Her Forever Hero (Unexpected Heroes #3)(46)
“Some days I wish we could turn back time and live in those moments forever, the moments when young love was so powerful, and summer nights were something to treasure.”
“You don’t have to let go of those moments,” he told her. “You can hold on to them forever.”
“But you have to grow up, Cam. You have to become an adult. The real world demands that we don’t live on love and dreams alone,” she said with a sad shake of her head. “We have wins and losses, and sometimes the losses are too much to bear . . .”
“Who says that?”
“Everyone. I can’t name a specific person.”
“Well, they’re all stupid. Because I think you can live on love and dreams alone. Sure, you have to work, and you have to be responsible, but then you get these moments, these perfect moments in the day, when the rest of the world falls away, and you close your eyes, and you remember the past, and look ahead to the future. To lose your dreams is to lose a piece of your soul, and no one should give that up.”
Grace was quiet for several moments as she tried to process his words. How she wanted to believe what he said. But hadn’t her life shown her that dreams had never been enough? Once she’d wanted nothing more than to be Cam’s wife and to live the fairy tale forever. But her dreams had been shattered, forever changing her.
“If we all lived in a dream world, then nothing would ever get done,” she said sadly.
“I came to see you once when you were in New York.”
His words stopped her from what she’d been about to say. She repeated them back to be sure he’d said what she thought.
“When?” she finally asked.
“You’d been there for about a year. You were going to school, and I stopped by your campus. I was going to surprise you. I’d just finished my law degree and it had been years since we’d spoken, and I was in New York for a conference. I was too close not to see you.” His voice faded away.
“Why didn’t you follow through? Sometimes New York was pretty rough. I think I would have really loved seeing anyone from back home.” She didn’t want to give too much of herself away—didn’t want to tell him that he was the person from home she would have most liked to see.
“I found you on the campus, but you were with a group of people and you were laughing. I thought you looked really happy. I didn’t want to risk interrupting that. I’d heard you’d had a rough go of things for a while.”
“Yes. Even without me saying a word, I’m sure the gossip stretched all the way back to Sterling,” she said with bitterness.
“It’s not that people like to gossip. It’s that they care about their own when you’re from a small town, Grace.”
“I didn’t need them to worry about me, Cam. I was doing just fine.”
“In two seconds flat, you go from open and trusting to instantly closed off again. I was once your friend and your lover. You don’t need to shut me out,” he told her, turning her head and forcing her to look at him.
Grace had to fight the sudden urge not to cry.
“Well, Cam, I think our ‘stroll down memory lane’ is over,” she said, untangling herself from him and standing.
“Why do you always run the second you start feeling something?” he asked, not chasing her but sitting there and holding her gaze.
“Because I learned a long time ago that to open myself up only hurts me. I learned that dreams are for fools, and the past is best left where it belongs.”
She had no more strength to talk about this. Walking quietly away, she went back to the guest room she’d stayed in before her ordeal in the snow.
Grace knew she wouldn’t get much sleep after that talk—not when she knew how close Cam was, and especially when she knew that his arms would be open for her if only she were brave enough to step into them.
Grace sipped her tea and enjoyed the warmth of the rays of sunlight beaming through the large living room windows as she worked on her laptop. She was changing the dinner menu for the fourth time, since the bride now seemed to have a vendetta against seafood. Instead of getting upset, she decided to just continue working, reminding herself the paycheck was a good one.
At least the snowstorm had come and gone, and this would be her last night in Cam’s house. So she certainly had that to look forward to.
She should have gone over to Sage’s place—Sage and Spence had rushed home as soon as they heard about what had happened—but she was using the pretense that she had to do some more work with Cam and it would be easier to just stay there. Her new house would receive its final inspection tomorrow, and her furniture was being delivered as well.
She could finally leave the apartment and have beautiful views of the Montana countryside once again. Not that she didn’t have spectacular views at Cam’s place.
When the front door opened and she heard footsteps across the floors, she thought nothing of it. Maybe one of the hands needed something, or possibly it was Sage coming to visit. She could have gotten off work early. It was doubtful, but miracles did happen.
Turning around, she instead found Martin Whitman walking into the room, and she couldn’t help but smile. It had been months since she’d seen him, and usually she was so busy fighting with Cam, she didn’t get to enjoy one-on-one chats.