Page 82 of Elevate With Me

Not exactly the way I would translate Mrs. Walker’s actions, but I supposed Glen wasn’t far off either. No matter how hard I tried to explain away the frosty exterior of Haylee’s mother, I couldn’t quite view the situation through her eyes when her daughter hid her face on my chest and weeped.

I remembered Haylee saying her family wasn’t like mine, and my heart broke for her again. Family was everything to me. They were my strength, my stronghold to fall back on. If I didn’t have that, I’d be lost. I couldn’t imagine what it must be like for her not to be able to trust her family with... well anything. The fight in the bar and our relationship possibly being just a few of the things she kept from them.

“I’m sorry,” I said quietly. Sorry for the way Haylee was feeling. Sorry for her relationship with her mother being what it was. But I couldn’t be sorry for telling the truth.

“At least, she didn’t see the black eye,” Haylee responded shakily.

That broke me apart.

Just say it.

“WHAT ARE YOU MOST?excited about going back home?” I asked Luke on Saturday.

Half of his flat was packed in boxes, while the other half was simply tidied up for the next occupant. One of those boxes had my name on it, and I had a feeling I’d be bringing that one up to my flat that evening, although Luke hadn’t yet mentioned anything about it.

“Excited,” he echoed slowly, rubbing a hand over his face. “It’s hard to be excited feelinglike this.”

“You will see your family, surely that’s exciting?” I insisted. The thought of him leaving tomorrow made me feellike this, too, but I refused to linger on that. There’d be plenty of time to miss Luke once he was gone.

“Yes, that’ll be... exciting. I just wish you’d be there, too.”

We were sitting on his sofa, my legs across his lap, his right hand drawing patterns across my back while the left rested on my knee. My arms hung around his neck, but I slid one hand up to cup his cheek. He leaned into the touch.

“Maybe we can plan something?” I thought out loud.

Luke’s lips twitched, and some of his spark returned to his eyes. “We can definitely plan something. When will you be free?”

I pursed my lips, thinking about it. “Turtle Bay doesn’t matter. I can leave whenever I want to. Just quit, really, if they don’t let me take off. The dance studio closes for the summer.”

“The farm is beautiful during summer.” Luke hummed, his smile growing. “Wait, let me get my tablet.”

He moved out from under me and fished around in a bag at the side of the sofa. I watched his fingers tap around the screen, opening a browser and searching for flights to Denver.

“The entire summer?” he asked when the site loaded.

I gasped. “Oh, we’re planning right now?”