He didn’t move toward me to hug me or tell me good-bye. So I took his lead and went for the door. If what I had said pushed him away, then I was glad I knew it now. Because all I’d described was a list of scenarios. What would happen when we had to face those facts in reality?

“Why me, Bethy?” he asked, and I glanced back to see him standing in the hallway, watching me leave.

“What do you mean?”

“You didn’t question any of this with Jace. You just lived in the present. I know he had no idea what he was going to do or what path he was going to take. He was living off his parents’ trust fund and enjoying life, his degree unused. Yet you were his. You were happy and trusted that everything would be fine. So why me? Why do you need to know all this with me?”

I hated to say it out loud. Admitting it made me sound like I hadn’t loved Jace enough, and that was never the case. I did love him. He just hadn’t been my big love. I’d had that and lost it. After that, you can survive anything. “With Jace, I didn’t worry about how I’d continue breathing if he walked out of my life. With you, I want it all. If I get a taste of what it could be, I won’t ever want to let it go. I fell in love with you when I was sixteen, and that’s never changed. But trusting you with my heart again is different. With you, I need to know it’s forever.”

I didn’t wait for him to respond, and he didn’t try to stop me as I opened the door and left.

Tripp

Woods leaned back in his office chair and smiled as he rubbed his chin. “I’d ask why, but I already know the answer. This is you putting down roots.”

“It’s time. I’m twenty-six years old,” I replied.

“And there’s Bethy,” Grant added with an amused tone.

Yes. There was Bethy. She was the reason behind every decision I made.

“I know I’ve been preoccupied over the past year and a half, but how did I not know your grandfather passed away? I feel like a jackass,” Grant said.

My mother’s father, King Montgomery, had been a traveler. He rarely set foot in Rosemary Beach. He didn’t believe in sitting behind a desk all day. He loved to see new places and experience new things. He’d had a heart attack on a hunting trip in Africa. I couldn’t imagine seeing him suffer from an illness, bedridden. Knowing he died fast doing something he loved had made it easier to accept.

He and my father had never seen eye-to-eye. I think it was one of the reasons I loved the old man. He believed I should choose my own destiny. That was why he gave me the condo when I graduated from high school. I think it was his way of giving me a home to come back to if I did, in fact, choose to run.

“I wasn’t back in Rosemary Beach yet. No one here knew him that well,” I explained.

“Well, I think it’s a great idea. I’ve played around with the thought more than once. But I never did anything because I have my hands full with the club. But I stand behind you. The property isn’t technically for sale, but for you and for this, it is,” Woods said.

I looked to Grant. I needed to hear his reply next.

“Heck, yeah. It’s what I do. Bring it on. I love the idea,” Grant said.

Standing up, I couldn’t keep the grin off my face. “I want to move fast. I have to deal with some other things. I’ll handle any extra cost to speed the paperwork along.”

“No need. I’ll make it happen fast.”

Bethy

I stood at the door leading into the dining room. Tripp was in my section with a woman I didn’t know. It had been five days since I walked out of his apartment. He hadn’t called me, he hadn’t texted, and until today, I hadn’t seen him at the club.

In those five days, I had gone through the motions, but my heart wasn’t in it. Last night, I had finally broken down and sobbed until I fell asleep. He had been so easy to push away. But then, hadn’t he left me before and not looked back? When was I going to stop believing the man? Did he have to crush me over and over again first?

Jimmy was headed my way, and I backed up and waited around the corner, out of sight from the dining room.

“Chick’s old. Like in her late forties old. He ain’t hitting that shit. Something’s up, but it ain’t what you think. Wipe that pitiful look off your face and shake it loose, girl. Walk out there and strut your stuff, and show that man what he’s missing. Don’t act like he hurt you. Don’t act like you miss him. And stop thinking he’s on a date. Tripp’s fine ass ain’t messing around with that woman. Seriously, she could be his mom.”

He was serious. I hadn’t gotten close enough to see her. From the back, she had nice hair and legs. I couldn’t tell about anything else. “Are you sure she’s older?” I asked, praying he was right. If I walked out there and he was flirting with this woman, I was going to burst into a million pieces right in front of everyone. My heart could only take so much.

“Trust me, Bethy, it’s not what you think. Swear it, baby. Go get their drink orders. And when you walk away, shake that ass. He’ll be looking. You know how to strut. Do it.” Jimmy winked and walked past me toward the kitchen.

I took a deep breath and prayed I didn’t lose it out there and do something crazy, like cry. I could do this. Jimmy said she was older. Maybe she was a relative. Truth was, I did want to see him. I missed him.

Before I could get worked up again, I headed for the door and went to his table. He was talking and had a serious expression on his face. Almost as if he was discussing a business matter. Which made no sense. He didn’t have any business matters.