maintained a cheerful countenance, his impending departure was background music, a mournful playlist, its volume increasing with each passing moment.
By the time they were back downstairs and headed toward the front door, Grace’s chest felt weighted.
“It’s going to be great, Grace. You’re going to be great.”
When she reached the spot where her checkout counter would go, she turned to him. The tour was over, and she was almost out of time. Pamela was going to be here soon, and she still had a few items on her list to complete. She couldn’t bring herself to care, however.
“Hope you’re right.” She’d tried for cheerful, but that playlist was getting to her, and her voice caught on the last word.
“Come here, honey.” He took her hand and pulled her into his arms.
She gratefully pressed into the hard planes of his chest and buried her face in the warm curve of his neck. She inhaled his clean, masculine smell, wishing she could bottle it. She memorized the feel of his arms wrapped tight around her. The delicious rasp of his unshaven jaw against her forehead. The warm wisp of breath at her temple.
“I’m so glad I met you, Grace Bennett,” he whispered, then dropped a soft kiss on her forehead. “And I’m so glad you survived.”
Her eyes stung with tears because she knew what her survival had cost him. Her throat ached with his kindness. She tightened her arms around him.
“I want you to find that peace, Grace. If that’s all that comes of what happened here, it would be worth it to me.”
She couldn’t speak past the lump in her throat, so she just held him and let him hold her. She tried to remember what this felt like so when she lay upstairs in her bed on lonely nights, she could call it all back up. So she could comfort herself with the memory of what it had felt like to be so fully loved.
A tear trickled down her cheek just as he drew back enough to look at her.
He kissed the tear away. “Know what I thought when I first laid eyes on you?”
She shook her head, gazing into eyes she adored.
“I thought, ‘Now here’s a very special woman.’”
She gave a wry laugh. “No, you didn’t.”
“Yes, I did. God has big plans for you, Gracie. This place, this house, is only the beginning of what He’s going to do through you. You’re here for a purpose. Don’t ever forget that.”
Another tear leaked out. She pressed her face to his shoulder, and he wrapped his arms around her again. How in the world did he always know exactly what she needed to hear? And what would she do when he wasn’t here to say those things?
Maybe she’d have to start saying them to herself.
They clung to each other for a time, seconds bleeding into minutes. Pamela would be here soon, and she didn’t want the Realtor walking in on their last moments.
As if reading her mind, Wyatt drew back. “I should go.”
She gave him a wobbly smile. “I’ll walk you out.”
“No.” His hands framed her face. “I want to remember you just like this. Here in your new place, living your dream.”
Her eyes stung again, and she swallowed around the achy lump in her throat.
“I’ll miss you, Grace. You have no idea how much.”
“Yes, I do.”
He pressed a slow, soft kiss to her lips. It was too brief. But it could’ve gone on forever and still not been long enough.
He stepped away, turned to open the door. On the threshold he looked back one last time, gave her that enigmatic smile, and then he was gone.
Chapter Forty-Two
After Grace said good-bye to Wyatt she returned home and wept in the privacy of her shower. Later Molly tried to pry her feelings out of her, and when Grace shut her out, Molly switched to sympathetic looks. But Grace just put on a brave face and tried to keep busy.
On Saturday Mia and Levi returned from their honeymoon, a nice distraction from Grace’s heartbreak. She’d always found that word to be so overwrought and sappy. Who knew that the actual experience caused a literal ache in the chest right where the heart resided?
After sleeping off their jet lag on Saturday, Mia and Levi awakened refreshed and ready to gush about their time abroad. They’d strolled the streets of Paris, visited the Louvre, floated down the Seine River, and taken the elevator up the Eiffel Tower.