He said nothing for a moment before he looked at me.
“Why?”
“Uh, I don’t know. I mean, I know Cole is Ellis’s dad, so he’s going to be around a lot once he finds out. And Enzo is… well, I mean, he lives there, so it seems like you should just meet him too. He was a big part of Rosalie’s life, as they were going to marry.”
He said nothing and looked back at the grave.
“Is it weird to know he’s dead?” Evan asked.
“It hurts to know he’s dead. He and I… I don’t know. Cole and Enzo have always been close. I had Fox. We were kidnapped and tortured together. I never got to tell him goodbye, so it sucks that I have to come here to talk to him when he should be calling from his hotel room, excited about the next football game he’ll be playing in. Or I should be able to walk in on him taking a bubble bath with Rosalie. Or… in bed with him while we make love to her.” I wasn’t sure how he’d react to that last part, but it was true, so I said it.
“Do you still love Ro?” his voice was rougher than usual.
“I will always love her,” I whispered. “She was my entire world. If circumstances were different today, she still would be.”
“I’ve caught her over the years looking at pictures of you. She doesn’t think I know, but I do.”
I swallowed hard at his words.
“You two fell in love quickly.”
He let out a soft huff. “I’ve known her my whole life. My soul has. She didn’t know me, but she ran to me the first time I saw her. I was standing alone, looking at the river. The mountains. Thinking about life and death. And then, there she was. In her pretty dress and her hair wild. She ran to me. Threw her arms around me as if her soul recognized mine. I held her back. I-I asked her to marry me moments later. She said yes.”
I blinked at his story. I had no idea that’s how it happened.
“Then what?” I whispered, knowing I was going to hurt my own feelings really badly.
He chuckled sadly. Softly. “I kissed her. Took her to my room. We lay together all night, talking about life and love. She slept in my arms, and I felt like maybe I got something right in my life. That I was given a second chance. The next morning, she put on a pretty white dress, and I met her in the place she’d kissed me. We married there.”
“After a day?” I asked thickly. I honestly hadn’t thought that was true. It was wild to me that Anson hadn’t fought harder for Rosalie.
“One day,” he murmured. “Sometimes you just know.” He was quiet for a moment. “We danced in wildflowers that evening. The fireflies twinkled around us. It was late in the year, but nothing with us has ever been normal, it seems. We had wedding pie because she didn’t want cake.”
I winced at that. It reminded her of Cole.
“We had a few close friends there, and that was it. She was my wife. I was her husband. We spent the night with Anson. The three of us. It was my wedding gift to her. I knew he loved her. That she loved him.” He paused. “Our Rosie.”
I frowned and looked from Fox’s gravestone to him.
“What did you say?” I asked, my voice shaking. Fox called Rosalie Rosie. It was his name for her. Always had been.
“Do you believe in fate, Ethan?” he asked.
“I-I do,” I replied, my voice shaking. “Why did you call her Rosie?”
“Do you believe that Rosalie would have chosen me as a replacement for Fox?”
“I-I don’t want you to replace him. It angers me to think…” my voice trailed off.
“Do you even know our girl, E?” he asked.
I stared at him, my heart in my throat.
“Your sweetheart,” he murmured. “Do you think she’d ever choose someone not worthy of her?”
My guts clenched. Something wasn’t right. His tone in that moment…. It was so damn familiar, I didn’t dare to believe it…
I reached out, my hands shaking. He didn’t try to stop me. Instead, he let me pull his gaiter down to his neck, revealing his plump lips. I hadn’t been able to get a good look at him before when he was smoking in Church’s garden, but I knew those lips.
