by Jill Sanders
“I can't…” She shook her head and moaned. “Please.” She looked up at Haley, who nodded to her sister, then walked towards him. Taking his arm, she steered him out the door and told him.
“Grant, I tried to talk to her, but she won't listen.” She looked back inside and shook her head. “Stubborn.” Then she sighed. “Listen, I'll try again later. It's best if you give her some time. Just give her a day, let her head get clear of all this.”
He nodded, not really taking it all in. “Is she going to be okay?”
“Yeah.” She sighed again. “No stitches, just a slight concussion. We're supposed to watch her for a while.”
“Can I do…?” he started, but stopped when she shook her head no.
“No, she doesn't want anything right now.”
They both looked up when Grant’s parents walked up. “We just heard.” His mother rushed to his side. “Is Alex okay?” she asked Haley.
“Yes.” Haley took his mother's hand and walked her inside to see Alex, who was still sitting in the wheelchair, waiting to be released.
“What a shame. Sounds like someone's gone too far this time.”
“Hmmm.” He was only half-listening to his father.
“I heard they stole your goat, the one that won the blue ribbon.”
“What?” He looked over and watched as her family wheeled her out to Chase's truck.
“Your goat. I know it's not the time, but do you think someone attacked her to steal your blue ribbon goat?”
“My goat didn't win,” he said, absently.
“Sure it did. That little one they found in the trailer with Alex. Everyone's saying it won the highest award, best in show.”
He turned and looked at his dad. “Buttercup won?”
His dad nodded and smiled, then when he looked over at Alex, his smile fell away. “I sure hope that had nothing to do with your goat.”
By the time Grant got all four goats home, including his award-winning Buttercup, trophy and all, he was so tired he couldn't see straight.
He'd messaged Alex several times, but hadn't heard anything back. He'd been such a fool and he knew that he had to make it up to her. By the time the sun finally rose, he thought he had a plan firmly in hand. There was no way she could say no, not after what he had planned. Now he just needed to convince her to talk to him.
Alex lay in bed and watched TV with the sound off. She looked down at her phone when it beeped for the hundredth time since last night. She hadn't even read Grant's first messages, and quickly avoided looking at this one as well.
She thought about turning it off, but she wanted to know that he was suffering like she was. Not just physically, but emotionally.
Oh, she knew she was the one who'd called it all off, or tried to. She'd been a fool trying to think she could have a normal life. She wasn't good enough for someone like Grant. She'd done some real soul searching last night after she’d gotten home and had laid it all out. She was a waitress at a greasy diner. She had no real skills and no idea what she wanted to do in the future. Grant was a Harvard graduate with a law degree and a smart business plan. Not to mention a house of his own and definite plans for his future.
The only thing she had in her future was… well, nothing she could think of. That's why she'd decided that she was leaving to go see her cousins. She could stay with them for a while and make up her mind as to what her next step was. She had a little money saved up; it might even be enough to take some night classes.
She'd started packing up her things early that morning so she could move back into her old room. They could redecorate the larger room for the baby. She was thinking about just storing all of her things up in the attic. That way she would only have to take a small suitcase with her.
Getting off the bed slowly, she tested the waters to see how she felt. When her vision grayed just a little, she closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. Her head had hurt her most of the day and her sisters had locked her in her room, delivering her food and checking up on her. Haley had been upset when she'd seen her packing boxes. She said that Alex was supposed to be resting, but Alex had ignored her and only stopped when she felt dizzy. Now the sun was setting and she was getting tired of being in her room alone. When she opened her eyes again, she let out a loud scream.
On the other side of her window was a face. She didn't stop screaming until she realized the face belonged to Grant. Then she rushed to her window and opened it quickly.
“What in the hell are you doing? Don't you know it's a fifteen-foot drop?” She held onto his hands and looked out the window. He was standing on a silver ladder. A very tall silver ladder.
Just then Lauren and Chase came rushing in her room. Chase held a baseball bat, ready to bash someone's head in. Lauren had her trusty revolver, cocked and ready to shoot whatever or whoever had caused her sister to scream so loud.
“What is going on?” they both asked at the same time.
“It's okay,” Alex said, holding her hands up, laughing. “I'm okay.”
When they noticed Grant's head poking in through the window, they both relaxed.
“You have a very scary wife,” Grant said, hoisting himself over the windowsill and looking down at the gun in Lauren's hand. Chase turned and noticed the gun just as Lauren released the hammer.
Chase laughed. “You have no idea what that one hides under her bed,” he said, pointing at Alex. He nodded to Grant, then turned his wife around and marched her out of the room.
Lauren called out over her shoulder, “If you need help, just holler.” Chase closed the door behind him.
“Are you going somewhere?” Grant asked, looking around her room.
She turned back to him, her arms crossed over her chest. “Yes.” Her head was feeling light from all the excitement, so she walked over and sat down on the edge of her bed. “I'm going to my cousins’, remember.”
He looked around again. “Forever?”
She shrugged her shoulders.
“Because of me?” He walked over and sat next to her.
She refused to look at him. If she looked into those deep blue eyes, she might lose her nerve. Going away was for the best. For both of them.
