Page 120 of The Last Goodbye
I’d tried hard to show my father that our relationship was important to me, though at times I wondered if I could just choose a different life—to leave New York and leave the company. A part of me questioned if he would even really notice or if he would miss me. Our relationship was a complicated one, but I was trying.
And I did think that he tried, too. We’d just had so many lost years, so I never really knew how he felt about me.
Gracie walked out from the dressing room, and Tatum and I both gasped at the same time. She wore a princess-style strapless wedding gown with a lace bodice, and she looked breathtaking.
Her mother and Emerson stood to the side as Gracie moved on to the little platform, their eyes wet with emotion. Marilyn ran over to shake out the train.
I stood, and Tatum did the same.
“Gracie, you look gorgeous,” I gasped. “This dress is literally made for you.”
“You really do,” Tatum agreed. “This one is spectacular. I’ve truly loved them all, but this one is next level.”
Gracie smiled and stared at herself in the mirror. “Yeah. This is definitely the one.”
Tatum and I both let out loud squeals, and we took tons of photos of her in the dress.
She’d shared a lot with me about her relationship with Cutler. They’d gone through so much before they got their happily ever after. He was her person, and they’d figured things out.
I was so incredibly happy for her, and now we were all crying tears of joy, which made Gracie do the same.
“I’m guessing that means we all agree that this is the one?” Gracie twirled in a circle, the tulle skirt swooshing around her.
“This is the one,” Tatum and I said at the same time.
It was another perfect day in the town that felt like home to me.
How long had it been since anywhere had felt like home?
I’d been at the new location all day, and things were really coming together. The flooring was in, and we were getting the restrooms tiled this week. I felt the pressure of the timeline every single day. It was weighing on me.
Bass rarely spoke of it, as if he had all the confidence in the world that we’d figure things out. He just kept saying that we’d cross that bridge when we got there.
But we lived on opposite sides of the country. That was a mighty long bridge to cross.
A bridge that he himself had been on before, with Celine, which he’d admitted had played a part in their demise.
So I didn’t share in his confidence that everything would miraculously work out.
“Hey, what are you still doing here this late?” Cutler asked. He usually stopped by in the early morning or at the end of the day to check on progress. I was supposed to have left an hour ago, but construction had a mind of its own most of the time.
“Yeah. I was almost out the door when Darryl turned the water on, and it shot out of a place it shouldn’t have been coming from.” Despite myself, I chuckled at the thought of the plumber getting doused in foul-smelling water.
“Welcome to my world.” Cutler laughed before his face grew more serious. “Hey, how are you feeling about finishing this job up?”
“I think we’re on track, don’t you?”
He studied me for a moment. “I meant, how are you feeling about being done and heading back home?”
I exhaled. “I’m not excited about it, but my job is there. My life is there. It’s complicated.”
“Yeah. I don’t know if Gracie told you about her time in New York?”
“She just told me she was there for a few months, and then she came back, because this was home for her.” I smiled. “Well, I’m pretty sure that wherever you are is home for her.”
He nodded. “I was ready to move there. Because she is my home. And at the end of the day, Briar, nothing is more important than that. It took me some time to realize that jobs will come and go. It’s all about finding where you fit. Where you belong. Who your person is. And then you’ve got to trust your gut. All the other stuff will work itself out.”
“I know.” I looked up at the ceiling. “Sometimes I wonder if I get in my own way. If my fear is so strong that I let it stop me from feeling things I want to feel.”
