Page 50 of Run Home

I bite back a grin as I say, “Yeaaah, I might have set that as my home screen image.”

“Let me see it!” Alice exclaims. “Right now!”

Laughing, I say, “Not while you’re driving! Pay attention to the road.”

I fend off Alice’s grabby hands at every red light as she tries to steal my phone from me. When we pull into Griffin’s driveway, I finally surrender and allow her to view the now-infamous photo.

“Okaaay, Sam!” she drawls out. “I mean, you described dancing with him the night you were unloading your feelings, but seeing it is a different thing entirely. That man is head over heels in love with you already.”

“Alice. Quit. You can’t say things like that—we talked about this,” I chide.

She grimaces. “I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t. To make up for that, I will now ask you three intrusive questions. One: are you maintaining your own responsibilities?”

Snorting a laugh, I say, “Well, he’s been physically out of town all week, but, yes, I did continue attending my clinical hours and successfully completed cosmetology school.”

“Two: have you made meaningful effort to maintain relationships outside of you and Adrian?” Alice asks sincerely.

Although I roll my eyes, I’m deeply grateful for her taking her charge seriously, even in the first week of my relationship. “In addition to tonight’s festivities, I went out to dinner with Lynsey from school earlier this week, and I called my parents and Ian on separate occasions.”

Alice’s eyes bore into mine as she asks, “Have you tried your hardest not to mentally jump ahead in your relationship with Adrian?”

Sputtering a breath, I confess, “That one’s been harder. I think that’s going to be the hard one. Because I really like him. I don’t just like being in a relationship or the feeling of being wanted. I like him. So it’s very difficult to not jump ahead to the future.” Alice looks at me with empathy, and I add, “But I am trying to distract my thoughts when I start thinking about our future too much. I’m trying.”

Alice leans across the console to hug me. “Well, you made my job easy. I was supposed to delay you for approximately five minutes before we go inside, and I think we’ve about hit the five-minute mark.”

With a laugh, I open the door and step out of the car.

When we walk through the front door and into the living room that’s covered with balloons and streamers, there’s another loud chorus of “Congratulations!” screams. Not only are Griffin, Danae, and Jason standing there clapping, there’s a group video call on the giant TV featuring all of my family’s smiling faces.

“Oh my gosh!” I exclaim, my eyes filling with tears. “This is too much! You didn’t have to do all of this. Today is not that big of a deal!”

“It’s a huge deal,” my mom’s voice yells from the screen. Everyone else on video cringes at her volume. I hear my dad quietly tell her she doesn’t have to talk so loudly, and she smacks him on the arm. “Y’all can cover your ears because I’m gonna yell as loud as I want. My baby girl finished cosmetology school, and I’m gonna shout about it!”

I walk closer to the TV screen but realize that Danae is holding the phone that’s projecting my face to everyone on the call. I take it from her and blow a kiss to the camera. “Thank you for coordinating the group call! I feel so loved.”

“You are so loved,” my older sister, Miranda, says. “We love you to pieces. And we fully expect special hair treatments next time you come home to Tulsa.”

“I promise,” I say. “Free hair treatments for everyone.”

“I didn’t say anything about free!” Miranda says. “I’ll be a happily paying customer. When are you going to open up your own salon?”

“That’s not exactly how that works,” I reply. “I’ll be renting a chair in an existing salon for the foreseeable future while I build up a loyal client base. One of my friends from school, Lynsey, and I are going to split the cost of a rental and build our hours around each other while we’re both getting started. That will give me plenty of time to focus on Griff and Danae’s wedding too.”

“I knew I shouldn’t have asked you to help plan it!” Danae groans. “You’re not allowed to put off your own dreams to help with the wedding!”

I give her a sweet smile. “I’m not putting anything off. It will take some time to work my way up to a full-time load of clients. Having the next month to split time on wedding planning is perfect.”

After a few more minutes of conversation, we hang up the video call and head to the covered back deck. Griffin grills steaks while Jason tosses a baseball at the rebounder net. Danae, Alice, and I sit and discuss the end of my clinical hours, the beginning of my professional career, and updates on wedding plans.

“How are things with Adrian?” Danae asks when there’s a lull in conversation.

Griffin groans. “Do I want to be here for this conversation?”

“Better get used to it, big bro!” I tease. “You’re going to be hearing a lot more about him.”

He glares at me over his shoulder, but it’s too dramatic to be genuine. Still, there’s an edge of concern in his eyes, which I do my best to lay to rest.

“We’ve talked on and off while he’s been out of town this week. I’ll get to see him on Monday. But I’m trying not to spend every available minute in our schedules talking to each other,” I tell Danae, watching Griffin absorb the information out of the corner of my eye. His tensed shoulders relax a little.