Trace + Olivia Series Boxed Set (63 page)

I locked the door and grabbed some pajamas, heading into the bathroom to take a shower.

I pulled my wet hair back into a bun and called Ace into the bedroom. He jumped up in the middle of the bed, stretching out.

I rubbed his belly as I climbed under the covers. “Night buddy, daddy will be home soon,” I yawned.

He wagged his tail at the mention of Trace. While getting a dog—any pet really—had been something I wanted to do, Ace had become Trace’s dog. Their bond was special.

I turned the light off and snuggled under the blankets. The bed seemed too large and too cold without Trace in it.

As if sensing my distress, Ace curled against my side, his long pink tongue flicking out to lick my cheek.

I giggled.

I was beginning to drift off to sleep when I heard the door open. Seconds later Trace strode into the bedroom, tearing off his clothes. His shoulders were taught and his jaw clenched.

I sat up, tilting my head.

“What’s wrong?”

He sat down on the edge of his side of the bed with his back to me. I reached out, placing my hand on the smooth skin of his shoulder. The muscles in his back jumped at my touch. I had never seen him wound so tight before.

“Trace? Talk to me, please. What’s wrong?” I begged.

There was a thickness in the air, like what he was about to say was going to change everything.

After a minute, he turned to me. The light from the moon filtered into the room, shining on his face, and making the tears in his glimmer. My heart broke and my chest clenched. What was going on?

He reached out and cupped my cheek, gazing at me. “You know how Gramps has been grooming me to take over the company?”

I nodded.

Warren had taken him under his wing about a year ago. Trace still worked at Pete’s when he had the chance. He loved working on cars and didn’t want to miss out on that. But with his dad dead and Gramps fast approaching his seventy-fifth birthday, it left Trace to run the business. I knew Trace struggled daily with what was right. Did he tell Gramps he didn’t want the business? Or did he trudge on out of a sense of family duty and obligation? I hated that he had to choose. It wasn’t fair. I knew Trace was much happier living simply, not as some big CEO. But this
was
his family business, and he didn’t know if he was willing to hand it over to a stranger.

“I thought,” he swallowed, “I thought it was just because he’s getting older and wanted to retire, you know?” He pulled at his hair.

“But it’s not?”

He shook his head, sniffling. “Gramps has cancer.”

“What?!” I shrieked, sitting straight up in bed. I hadn’t expected those words to come out of his mouth.

“He didn’t want me to tell you,” he reached for my hand holding onto it tightly, “he hasn’t told anyone, except me. But I had to tell you, Olivia. I couldn’t keep this to myself. It hurts too much,” he admitted, pulling his bottom lip between his teeth and looking away from me, ashamed of showing weakness.

“Cancer?” I squeaked. Tears clogged my throat and one cascaded down my cheek. Trace turned back to me, wiping it away with his thumb, his eyes full of sadness.

“It’s lung cancer,” he whispered, bowing his head. “The doctor’s given him anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to live.”

“No,” I shook my head, a sob crawling my throat. I grasped his forearm, needing something to hold me up. “No. That can’t be true.” I didn’t want to believe what he was telling me. I loved Trace’s grandpa like he was my own. The thought that he might not be with us much longer tore me up inside. A few weeks or even months was
nothing.
How could you make yourself say goodbye to someone you loved so dearly? Goodbyes were never easy, especially when they marked the end.

Trace wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me against him.

Ace grunted and jumped off the bed, unhappy at having his sleep disturbed.

I was angry with myself. I should’ve been the one comforting
him
, not the other way around. He rubbed his hand soothingly up and down my arm. A tear fell from his chin onto my cheek.

“No,” I said again, as if just by saying that word it would make what he’d told me not true.

But nothing could undo this.

He lowered himself until we were lying on the bed and I pressed my face against his bare chest, smearing my wet tears along his skin.

He wasn’t okay.

I wasn’t okay.

And I wondered if we’d ever be okay again.

I woke up still in Trace’s arms. He was sound asleep, so I slipped from the bed carefully so I didn’t wake him. He needed his rest after the news Gramps dropped on him last night.

My chest clenched.

I couldn’t imagine a world without Warren Wentworth. There were some people that made the world brighter, and Gramps was one of them. Despite the amount of wealth he’d garnered he was still one of the most down to earth people I’d ever had the pleasure of meeting. He was
special
for so many reasons.

Tears sprung to my eyes.

Not again.

Nope.

No more crying.

With a shake of my head I padded out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, determined to make Trace a delicious breakfast. While I could cook well, Trace usually made all our meals because he loved it. The man was perfect … except for his dancing.

I pulled out the carton of eggs and set about making scrambled eggs.

By the time Trace came out of the bedroom, the eggs were ready and I’d fried bacon.

“I’ve been thinking,” he started, leaning against the doorway to the bedroom, his hair sticking up adorably in every direction.

“About what?” I asked, placing our plates on the bar-top that overlooked the kitchen.

“I—
we
—need to get away.”

“We do?” I raised a brow.

“Yeah,” he rubbed a hand over his stubbled jaw before stifling a yawn. Rumpled and straight out of bed, he was still the sexiest man I’d ever seen … it probably helped that he was shirtless and my mouth was watering at the sight of his bare chest. Seriously, how did guys get that V? It was a woman’s undoing. It made smart girls do stupid things … I would know. “It’s been a long time since we’ve been anywhere. You’ve graduated and I know Marcy wouldn’t care if you took off for a bit,” he shrugged. “Pete understands and Gramps … well … he’ll have to get over it.”

“Where would we even go?” I questioned.

