All I Want Is You Read Free Page B

huge way.” And maybe offering to take on her grandpa’s money problem at the same time she had plenty of her own was crazy, but how could she do anything else?
    With the TV still on mute, both girls stayed silent and Christy realized the house had begun to shake slightly—­from a train passing by on the tracks at the end of the street. She mostly didn’t even notice the subtle vibrations anymore, or the sound, but right now it felt like a tiny little earthquake rocking her already delicate world. She’d experienced such a lack of control ever since her parents’ deaths, a sense of not being able to save anyone, including herself—­and if she could just find a way to help her grandpa keep his life the way he wanted it, she already knew it would help her life make some kind of sense again.
    And that’s when the old frosted glass light fixture suspended from the ceiling above came crashing down onto the coffee table, exploding into a million slivers of glass. Neither girl jumped or screamed—­they both simply flinched, stayed still, then looked at each other. Christy supposed it took a lot to shock either of them now.
    â€œFrom the vibrations,” Christy said. “From the trains. It must have been working its way loose little by little, every time a train went by, all this time, for who knows how many years.”
    â€œAnd tonight it reached its breaking point,” Bethany said.
    â€œIt could have seriously injured one of us,” Christy observed.
    â€œIt still could,” Bethany replied, surveying the bits of glass all around them. “But we’ll just move slowly, be careful. It’ll be fine.”
    Christy nodded. Yes, it would be fine. It was only a broken light.
    But some things wouldn’t be fine. Some things weren’t so easy to fix or clean up.
    â€œMaybe that was a sign,” she murmured.
    â€œWhat kind of a sign?”
    â€œMaybe I’ve reached a breaking point, too,” Christy said.
    Bethany just blinked. “What do you mean?”
    And Christy could barely believe the words that were about to leave her lips—­but she said them anyway. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe the time has come to give up and give in. Maybe I do need to find a rich man.”

 
    There were doors all round the hall,
    but they were all locked.
    Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
    Chapter 2
    â€œN OW, I don’t mean it could be just anyone,” she was quick to add. “And I wouldn’t ever marry someone I don’t care about. But . . . maybe it’s time to . . . narrow my dating pool to financially solvent men and start going to more upscale places.”
    She went on to explain about her grandpa’s situation. “He has six months, so maybe that’s enough time to find a guy who fits the bill and will be so crazy about me that he won’t mind bailing Grandpa Charlie out.”
    â€œAnd if it makes your own life a little easier in the bargain, that’s good, too,” Bethany pointed out.
    Christy let a tired sigh escape her as she admitted, “It would be a relief not to feel so on edge and worried all the time.” So even if she didn’t feel a hundred percent great about this change of heart . . . well, at least it brought with it the idea of hope, for her and her grandfather both.
    â€œThough . . . I think you might have to do more than just narrow your dating pool.” Bethany set her laptop aside. “If you’re serious about this, you’re going to have to be more aggressive about dating than you usually are.”
    Yet Christy rolled her eyes. “Who has time to be aggressive about dating? I barely have time to brush my teeth some days.” She purposely worked long shifts at the mall—­it was the only way to make enough to get by.
    â€œI’m saying you’ll have to make the time,” Bethany told her. “You might have to