Learning To Love (The Griffin Brothers Book 4) (33 page)

We grew up together in
the same neighborhood in Chicago. Our lives changed right before we
started middle school. After years of struggling, my dad finally
landed a good job. Actually, it was a great job. We ended up moving
across town into a big house. Zane had been raised by a single mom,
who was cooking at a local restaurant. Around the same time that my
dad got his job, his mom got an amazing write up for her food. After
that, an investor offered her money to open a string of restaurants
around Chicago and the suburbs. They moved in down the street from
us, and the Griffins, who’d grown up with us, too.

We were always good
friends, but things changed for me that summer. My heart decided to
get involved, and I saw him as more. Unfortunately, he could only see
Whitney. The perfect girl who always wore dresses and looked like
she’d stepped out of TV, or a magazine. How could I compete with
that when most days I was in funky dresses, or jeans and combat
boots? The answer is simple. I couldn’t.

It only got worse in
high school. They weren’t the golden couple—they couldn’t be
with Zane not being part of the popular crowd, or trying to fit in.
But they were inseparable. He still defended me against the bullies
who tormented me for not dressing like everyone else, and gave me a
friendly hug when he saw me, but that was it. I didn’t think he’d
ever see me differently. Then, he started drifting away from me, and
falling more into her orbit.

I would still text him
once a week or so to see how he was doing, but he never initiated any
contact. I had to make the hard decision to give up, and try to be
happy without him in my life. I never conformed to the clothes or
uptight styles of the popular kids, and once I took the fashion
design class my school offered, I found what I never knew I’d been
missing. A purpose, and a dream.

I graduated high
school, and was all set to go to New York and attend a prestigious
fashion school. Then Zane walked back into my life. I’ll never
forget that day. It was the day that my heart broke for the man I
loved, as I watched him cry for someone else. I held him as he told
me that Whitney wouldn’t give up her inheritance to be with him.
That she didn’t love him enough. That
he
wasn’t enough. New money was worse than no money to her parents.

I comforted him, and
tried to reassure him about what a great guy he was all summer. My
parents watched us closely, and I know they were afraid I was going
to give up my dreams to stay there with him. I didn’t, though. As
much as I loved him, I knew he didn’t love me like that, and I
couldn’t just give up everything to sit around and hope that he
would one day realize that I was there with him. That I would
always
choose him if he wanted me.

The night before I left
for New York, we made love for the first time. I’d been with a
couple of guys from school, and he’d been with Whitney. So it
wasn’t our first time in that sense. It was the first time I felt
it in my soul, though. I thought he felt something, too, because he
was so sweet and gentle with me. The next morning, he just kissed me
on the forehead and disappeared. I got on the plane to New York, and
was thankful that I had been able to have that one night with him. I
thought that was the end, but it was only the beginning.