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“I was nearing the end of my residency, dating a beautiful fellow resident, and knew I wanted a wife and family,” he rushed out, knowing he needed to explain. “That’s not a good reason for getting engaged, but when she started hinting for a ring I gave her one.”
He’d loved kids, wanted a houseful. He’d liked Ashley. They’d gotten along well during their residencies, and he’d believed they could have a good life together. Right up until the moment she’d made that comment about the Wilderness Group and opened his eyes.
“Ashley was a brilliant surgeon...fun. My friends liked her.” The more he said, the more Riley’s face paled, but he needed to get this out. “We got engaged. Our families were thrilled, as were our friends.”
“Please tell me you didn’t stand her up.”
Riley’s voice broke and he’d swear her lower lip trembled.
“No, not exactly. I called off the wedding after I realized I couldn’t marry her.”
Like Riley, he felt lucky that he’d had a narrow escape from what would have been a miserable marriage for both him and Ashley.
“It sounds as if she was perfect.”
Riley’s throat worked, and then she surprised him by walking back over to the garden bed where she’d been weeding when he’d arrived and staring down at the plants.
“Why couldn’t you marry her?”
“Our definition of ‘family’ wasn’t the same. She wanted me to give up the group...the boys. But they were my family, much more so than she was. I couldn’t marry her.”
Surely after having spent time with the boys Riley would understand? Despite everything she said she had connected with them, and had formed a special bond with Kyle.
“Honestly, from the moment she called them my ‘little charity cases,’ anything I felt for her vanished,” he admitted, shoving his hands into his pants pockets.
After a few moments Riley dropped to her knees and went back to pulling weeds, as if she hadn’t heard him.
Justin stared at her, thinking her reaction odd, waiting for her to say something, to do something other than just pull weeds. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected, but not silence, and her going back to what she was doing as if they’d not just had a major heart-to-heart.
“How long before your wedding day did you call things off?”
“The week before we were to be married.”
Her hands stilled. “At least you didn’t leave her at the venue, waiting for you to arrive.”
The extent to which Johnny had betrayed her hit home. The man truly had let her go to the last minute before letting her realize what a loser he was.
Had he not realized until right before the wedding that Ashley only tolerated the Wilderness Group, and planned for him to give it up after they married, would he have gone through with his wedding?
“I wouldn’t do that,” he assured her, even as he simultaneously acknowledged to himself that he couldn’t say the same about Ashley.
Her hands squeezed the dirt. “Of that I have no doubt.”
There was an ominous overtone to her words.
“Meaning?”
Letting go of the dirt, she let it sift out through her fingers. “I’d never give you the opportunity to dump me at the altar.”
“I didn’t dump Ashley at the altar.” Maybe he almost had, but he’d had a good reason. “She was fine.” Not at first, but she had moved on. “She’s planning a big wedding with her new fiancé.”
Ashley had moved on, and from the outside looking in she seemed no worse for wear. But was that what Johnny thought about Riley?
Riley grabbed hold of a weed and yanked hard. “You keep tabs on her?”
“No, but we dated for a long time.”
They’d been so busy with med school, then residency, that neither had realized they wanted different things. If only they’d spent more time talking they’d have saved a lot of heartache.