“Alex, would you please look at me?” he asked, taking her chin with just a finger and pulling it towards him.
She closed her eyes and sighed. “I can't. I can't do this.” She kept her eyes closed tight.
“I'm sorry,” he said softly. Then his weight lifted from the mattress. She kept her eyes closed tight and heard him walk back towards the window. She listened carefully but didn't hear him leave, so she peeked out one eye and watched as he leaned out the window.
“What are you doing?” she asked, folding her arms across her chest.
“I have something for you, but the rope is stuck,” he said, grunting a little.
“Unless you're going to hang yourself”—she turned away from the window and smiled—“you better just take whatever it is back. I don't want anything from you.”
“There,” he said, ignoring her. “Got it. Here we go,” he said as he pulled on the rope, leaving a heap of it lying on her bedroom floor alongside her boxes.
Her curiosity finally got the better of her and she walked over to the window in time to see him pull a small basket tied securely with the rope through her window.
“What is it?” she asked, leaning against her windowsill.
“You'll have to promise to listen to me. To let me speak and talk to you first.”
She shook her head, but couldn't put a lot of feeling behind it.
“Alex?” He looked down at her and held the basket to his side, turning his shoulders so she couldn't see it.
“Fine!” She threw up her hands in frustration. How did he know she had a weakness for surprises? She was sure that was all Haley's doing; her sister couldn't keep her mouth shut. “I'll listen to you, but if I don't like what you have to say, you and whatever is in the basket will go out the window, without the use of the
ladder.” She crossed her arms over her chest again.
He smiled. “Fair enough.” Then he turned and handed her the basket. At first she thought he'd given her a brown towel, but then it moved and she almost dropped the basket in shock. His hands came under hers to steady them, then he gently lifted the puppy from the basket and handed it to her.
“You bought me a puppy?” she asked, looking down at the brown blob.
“I bought us a puppy,” he said, smiling at her.
She stared at him. “You think that by buying me a puppy, you'll make everything bad, everything wrong between us go away?”
He frowned and looked down at his feet. “No, of course not. I thought of Junior here as a peace offering and a means of getting my foot in the window, I mean door.” He looked up and smiled a little, causing her heart to skip.
How had he gotten past her defenses so quickly? She'd prepared herself for this, or so she’d told herself. She tried to hand the small bundle back to him, but he crossed his arms and shook his head.
“I'm not doing this.” She walked over and set the happy puppy on her bed where it started sniffing around and chewing on her quilt.
“Alex, I only needed to talk to you. Honest. If after ten minutes you don't like what I've said, you can kick me and Junior out. Deal?”
She tried not to melt when his blue eyes turned sad and begging. She sighed and sat next to the dog who immediately climbed up on her lap. She gathered him up and started to pet his soft baby fur as Grant started pacing in front of her.
“Well, let's start at the beginning.” He turned and looked down at her. “Eighteen years ago—” he began but stopped when she sighed and glanced up at him. He nodded then continued. “Eighteen years ago, I walked in and caught you stealing a horse. You know in Texas you can still be hung for that crime.” He gave her a weak smile, then continued. “You were wearing a yellow sun dress, your hair was in two braids down your back, and the sun was behind you.” He stopped his pacing long enough to look at her again, sadness in his eyes. “I lost my heart in aisle three at the Grocery Stop that day. I would have given you anything at that moment. Then you gave me my very first kiss and I knew what I wanted in life. I wanted to someday become worthy of having Alexis West, the girl of my dreams.”
She felt like laughing and crying at the same time. How could she have known? But what was she going to do with this knowledge? Before she could say anything, he continued.
“Then in a flash we were in middle school, then junior high, and I was standing in the corner at the dance watching you dance with every boy but me. In high school you were there to stop the kids from calling me names, and you were kind to me even though I was the class nerd and the chubbiest kid in school. I went away to college, all along thinking that I'd come back into town and show you that I was worthy of being with you. Every time I came home from the gym after Sam had destroyed me during a session, I thought of you. Of being with you.” He squatted down in front of her. “Alex, I've loved you since the first grade. I want to keep on loving you. Yesterday morning, when you broke it off, I kind of went insane.” He frowned and shook his head. “Then when I saw you with Travis and heard what he said, I felt, for just a moment, that what he was saying was true. Remember, pleading insanity here.” He smiled and took one of her hands. “I was wrong. I should have trusted my gut and not my knee-jerk instinct. Can you ever forgive me?”
Tears were lightly flowing down her cheeks, and he reached up with one gentle finger and brushed it aside. She didn't trust herself to speak, so she just nodded her head.
“Good, now comes the difficult part.” He took a deep breath and clasped her other hand. “Alexis West, would you do me the honor of moving in with me?”
Her heart had skipped for a fraction of a moment. No! her mind screamed. Not again. She was not going to get engaged again, and so soon. But then she replayed his words. Move in with me. She didn't know what to say. She'd tried the engagement thing, but this wasn't getting married, and it wasn't Travis. Looking up into Grant's blue eyes, she knew without a doubt that he'd never cheat on her, he'd never raise a voice or hand towards her. Besides, he'd just proclaimed that he'd loved her since she was seven. How could she not say yes? Then it dawned on her. That had been the one thing missing. The knowledge of her feelings for him. The idea of getting used to someone day and night. Did she love him? She knew she hadn't loved Travis. She’d thought she'd loved him, but basically she'd tolerated him to get what she wanted: marriage.
