“Would it make you feel better if I told you that I was with you on my birthday?”
She pops her head up and stares at me with question. “What do you mean?”
“I saw you the night before,” I tell her. “I went to see you dance.”
“You were there?”
“Nothing would have kept me from seeing you that night,” I tell her and then kiss her forehead. “You were amazing. I couldn’t take my eyes off of you.”
“I didn’t think you were there. I saw your mom afterward, but I had no clue.”
“You saw my mom?”
“Yeah. I ran into her as I was leaving.”
“She never told me that,” I say, but then remember telling my mom that we weren’t going to mention Candace again. I never gave her a chance to tell me.
“I felt awful.”
“Why? What did she say?”
“All the right things, but it was hard to see her because I was missing her. She drove all that way and then I told her that I needed space. It just hurt too much,” she explains.
“I know she wasn’t expecting anything. She just really wanted to see you dance. I told her not to come, but she insisted.”
“I miss her,” she says as she rests her head on my shoulder. “I feel like I should apologize or something.”
“For what?” I ask with a light chuckle. “You didn’t do anything, babe. If anyone should be apologizing, it’s me, so stop thinking that you did something wrong, ‘cause you didn’t.”
She nods her head, unconvinced, but I don’t push. Instead, I offer, “Why don’t we go visit her in a couple of weeks for Fourth of July weekend?”
Her smile shows off her dimple when she says, “I’d like that.”
“I’ll give her a call later today.”
“Speaking of calls, I need to call Kimber. My car is at her parents’ house. We should probably go pick it up today.”
“I’m gonna go grab a shower, so why don’t you call her, and we can pick it up after we go to the airport to get your bags.”
“I don’t have any clothes,” she tells me. “Maybe Jase can bring me some. Crap!”
“What?”
“I was supposed to call Jase when I got to New York last night. He doesn’t know I’m here,” she panics.
“He does. I talked to him yesterday when you were napping. I just forgot to tell you.”
“You talked to him? What did he say?”
Giving her a smirk, I tell her, “He said he was glad you made the right choice.”
She pokes me in the ribs as she whines, “No he didn’t.”
“I swear, he did,” I laugh and then stand up. “Make your phone calls. I’m gonna go get ready.”
Once I’m out of the shower and dressed, Candace walks into the room and says, “Jase is on his way.”
“Did you get in touch with Kimber?”
Flopping down on the bed, she says, “Yeah. Her parents aren’t home, but she gave me the code to the garage,” in a dull voice.
Walking over to the bed, I look down at her and ask, “What’s wrong?”
“She just doesn’t get it.”
“Get what?”
Candace sits up and tells me, “She said that I was throwing everything away. She was annoyed when I told her I wasn’t gonna move back in with her. It’s just hard because she doesn’t know you. All she saw was how upset I was when we weren’t together. She knows that you kept that secret from me, but she doesn’t know how far I’ve come this year and that it was mostly because of you. She never saw how bad it was, and now all she has is this tainted idea of you.”
“Maybe she just needs time to get to know us together.”
“But I feel like she doesn’t even know me. We used to be close, but so much has happened this year, and she wasn’t around,” she says. “I’m just . . .” She drops her head when she admits, “I’m not the same person. I wish I could be, but I’m just not.”
“That’s not a bad thing like I know you’re thinking it is. The cause of it is the only thing that’s bad. But it’s like I told you before, there isn’t a damn thing about who you are now that you should be ashamed of. You’re perfect to me,” I tell her, and I can see that she still struggles with this concept, but I’ll keep reminding her every day if I have to.
We’re interrupted when the doorbell rings, and Candace jumps off the bed, saying, “Jase is here,” as she flies down the stairs.
When I make it to the top of the stairs, she is already in his arms. I smile at the sight of her as I start making my way down.
“So what the hell happened after I dropped you off?” he asks her as I take the bag out of his hand and set it by the stairs.
“I realized that all my worries about leaving were more about my fears of losing Ryan than they were of moving to New York,” she tells him as she sits on the couch, and I walk over to join her.
“So now what?” he asks as he takes a seat in the chair.
“I’m gonna sign with PNB on Monday.”
“So, no New York?”
“Not right now,” she says. “I feel like I need more time here, where I’m comfortable. I just want to put the past few months behind me and have things settled again.”
“You talk to Kimber?”