He smiled. “Nowhere. Everywhere. It doesn’t matter.” He strode across the room until he was in front of me. He grabbed me by both arms and bent his tall frame so he could look me in the eye. “We’ve both been going through the motions for so long, Olivia. We need to get our spark back.”

“Our spark back?” I looked at him like he was crazy.

“Our spark for life. I miss all those crazy adventures we had when we were crossing things off your list. The spontaneity, the craziness, I
miss
that.”

“I miss it too,” I admitted.

While the past two years had been great, I understood what he meant. We’d become like an old married couple, content to stay in and do nothing. But when we’d been crossing things off my Live List, we’d had so much
fun
, and had so many crazy adventures.

Yeah … I wanted more adventures.

“But what would we do?” I asked him.

He surprised me by grabbing my cheeks and smacking his lips against mine. I’m pretty sure he slobbered on me too. Ugh, that was Trace for you.

His green eyes were full of excitement. “Let’s go on a road trip.”

“A road trip?” I repeated, mulling over the idea.

He nodded giddily, dancing on the balls of his feet. “Yeah, we could head north. Maybe visit the lake house in Maine.”

“This is crazy,” I shook my head. “We both have jobs, Trace, and what about Ace?” I pointed to the dog currently sprawled on the floor licking his paw.

“I already told you, they won’t mind if we take off. As for Ace, Trent will take care of him. The freak has a ferret, I’m pretty sure he can handle a dog. Please, Olivia,” he begged, even jutting out his lower lip. He wasn’t fighting fair.

I decided not to think about it. Sometimes, thinking got you in trouble, and you needed to jump in feet first and think about the consequences later.

“Let’s do it.”

“Really?” He lit up, but there was hesitancy in his eyes, like I might pull the rug out from under him.

“Really,” I smiled.

He grabbed me again, dipping me down and kissing me until I thought I’d pass out from lack of oxygen. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” I murmured, clinging to his arms so I didn’t fall.

“We’re really doing this?” He asked.

I nodded. “You, me, and a road trip. What could possibly go wrong?”

“We’ll conquer those bumps along the way together, because that’s what we do,” he grinned.

“Now,” I pulled away, looking at him sternly, “if we’re doing this, we do it right.”

“What do you mean?” He grabbed a piece of bacon, taking a bite.

“No fancy hotels and five star meals. I want this to be a
real
road trip. I want to rough it,” I placed my hands on my hips, daring him to argue with me.

A huge smile spread across his face. “I knew I fell in love with you for a reason.”

“What?” I shrugged. “In my mind, staying in fancy hotels does not constitute a road trip. I want to stay up late looking at the stars and sleep in the car. I want to go into dingy little diners and meet normal people. I want …” what was the word he used? “Spontaneity, that’s what I want.”

“I’m so glad I stopped to help you with your flat tire,” he whispered, his eyes growing dark with an emotion I couldn’t decipher. “Best decision I ever made.”

“I’m glad you stopped too,” I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, hugging him. “Even if I did sound like a bumbling idiot when I talked to you.”

He chuckled, his chest rumbling against me. “It was adorable. Especially when you called me Prince Charming.”

I blushed, burying my face against his shoulder. “You
are
my Prince Charming, even though you drive me nuts sometimes.”

“Gotta keep things interesting, babe,” he grinned crookedly.

“So,” I gazed up at him, “when should we leave for this road trip?”

“I’d say tomorrow, but you’d probably kill me,” he winked. “How about next week? That should be enough notice for Pete and Marcy. Gramps will be pissed at first, but he’ll understand.” He took a shaky breath. “I need to get away. I can’t be here when he tells them, Olivia. I know I have to be strong for them and I
can’t
do it right now.”

“I understand,” I cupped his stubbled cheek. I could see how it pained him to admit that to me and it broke my heart. “Next week sounds perfect. How long are we going to be gone?”

“Two maybe three weeks, tops,” he shrugged.

I had several interviews lined up in July for teaching positions, so we’d be back in plenty of time. I’d been afraid, knowing Trace, that he’d say two months.

“Well, Ace,” I bent down to pet the dog, “I’m going to miss you, bud.” He looked at me with sad gray eyes.

“He’ll be fine,” Trace bent down beside me, scratching the dog behind his ears. Ace’s tail thumped loudly against the floor.

“What are you, the dog whisperer now? We’ve never left him for this long. I hope he’ll be okay,” I frowned.

“Trent will do fine with him, he’s an animal lover. I’m surprised the kid isn’t off somewhere preaching about saving the whales or some other shit. He used to drive my mom nuts when he was little because he was always bringing stray animals into the house. She wasn’t happy when she found the snake in her bathroom.”

“I wouldn’t be either,” I laughed.

“It was a garter snake, it wasn’t like it was going to hurt anyone,” he chuckled. “She ended up on top of the bathroom counter wielding a hairdryer as her weapon of choice. She wouldn’t get down until the snake was out of the house.”

I snorted. “That’s funny.”

“There’s a picture somewhere,” he stood, walking around the counter and sitting in front of his plate of food. It was bound to be cold by now. “Unless she’s burned them all … which is possible.”

I grabbed his plate before he could snag another bite and popped it into the microwave, then did the same with mine and sat down beside him.

“Good?” I asked him, pointing to his plate.

“Delicious,” he leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Thank you.”

I smiled, nibbling at my own breakfast. I wasn’t very hungry. While I was exited at the prospect of a road trip with Trace, I couldn’t help but wonder if now was a bad time. I understood what he’d said about needing to get away. When it was time for me to go to college, I’d picked a school in Virginia, about as far away as I could get from my home in New Hampshire. So, I knew running when I saw it, and that’s what he was doing … running from his problems.

But I’d already agreed, and I
was
excited.

There was nothing I could do now but go along for the ride.