THE NEXT MORNING I FELT like I was floating on air. Matt had gotten up early and was about to leave to go train with his coach while I started the search for houses. I could barely sleep because I was so excited, but yet I still couldn’t get out of bed.
Matt sat down beside me and leaned over to tie his shoes. “Are you going to call Jace and tell him today?” he asked.
Stretching my arms out over my head, I laid back down on my pillows. “Yeah, I probably need to do that. He’ll most likely want to stay here and just the pay the rent once I’m gone. He likes this place, so if he wants it I’ll let him have it.”
Leaning over, he caged me in his arms and kissed me softly on the lips. “Well, you have fun today while I’m gone. Do you want to drive up to Santa Rosa this afternoon and stay at my place for the weekend? The fight’s in Stockton tomorrow night, which makes it a little longer drive from my place, but I didn’t think that would matter anyway.”
I ran my fingers up and down his muscular arms, feeling his muscles flex as I passed over them. “Yeah, we can do that. I’ll pack a bag and head out your way this afternoon. I’m going to call Jace and Lexi, and probably my mother, to fill them in on everything. I haven’t exactly kept in touch with her as much as I should.”
“Sounds good, angel, I’ll see you this afternoon. Tell her I said hello.” He kissed me again and leaned his forehead against mine. “Be careful on your way up.”
“I will,” I told him. “I love you.”
He looked back at me one last time and said, “I love you, too,” before walking out of my room and out the front door. Grabbing my phone, I slipped out of bed and put on my gray lounging pants I had thrown over my writing chair in the corner of my room. My stomach growled in protest, so I ventured off to the kitchen and poured a glass of orange juice and fixed a bowl of cereal. I loved eating breakfast while looking out the windows toward the bay, and soon I wouldn’t be able to do that. Maybe my next house would be with a beautiful view of the mountains. There were so many choices and I couldn’t wait to start searching.
After I finished my cereal, the first person on my list to call was my mother. Not only was I going to tell her about me and Matt, but I really needed to know what exactly she said to Hayley. With everything going on I hadn’t talked to her at all except the one phone message, but I knew she was busy. My dad and I talked about once a month when he wasn’t out trying to impress his girlfriend who wasn’t much older than me. My mother worked long hours at the hospital and I never knew when she was on call. It was rare she was ever around when I actually called her.
After dialing her number, I waited as the line rang, over and over. I was about to hang up when she finally answered, sounding breathless yet excited, “Oh, Shelby, I almost missed your call. I had an emergency surgery late last night and I just got in and was about to take a shower. Are you doing okay? How’s work going? I got your message the other day, by the way.”
“It’s going good, Mom. I thought you would call me after I left you the message about Matt.”
“I know, and I’m sorry, sweetheart. I can’t believe it took this long for the world to get you two back together. Is everything going okay with him?”
“Yes, everything’s going great,” I said. “Since you just got in are you going to try and get some sleep now?”
She sighed. “That’s the plan. I was going to take a nice, long shower and lay down. I’m glad you called me when you did because as soon as I get in bed, my phone is going off.”
“Well, I won’t keep you long then,” I told her. “I wanted to tell you I ran into Hayley the other day. She said she ate lunch with you and Janet a few weeks ago.”
“Oh yes, she did. She’s such a beautiful girl,” my mother gushed.
Yeah, only on the outside, I wanted to say.
“Did you happen to bring up Matt Reynolds in the conversation?”
“Hmm … let’s see,” she mumbled. “Yes, I did actually. I was telling her how I hated seeing you alone and that I wanted you to find someone like Matt. It’s uncanny how just after that you ended up seeing him again. Have you told him about …”
“No, I haven’t told him,” I murmured sadly. “Things have been going good with us and I didn’t want to ruin it. I was about to yesterday until we got interrupted by my boss. I’m going to tell him tonight, though. He wants us to move in with each other and I know I can’t take that step without being completely honest with him. I’m just afraid that he won’t want to be with me anymore once he finds out.”
“I know you’re scared, honey, but he needs to know. You were only trying to look out for him and his family. No one knew that he would be where he is today, and he might not have made it that far if you’d stayed. He’s going to be angry and hurt when he finds out, but as long as you tell him what’s in your heart you won’t go wrong. Don’t hold back, sweetheart. He needs to know exactly how you felt and that it was all in good intentions.”
Tears streamed down my cheeks and I wiped them away with the sleeve of my T-shirt. “Thanks, Mom, I really needed to hear that. Why don’t you take your shower and get some rest? I’ll talk to you soon. I know you have to be tired.”
“All right, honey. If things don’t go so well with Matt tonight make sure you call me. I love you.”
“I love you, too, Mom.”
We hung up the phone and I called Lexi to see how she was feeling. Unfortunately, she didn’t answer, so I left her a message saying I needed her to call me back before I tried my luck with Jace.
He answered the phone on the first ring; I could always count on him. “Hey, Shels,” he greeted, “I don’t have long because we’re getting ready to start filming. What’s up?”
Since he didn’t have time I figured I’d tell him quickly. “Matt wants to move in together,” I blurted into the phone.
The phone went silent for a few seconds and I thought he might have hung up on me until I heard him say, “Wow.”
I laughed. “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.”
“What do you want to do? Do you want to move in with him?” he asked.
The thought of not living with Jace anymore broke my heart because he’d been by my side for so long, but I loved Matt and I didn’t want to wait to start our life together.
“I do,” I told him sadly. “I want to more than anything. I guess I was just worried about you and your family. What are you going to tell them?”
“Shelby, don’t worry about that,” he said with a sigh. “There’s actually something I want to talk to you about when I get home. I would tell you now, but I’m running out of time. So what about the house? Are you going to sell it?”
I hated it when he would say he needed to say something but didn’t tell me what. It drove me crazy when people did stuff like that.
“I was going to leave that up to you. Whether you want to continue paying, or if you’d like, I can sell it to you. You decide if you want to stay here or not and we’ll go from there. How is that? There’s no rush, okay?”
“You would do that for me?”
“Of course,” I answered incredulously. “I love you, Jace, and I’m not going to put you into a bind. I’m going to miss you when I go, though.”
“Tell me about it. I’ve lived with you for almost ten years now. I kind of grew attached to you.” The sound of someone yelling his name in the background came through the phone. “All right, babe, I have to go. Call me later, okay?”
“Okay,” I said before he hung up.
I’m glad he took the news well. There wasn’t a reason for him not to, but even I was sad knowing I wouldn’t have him around to talk to when I needed advice, or if I needed a shoulder to cry on. He would always still be around, except now things would be better; I would have Matt by my side.
He was all I needed.