Was she going to use Grant that way as well? No. The answer slammed into her head. Blinking back the tears, she knew her answer. Knew that she'd loved him since the night he'd picked her up on side of the road and been kind to her. Since that first real kiss many months ago, when he'd knocked her socks off. He was the only man that made her stutter and feel shy. He was the only one she could see herself growing old with.
“That's a long break there.” He smiled nervously at her.
“That was a pretty heavy question you asked.” She smiled and nodded. “But I've thought it through, and I have some things to say first.” She handed him the puppy and started pacing, much like he had.
“First I need to know, why me? I'm nothing special. I work in a greasy diner and have no real education like you do. I'm stubborn and will always demand I get my way.”
He smiled and nodded. “You're twice as smart as most women I met at Harvard. More beautiful than all of them. And I love that you're stubborn. I look forward to giving you everything you'll ever want.”
She smiled. “Smooth talker.”
He chuckled at her. “Any more questions?”
She thought about it. “If I agree to move in with you…” She paused and could tell he was holding his breath. “We are not naming him Junior.”
He blinked, then laughed and jumped off the bed to hug her, the tiny dog squashed lightly between them.
Chapter Sixteen
When they walked downstairs an hour later and entered the kitchen, everyone was there. They were all sitting around the table drinking coffee and looking very worried.
“We didn't hear anything breaking,” Chase said and then smiled. He was rewarded with a light kick under the table from his wife.
“Oh, look.” Haley got up and rushed over to take the small puppy from Alex's hands.
“It's okay,” Alex said. “We're okay.” She took Grant's hand and smiled at him. “I'm moving in with Grant.”
Everyone was quiet for a second as it sunk in, then they flooded them with congratulations and hugs. Everyone told them how happy they were for them.
Since Alex had to work the next morning, she packed a few things into a large bag that Grant carried out to his truck. The puppy, whom she was thinking of calling Romeo, was tucked in her lap fast asleep as she followed Grant to his house in her car.
When they arrived, he carried her bags inside, turned to her, and wrapped her in his arms. “Welcome home.” He kissed her gently on her lips, melting the last part of her defenses.
The next morning his alarm went off early and she flipped the pillow over her head. She could have ignored the alarm and the sound of Grant whistling in the shower, but when the puppy started whining, she wrapped the robe around her and slipped on some shoes to let the little guy go out.
When she opened the back sliding door, she noticed the sun was just coming up. Her eyes weren't all the way open yet as she watched the beautiful colors flood the sky over the fall leaves. Romeo did his business, then shook off the morning dew that he'd rolled in and came in the door. He sat on his bottom and looked up at her.
“I suppose you'll want some breakfast now.” She walked into the kitchen and scooped out a cup of food and dumped it into the new dog bowl Grant had purchased for him. The name Junior was scribbled in elegant letters, but Alex knew she would get the final word on his name.
She flipped the coffee maker on just as Grant walked into the kitchen. He walked over to her and wrapped her in his arms, giving her a ki
ss that told her she was right where she belonged.
Just before noon, she was wondering why she hadn't called in sick at the diner. Her head was throbbing and on several occasions, she’d had to sit down while taking someone's order. Jamella kept trying to convince her to go home, but she had wanted to stick it out until Grant and his parents came by for lunch around twelve thirty. They were going to tell his parents together that she'd moved in with him. When Travis' parents came in a few minutes later, she wished she'd taken Jamella's advice.
“Good morning. Do you know what you want to order?” She tried to give them a big smile. She knew what everyone was seeing when they looked at her. The left side of her forehead was still swollen and there was a butterfly bandage covering a small cut. The bruise that ran from her hairline to just below her left eye looked nasty this morning, so she could only imagine what it looked like now. Even though she'd expertly covered it with makeup, she could tell by the way people were looking at her that they could still see most of it.
“Should you be working in your condition?” Patty Nolan looked down her nose at Alex. Patty had always looked prim and proper. Even when she was working in the yard, the woman never had a hair out of place. Her perfectly manicured nails, her pristine clothing, even her hair was never out of place. Alex cringed when she thought of what she might look like now.
“I'm fine.” She smiled and asked if she could take their order again.
“I don't know,” Patty said, setting down her menu. “From what I've heard, you've had a lot going on. Is it true that you're going to be moving? Something about going to your cousins’?” She looked at her through squinted eyes. There was a twisted smile on her face, and Alex felt a shiver run down her spine.
“Oh,” Roy piped in, “is it true? Are you leaving Fairplay?” There was a sparkle in his eye as well, and Alex felt all the air being sucked out of the room.
“No.” She'd known it would travel all over town, since she'd pretty much screamed it at Grant the other day at the fairgrounds. But she hadn't thought about having to explain that she was now living with him. “No, I'm staying in Fairplay.”