Chapter 24

• For two days Kelsey climbed through the files and records in the office. She’d taken several pages of notes, had ideas and questions. The problem was she couldn’t bring herself to call Beth or Ed, and wasn’t ready to talk to Gage just yet either.
• Hiding in her room each morning, she waited until Gage went to the shop before going down. She wasn’t being cowardly, just needed time and space to figure things out. The feelings, or desires, she had for Gage had changed, yet hadn’t at the same time. It left her with her emotions whirling around in circles inside her. One minute she would be humming quietly to herself as she read through the files and the next, she was in tears, or worse, mad at nothing. What she needed to figure out was why, before she threw herself in his path again.
• One part she knew, as best as she could was that he had gone against his own instinct and let her grow up. For that, she was glad and owed him a certain degree of gratitude. Now, if she could just get through this change without incident, she’d be a lot happier. She knew she was ready for a man in her life, but when she thought of it along the terms of only one man forever, she wasn’t that sure. None of her relationships had ever gone to a place of intimacy, a few times she’d come close, but there was always something missing so she stopped it there. Her roommate from school thought it was great she was still a virgin. Kelsey didn’t feel like it was great to be a twenty-three-year-old virgin at all. To her it meant something was wrong with her, and that she couldn’t seem to have a normal relationship.