Charli’s eyes filled; tears on the brink of overflowing. “You sound like the department shrink. She accused me of something similar, hiding myself in my job and not living life fully, blah, blah…”
“Well, her blah, blah was dead on, my girl. Do me a favor and think about this. I don’t want you to let a good man get away when he’s so ripe for the picking.”
Charli wiped her eyes and giggled, glad for the comic relief. “Oh, he’s been picked over a number of times, Gramps.”
“Maybe, but has his seed ever been planted?” He chuckled mischievously.
Totally giggling now, Charli punched his arm gently, swung herself off the bed and winked. “I should have known you’d get to the essence of what this is really about, your ultimate desire for a great-grandchild.”
***
With her head still full of the advice her gramps had shared, feeling punch drunk, she needed some space. Why hadn’t she admitted her fatal secret, given her gramps all the truth? Shying away from that question, she wondered if she had purposely kept people from getting too close because of a fear she’d lose them. Is that why she’s kept that emotional wall up between her and anyone of the opposite sex?
Her hands gripped the bars of the tread mill. She’d run for miles with those words haunting every step. No matter how fast she went, she couldn’t outrun the message. Was it time to open her jail cell and step out into the world of love and families, marriage and babies?
Could she?
With Blake?
So far, he’d been the only man who’d ever made her want to.