Always On My Mind (The Sullivans #8)(67)

When the plumbing job was finally done and even he couldn’t take his stench anymore, he showered out by the back of the barn, but that reminded him of the first night when he’d had to come out to shower to try to escape her and the feelings he couldn’t contain. He’d wanted her so much, but more than that, he’d already begun to admire and like her. And then, of course, there were the many sexy showers they’d shared after that...

When the water grew cold, he wrapped a towel around himself and went back into the house.

God, it was quiet. Too damned quiet. But there were flashes of color all around now from where Lori had brought out a vase that she’d found up in the attic, along with the bright yellow quilt she’d bought in town at the General Store because she said it made her happy just to look at it.

His phone rang and when he saw her name on the screen, he leapt at it. “Lori.”

“Grayson.”

Even for a man of few words, he’d never realized that so much could be said with so little.

“I’ve missed you so much,” she said. “Tell me about your day. Even if it has to do with something boring about a tractor or fertilizer, I want to hear it.”

He laughed, the sound not nearly as rusty now as it had been for most of his life. All because of her. “I spent the day knee-deep in pigs and mud and broken water pipes. Your basic average dream day on a farm.”

How he loved the sound of her laughter, could picture her holding the phone up to her ear, probably twirling around on her jaw-droppingly perfect legs as she spoke to him.

Always moving.

Always laughing.

And so full of love she never failed to stun him.

“Wow, two sentences was one more than I thought I’d get out of you,” she teased. “You must really love me.”

“I love you so damned much,” he confirmed for her, before saying, “Now it’s your turn to talk my ear off.”

“I did it, Grayson. I got in Victor’s face and told him to get out of mine. I fired him with the full support of everyone in the show. It turns out that after I left, they put two and two together and found out what he did. But honestly,” she said in a far more chipper voice than he would have thought after having to deal with that slime, “squashing that bug only took a few minutes. The rest of the day I was working with the troupe, and that was really great.” She barely paused for breath as she barreled ahead and said, “I’m going to need to stay here for the rest of the week to take them through to the end.”

“Of course you are. They need you.” And she needed them just as much. It was something he’d never doubted for a minute.

It wasn’t until she was finally silent for a long moment that he knew something else was up.

“I want so badly to come back to you and the farm the second the show is over, but…”

Another pause came and he had to grab a kitchen chair and sit down to brace himself for it.

“A friend of mine needs me to go to New York City to be a last-minute replacement for the lead in his show, which means I’ll need to fly from Chicago to New York to perform at the International Dance Exhibition the following weekend before I can catch a red-eye to come back to you.”

Grayson wanted to beg, even wanted for a minute to be bitter that she’d chosen dancing over him. But how could he do either of those things when he knew she was making all the right choices?

Of course she had to do both shows. And of course she’d have to do all the other shows that would come next, opportunities she couldn’t possibly turn down. Not only because so many people in her industry depended on her, but also because she was meant to dance, and to keep dancing.

But she was also meant to be with him, damn it.

Grayson wanted to see her dance. And he wanted to be as brave for her as she’d been for him. Not only in the way she’d insisted on loving him after he’d tried so hard to push her away, but by confronting the man who had hurt her so that she could love again with a whole heart.

Lori had been brave enough to face down her past.

It was long past time for him to do the same.

Chapter Twenty-five

Grayson stepped off the plane in New York and found the driver waiting for him by the luggage carousels. For a moment, it felt as though the past three years hadn’t happened. As though this were just another business trip, and he was simply heading home to Westchester to shower and change and have a pre-dinner drink with Leslie, where both of them tried to act interested in things they didn’t actually care about at all.

When he gave the address to the driver, to the man’s credit, he barely betrayed a response. In the backseat of the town car, Grayson took out the picture of Lori as a little girl that Mary Sullivan had given to him at Sunday lunch. He’d kept it with him every second since she’d been gone, and it never failed to bring a smile to his face, even now.

Both of her front teeth were missing, she was wearing ripped boys’ jeans and a T-shirt that were both at least two sizes too big, and she was hands down the prettiest thing he’d ever seen in his life as she leapt through the air, dancing in the middle of her crowded backyard. He could see the way, even at eight, that she’d blossom into such a striking beauty. He could also see that she was too determined, too stubborn, to ever allow anything or anyone to take away her joy, her love for life.

Grayson wanted to be worthy of sharing that life with her, but he wanted something else, too. He wanted, one day, to take pictures of his own little girl as she danced and laughed and loved just like her beautiful mother.