Page 17 of New Girl in Town
I glanced away when his eyes met mine and he laughed. “So that was it.I knew it.”
“How did you know about that?” I repeated.
“Melinda.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and swore. “She’s a dead woman.”
Grant shrugged. “She just wants the best for you,” he said, as if we were discussing the weather and not my meddling best friend.
I crossed my arms. “And that’s you, is it?”
“I mean, it could be.”
I froze, still as a statue. Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined Grant would answer me like that.
“You think you’re the best choice—”
“Now if your question isam Ithe best man, then it’s no, but I’m a good man, Aurora. And I can see that you’re a woman who deserves something good because, sweetheart, you are something else.”
I blinked. “I am?”
“You’re the kind of something else that’s special, and I’m not stupid, even if I am younger than you. I know enough that when life gives you special, you grab her with both hands and pull her close.”
I swallowed hard at his use ofherand notit. I wasn’t obtuse. I understood his meaning and I was gobsmacked. But how did Grant see that I was something special when I wasn’t sure of it anymore?
Maybe once I had walked in the knowledge that I was special, that a big thing would hit me right over the head and change my life in the blink of an eye, but now I didn’t know what I believed anymore.
“Aurora…”
The look on Grant’s face was gentle. His voice was gentler still, and my brain shorted out and I forgot how to breathe. I forced myself to take in a breath, and then another, until I was able to speak.
“What?”
“Sweetheart.”
“Yeah?”
“Will you go out with me again?”
The question settled on me like the suffocating feeling of a band slipping down and around my chest, allowing only the slightest of breaths. I struggled to sound casual.
“I don’t think I should.”
“But do you want to?”
It was impossible for my heart and my chest not to ache with each and every movement. “I do,” I admitted.
“Then why don’t you let yourself see if I’m the kind of good you deserve?”
The pressure was now downright crushing, and I winced as I shifted. “It’s not that simple.”
“It could be, but it’s okay. I can wait.”
And just like that the band snapped, and I could breathe again. “What?”
Sincere eyes hit mine when my head whipped to face him. “I can wait on you, Aurora, because I know that your brand of special is worth being patient for.”
“Oh,” I said and gave him a watery smile.
