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“There was something about the time we spent together in Colorado and Oregon that made me realize I want to spend more time with you, Grace Overstreet,” I said. “A lot more time. If you’ll give me a chance, I’d like to see where that relationship heads. If it goes anywhere more serious, then you and I will be the first to know and can decide what we’d like to do from there.”
She pursed her lips.
“I – …”
It took her a moment to completely form her thought, but I didn’t rush her. After her patience with me with the weather and with the entire trip, I thought she deserved the same.
“I’d like that, a lot, Gabe,” she finally managed to say. “I wasn’t sure you’d ever want to talk about the kiss again after I kind of… brushed you off in Oregon… and that was wrong of me. I just had a deadline and didn’t know what else to do.”
I smiled at her.
“Well, now you don’t have to worry about that.”
Chapter eighteen
Grace
Returning to my own apartment after dinner with Gabe felt strange, as if I’d left part of home over at his place, if that makes sense. In contrast, my apartment felt empty and cold. He had welcomed me in without a word, and the conversation had taken an interesting turn. We had become a couple over the course of only a couple of hours. Then again, we had shared a kiss in Dawn, Colorado.
As I took my shoes off, I couldn’t help but want to share the news. I glanced at the clock I had sitting in my entry hall and learned that it wasn’t even eight in the evening yet. Most of my friends were night owls. I was the only exception, as I often had to be at the newspaper’s offices early in the morning. Going out for dinner was a common way for all of us to get together without them feeling like they were forcing me to stay up much later than I normally would.
They could always get more food if they were hungry later, whereas I liked to be asleep by 9:30p.m.
I changed into some pajamas first – a tee shirt and sweatpants that I had bought after how comfortable the set I had borrowed from Gabe had been – and then settled into my bed with my phone. I first called Serenity. She had been bugging me to know more about the trip, but I hadn’t been sure what to tell her.
When she answered the phone, I couldn’t hold back a smile as she half-yelled ‘hello’ into my ear.
“Oh my gosh, Grace! I didn’t expect you to call me tonight,” Serenity said. “It’s late for you. Is everything okay? Why are you up this late? You’re usually texting us all goodnight like half an hour ago.”
“Well, I just got home from a late dinner, and wanted to talk to a friend,” I shared. “I think I just might be in a relationship with a guy!”
Serenity squealed so loudly I had to pull my phone away from my ear for a moment. Out of all the women in our group, I was the only one who had no post-high school dating experience. My job had kept me too busy for far too long to allow it. Now that I had found someone who could spend time with me while I was on the job – by way of providing me with rides to the new destinations I’d cover – I had high hopes that this would work for a while.
And if we ended up not working out, then I could at least add ‘private pilot’ to the list of people I’d dated. Right alongside my sophomore year chemistry partner and the quarterback of the football team my senior year of high school.
“I’m so happy for you, Grace. Spill it all. How did you meet this lucky man? When did you two start dating? What was your first date? How long have you been seeing him before making it all official?”
“I… I don’t think we’ve had an official first date yet, actually,” I said with a bit of a blush on my cheeks. “Or maybe today was the official start? My head is still spinning, but I’m really happy.”
I then shared the story of getting stuck in Dawn with him on our way to Corinth for photos, the kiss, the power outage, how sweet he was when I struggled with sleeping in a room with two windows. All of it. I could tell that Serenity was incredibly excited, though I didn’t quite know why. It wasn’t like we had decided that we were going to get married after all.
“Grace, it sounds like you’ve found quite the man,” Serenity said once I stopped talking. “You just sat here on the phone with me for like twenty minutes telling me about this guy. You’re hardly this talkative about your dating life, but I suppose that’s because there’s not always something for you to talk about.”
“Not always, no.” I couldn’t help but smile.
Serenity had always been the more truthful of our group, refusing to sugarcoat things for anyone. I didn’t mind that so much. It meant that her compliments were just that much more beautiful when the time came.
As we continued to talk – now just catching up about the mundane stuff because Serenity didn’t have much news – I felt my phone buzz in my hand. I put her on the speakerphone. Since no one else lived with me, there was no one to listen to our conversation.
A text from Mr. White had come through.
I couldn’t help but groan.
“That… didn’t sound like you were groaning about what I’m talking about. What’s going on over there?”
“My boss has texted me."
“At 10p.m.? Why?”
