Page 62 of The One

“And you’ll get it when you’re ready,” Brian said. Brian always was a peacemaker.

“That’s right,” he said. “Sometimes I move fast, other times slow. It’s just whatever is motivating me.”

He shouldn’t have used that choice of words when his family all looked at him with different thoughts in their mind he was sure.

23

Claw Their Way Out

Gillian stretched and rolled over. Rick was still sleeping on his side of the bed so she quietly snuck out and went into the bathroom.

George was out cold next to his master and she hoped she could get away and start breakfast before they both woke up. One thing she learned about George was the puppy—that didn’t really look much like one anymore—had a strong bladder. And he liked to sleep.

She did her business and brushed her teeth, then pulled on a pair of leggings she’d gotten out of the walk-in closet. Somehow her one change of clothing she was leaving at Rick’s had turned into more. She supposed it wasn’t that bad of an idea.

They’d yet to spend the night at her house and it didn’t bother her once.

She liked being here in this big house that was slowly turning into a home.

The front room looked festive even if the rest of the house didn’t. Maybe next year he’d do more.

Then she had to remind herself Rick’s idea of not doing much and hers were different...as she’d seen with how he gifted his family yesterday.

Yes, Harper had been spoiled. She’d noticed that with all the toys. He’d done a few things for his sister and Brian. Mainly gift cards and some items for the house. For his parents, he, Robin and Brian gave them a cruise. She’d been stunned over that, but it wasn’t her business.

In her family, no one spent like that for holidays, but she had to remind herself that Trey was now married to Whitney Butler and they did things differently too. Not that they did last year, but who knows anymore.

Trey was more like her. He didn’t like the fact that people might look at him as marrying up. Not that she was marrying Rick, but she sure the hell was falling in love with him.

They hadn’t said the words to each other yet, but they were inside her trying to claw their way out.

As much as she didn’t want to move fast, her heart was doing what it wanted and no matter how much she tried to tell it to slow the hell down, it wasn’t going to.

She finally decided to just give in to it. It was as she said yesterday in regards to Harper walking—she’d do it her way when she was ready.

This time, she was doing things the way they fell and felt the most comfortable. No more forcing or pushing. The words would come out when they did.

She managed to tiptoe out and get to the kitchen and start breakfast. French toast would hit the spot. She’d cut up some fresh fruit with it and it’d be a splurge but not a horrible one.

She knew Rick was nervous about his blood work next week, but it was what it was. She felt like she’d spent a lot of time in the past week telling him that he was making great choices and, regardless of the results, he should continue for not just his cholesterol but also his overall health. Some things just couldn’t be fixed with diet alone and she knew that.

She felt she got through to him, but only time would tell.

“What are you doing?”

She turned and looked at Rick. She knew he was on the way down since she’d heard George’s feet on the floor running above her.

“Making breakfast. I can’t believe I got this much time to do it. It’s almost done.”

“It smells great,” he said, walking over to her to kiss her on the lips. “I need to let George out and then I’ll help you.”

He moved over and put his feet into the boots he left by the door to the deck, grabbed his jacket to slip on and put the harness on George and clipped him.

She flipped the French toast over to cook the other side and then went back to slicing the strawberries and putting the blueberries and raspberries in a bowl with them.

George came in five minutes later with Rick, both of them shaking their heads to get the snow flurries off. “It’s not going to snow today, is it?”

“No,” Rick said. “I think flurries only. I’m already hating it, but it’s just the beginning. I guess this is one thing that is good about working from home. I don’t have to go out in this much.”