the rectangles of white paint samples that she’d laid out on the kitchen countertop. “Personally, I like that one.”
“Ok, me too,” I said gratefully.
“I wish that Remy were here to help. She’s decisive—did I show you the new pictures?” Annie pulled out her giant phone and opened it to display at least a hundred shots of her business partner’s new baby and her other kids, too. “We’re going to add a second story on their house! It’s so exciting.”
It sounded terrifying to me, but I was the coward who had been paralyzed because I couldn’t choose between “WhisperyCreamy” and “Crumb of Cream” for the guest cottage trim paint. I was also the person decorating furniture, so I was supposed to be good with color. “I’m glad they’re doing so well,” I said.
“They’re great,” she assured me. “Look at this. See his little dimple? Just like his father!” Annie actually got teary-eyed. “I love babies.”
I guessed that she did, since she’d had so many herself. She had shown me pictures of all her children, her brother Luke’s children, her cousins’ children, and other ones that weren’t related to her at all, but were the children of her former nanny and one of the Woodsmen players. She was correct that they were all cute.
“Do you and Will want a family?” she asked me, and I gaped with surprise. Literally, my mouth dropped open and I stared.
“Annie, you know that we have separate bedrooms,” I finally reminded her. “You know that we’re not a real couple, so why would you say that?”
“I do know, and I apologize. My sister-in-law Emily is always telling me to try to keep my thoughts to myself, but it’s hard when I see…anyway, I’ll keep my thoughts to myself,” she concluded.
