by Tricia Mills
I was going to miss him. And Lindsay. And Caleb. They were all going to school at the University of Alaska Anchorage, just like my sisters.
He nestled me into the crook of his arm again, and I placed my head against his chest. “Things will work out,” he said. “Hey, I’m already envisioning spring break in So Cal. I might even let Caleb and Lindsay tag along.”
“That sounds like fun.”
“Yes, bikinis as far as the eye can see.”
I punched him in the side. He feigned injury, then wrestled me halfway onto his lap so I was facing him. After a slow, sweet kiss, he looked a little more serious.
“One day at a time, remember?”
The phrase I’d used the night of the Snow Ball, when we’d sat in my living room and talked all night about Spencer, and how I could only let Jesse into my life a little more one day at a time. “But it’s easier when the people are in the same state,” I said.
“It doesn’t have to be easy to be worth it.”
I thought I might love him. No, I knew I did. But I had to take the chance of going after my dream. I owed that to Spencer who hadn’t gotten to live his.
I owed it to myself.
“Besides,” Jesse said, “I’m not that easily gotten rid of. When you walk down the red carpet at the Oscars, you’ll need a hot date.”
“Guess I better start looking when I get there, huh? ”
Jesse wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close. “Only if you think you have to.”
Peace and happiness settled side by side inside my heart, a heart no longer cold and empty but filled with possibilities.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Special thanks to Monica McCabe, for her tales of her time in Alaska and her willingness to let me pick her brain for the price of a Longhorn Steakhouse lunch.