“Whatever,” I replied, channeling some grade school maturity.
Maysie got to her feet. “I’m going to jump in the shower. Jordan and I are going out to dinner. You wanna come?” she asked.
“And watch you eat each other’s faces instead of the food? Huh. Let me think about that for a minute,” I mused.
Maysie gave me a stern look and started toward the bathroom. “Seriously though. You need to go see Gracie. She needs you,” she said before disappearing behind the door.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and looked at the time. It was a little after four. I grabbed my car keys and headed out. Maysie was right. It was time I was the friend I should have been all along.
I stopped at the store and picked up a bag of Gracie’s favorite mixed chocolates as well as two incredibly horrible chick flicks. If I was going to grovel, I should probably do it baring gifts.
I knew that Gracie’s parents lived in a subdivision just outside of town but I realized I didn’t know the exact house number. I pulled down a road with a line of similar looking brick houses and was about to call Maysie to ask for the exact directions when I saw a familiar white van.
I pulled in behind Garrett’s vehicle and turned off my car. He was just closing the front door as I walked up the path. He was digging in his pocket for his keys and hadn’t noticed me yet. He was dressed in his typical slacker grunge attire that at one time I found to be horrific. His dirty blond hair brushed his shoulders and hung in his face. His beat up Vans were untied, the laces trailing to the ground. His green button shirt was only buttoned halfway, which was I assumed was him trying to be respectful of Gracie’s parents. I found that I hated not being able to see the taught muscles of his stomach. God, why didn’t I just go and lick his chest while I was at it?
I slowed down my walk, giving him time to see me. And when he did, I froze. Because the look on his face wasn’t the one I expected to see. I had anticipated disgust or disapproval. I was so sure he was done with me after my crappy display of friendship to the girl who lived in the house behind him.
But what I saw reflected in those beautiful blue eyes was a tenderness that made me weak in the knees.
“Riley,” he said in his husky voice. I had to take a deep breath to calm my rapidly beating heart. It was either that or pass out cold on the Cooks’ front lawn.
“Hi, Garrett,” I said, trying to smile but knowing it most likely looked like a spasm of the lips.
Garrett met me halfway and we stood there like the Two Maxs in that Dr. Seuss story. Neither of us moving, both stuck in our tracks.
“I’m here to see Gracie,” I announced stupidly.
Garrett’s eyebrows rose. “Yeah, I figured that, with you being at her parents’ house and all.”
“I know I haven’t been to see her yet, I just wasn’t sure…”
“Whether you could see another person you loved sick and suffering?” Garrett asked and I felt the giant knot in my stomach loosen with the realization that he got it. Just like he always did.
“Yeah,” I answered.
“I’m sorry I haven’t called. Especially after the way we left things,” Garrett said, surprising the hell out of me.
“You’ve been a little busy. Frankly, I didn’t expect to hear from you,” I said honestly. No sense in denying the big hole of suck I had been wallowing in for the past few days.
Garrett frowned and then shocked me even further by reaching out and wrapping his hand around my wrist, tugging me forward. I stumbled toward him until the tips of our shoes were touching and were breathing in each other’s air. I looked up into his eyes and almost recoiled at the depth of emotion I saw there.