Page 32 of Eight Years Gone

What they both knew she’d been too polite to say was that she hadn’t seen him since he nearly beat the shit out of her buddy.

He’d kept his distance, making certain he’d finished with whatever Aunt Mags had needed done before Grace arrived at work. They still needed to talk, but crowding her wasn’t the answer. He wanted her to come to him when she was ready.

“You’ve been helping Aunt Maggie a lot,” Grace continued. Then she shook her head. “You’ve been helping us both. Thank you.”

He nodded. “Aunt Mags has always been good to me. I want to return the favor.”

“The ramp is great—really beautiful.”

He shrugged because he wasn’t looking for Grace’s gratitude. “She needs it.”

“Yes, she does.”

“I was happy to do it.”

She cleared her throat and opened her mouth to say something more when they both spotted Ben. Grace smiled and waved at her date far more comfortably than she had at Jagger.

Ben looked from Grace to Jagger and back before raising his hand.

“I should go,” she said.

He wanted to snag her hand and ask her to stay with him. But he let her go. “Yeah.”

“Have fun tonight.”

He nodded, watching Grace walk over to Ben and grin as he hooked his arm around her shoulders. He yearned to turn away but forced himself to stare at the truth as Ben and Grace met up with Christy and Christy’s husband, Mike.

The small group laughed as they talked, standing in a circle—friends in the town they all lived in.

Grace moved closer to the man she was dating as Ben’s fingers intimately caressed her arm.

She was happy. Her life had turned out differently than the dreams they’d woven together so long ago.

Grace took her pictures as more of a hobby than a profession. She helped her aunt run the florist shop on Main Street instead of traveling the world. But that didn’t mean that this wasn’t exactly what she wanted.

He’d walked away, leaving the woman he loved on the worst night of their lives, and she’d moved on.

He shouldn’t have come—or he shouldn’t have stayed. He didn’t belong in Preston Valley.

He’d wanted to help her—to try to make things right. Maybe somewhere deep down, he’d let himself hope that they might find their way back to one another after he’d realized that she wasn’t married.

But it was time to go.

Looking at Grace again, knowing that this would be how he would remember her—rosy cheeks and bold blue eyes on a mid-September night, he turned away, heading for the car.

He needed to pick up his things, then swing by Maggie’s for a quick goodbye.

* * *

“We’ve saved you a spot by the fire,” Christy tossed over her shoulder as she and Mike headed closer to their blankets.

“Thanks,” Grace said, smiling at Ben as their friends walked away.

“Should we head over?” Ben asked, looking casual and handsome in jeans and a red plaid button-down covering his white T-shirt.

Grace glanced toward the sunset—toward the treasured golden hour when the light did magical things to a picture. “Uh, I want to get a few more shots before I lose the light.”

Ben nodded. “I’ll grab us a couple of hot chocolates. Maybe we can meet back here in twenty minutes?”

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