Page 120 of Come Back to Me

“Holy crap, girl! You never cease to amaze me. I wish I had your drive and determination when I was your age. Do you have a plan of what you want to do after you graduate?”

“I’m in the baby stages of starting my own PR and content creation business for authors. Noah is my first ever client, and he pushed me to chase my dream. I’m grateful to him for that.”

“Good for you. I remember you used to take pictures of your books and post them online.”

“Yeah, I don’t have a lot of time to do that anymore because of work and school, but I try to post when I can. I can’t believe you remember that.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Grayson is staring at me with his dark brown eyes. It’s causing my heart to beat extremely fast.

Am I sweating? It feels like I’m sweating everywhere.

“My son thinks I can’t remember anything, but he’s wrong. I remember a lot of things.”

“What the hell are you talking about? I’ve never said that.” His tone is stern.

“You know how much I love to push your buttons.” She plants a kiss on his forehead.

“Jen told me you’re getting out more these past several months. That’s good,” he says.

“Yeah, I know you both told me to explore what the world outside of my home sweet home has to offer, so I’m finally listening. I’ve been going to the grocery store, eating out at restaurants, and for other random things.”

“Keep it up. I’m proud of you.”

“I’m proud of you, too.”

I lean closer to Grayson. “Did you tell her?”

He leans closer to me. “Tell her what?”

now

GRAYSON

I’m doing my best to restrain myself from getting up from this chair and colliding my lips with Violet’s. All I would love to do is take her into one of these bedrooms and never come out of it.

Let me clarify something here. My mother is sitting in between us, and I’m having these thoughts.

What’s wrong with me?

We’re barely inches away from each other. I’m surprised my mom hasn’t said anything yet to break the tension. Maybe she wants something to happen between us.

Whenever we talked about Violet, she asked me a lot of questions.

Do you miss her?

Would you want to get back together with her if you see her again?

Are you still in love with her?

I always said yes to the first one. The second and third ones were always tricky because I was heartbroken and hurt by what she did, but deep down, the answers to both of them were most likely a yes.

Shit, I guess my feelings aren’t buried anymore.

“Did you tell her about the homecoming game?!”

I focus my attention on Mom. “Oh, yeah. We won the homecoming game yesterday, so we advanced to the semi-finals.”

“I knew you would win.” She gets up from her chair and hugs me. “I’m so proud of you. You’ve been working your ass off, and it has paid off.”