compromise a little bit? Can’t you hold on to the past while still looking ahead to the future? Some change is good and meaningful in our lives. Other change, the bad kind of change, we can fight. But if everything in your life is a fight, what truly has meaning?”
“I’ve been fighting for so long I don’t know if I can stop,” Daisy told her.
“I’m not telling you to stop. I’m telling you to focus. You’ve jumped from one place to another, fighting for other people, but have you ever stopped to figure out what matters the most? What can you fight for that enhances your own life? You’ve been working on writing a story about the school, so why not put all of your energy into that? You can write a beautiful story and share your love of history with millions around the world, and you can embrace your past while still living in the present. You can have all of a little bit, or a little bit of all.”
Daisy was quiet for several moments as she thought about her best friend’s words. Was she so busy trying to hold on to everything that the most important things were slipping through the cracks?
Her life was a mess. And she didn’t have the answers.
“I want to save the school,” Daisy finally said.
“More than you want to save this land?” Darla asked.
Daisy thought for a few moments on that. “Maybe. I’ve been holding on to this place because it brings me closer to my parents, but they were the ones who left without me, so why am I holding on so tightly?”
“Because you love your parents. There’s nothing wrong with that. But this place was never theirs. It was your grandfather’s and it was yours, and your gramps wants to move on. He wants to embrace his future and he wants you to do the same.”
“I know what my past is, but I don’t know what my future holds,” Daisy said.
“And that’s terrifying for a lot of people,” Darla told her. “It’s something I struggle with too.”
“You don’t struggle with anything. You’re the most confident, self-reliant person I’ve ever known,” Daisy told her.
“I had to build that confidence through years of being knocked down. But when I see the tragedy so many people go through, it reminds me of how blessed I really am. I have great parents, I have a great job, and I have a best friend who’s like my sister. I don’t have a lot to complain about.”
“I love you, Darla,” Daisy said as she climbed from her chair and hugged her bestie.
“I love you too. You know that,” Darla said. Then she pulled back and wouldn’t let Daisy look away. “Do you love Hudson?”
Those words sent both a shiver and a shot of heat through Daisy. “I don’t know. I’ve never loved anyone besides family,” Daisy told her. “So I don’t know what romantic love feels like.”
“You miss him, right?”
“Yes, like crazy and it’s only been a few days.”
“And when you’re together you’re filled with all sorts of tingles and happy hormones?”
Daisy laughed. “Yeah, it feels like I’m flying.”
“And how does the thought of losing him feel?”
Daisy’s eyes filled with tears. “It hurts. It hurts more than anything I’ve felt before.”
“That’s your answer, Daisy. You know how you feel about him. You’re just scared to admit it, even to yourself.”
“I wasn’t going to fall in love — not ever,” Daisy said.
Darla laughed. “I don’t plan on falling in love either, but what I’ve learned through my job, and through life in general, is that we don’t get a choice. If we meet that person, and that arrow shoots into our heart, it’s got a barbed hook on it and there’s no escaping.”
“You’ve dated a lot, but you’ve never spoken of true love,” Daisy pointed out.
“I tell you everything so you know I’ve been in lust before, and I’ve been in like before, but you’re right, I’ve never been with someone I’ve felt I couldn’t breathe without. The final test to know if you’re in love and if that person is worthy of your love, is to ask yourself if you like yourself more with him or without him.”
Daisy leaned back. “That’s a good question.”
She thought about all the times she’d been with Hudson — on the plane, in his hotel room, on her family property, on the golf course, at his house, at the school she was trying to save, and simply taking a walk through a