Page 125 of First Bride to Fall
His heart clenched. “So do you.”
She nodded and backed down a step. His house sat up on stilts, so there were several of them. “Just do me a favor?”
His eyebrows rose.
“Don’t open it until tomorrow.”
He swallowed past the lump in his throat. “All right.”
She drew in a breath and seemed to be gathering her nerve. “Grant,” she said. “I really care about you. I always have. For a really long time—probably longer than you know. That’s why I’m extra sad things didn’t work out between us.”
His heart pounded. He was extra sad, too.
“In any case.” She turned to go. “I hope you have a really great birthday.”
She reached the bottom of the stairs, and he called out to her. “Nell!”
She gazed up at him, her face bathed in the floodlights.
He wanted to saydon’t go, but he couldn’t.
Because she was already on her way. He’d read it in her eyes.
He thought his heart had already broken, but now it was breaking again.
Nell Delaney was moving on without him.
“What will you do?”
“I have some plans.”
“Involving Aidan?” The name was a bitter pill on his tongue.
She pursed her lips, but her expression said yes.
He tried to man up and be an adult about this. “Well, good. Good for you. I hope that you find your happiness, Nell.”
“Thanks. You, too.”
She started to pivot, but he stopped her again. “Nell.” She peered over her shoulder. “Thanks for the chicken parmigiana. That was really kind of you. Please tell Charlotte it’s delicious.”
“I will.” She shot him a cockeyed grin, but there was sorrow in her stare. “I’m glad there was no Robby.”
She turned away and walked toward her car.
As she did, she lifted her right hand to wipe her cheek, and Grant suspected she was crying. He wanted to cry, too. Or scream or shout. Run after her. Something.
But instead, he took the present she’d given him and went back indoors.
“And?” Jordan asked because he’d heard their voices.
He slumped back down in his chair. “That was Nell.”
“What did she want?”
Grant’s gut twisted. “To say goodbye.”
Jordan waited a while before commenting. After a pause, he said, “It’s not over until it’s over, Grant.”
