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In the past, plenty of people had written him off as arrogant and entitled. A role he’d played to perfection. Growing up, his father and grandfather had never given Vic any reason to believe he wasn’t 100 percent worthy of the good things in life coming his way. Which was probably why he’d behaved like a self-consumed prick. He’d taken Aubrey for granted back then. In his mind, there was simply no way she would walk away from him. He’d seen himself as the ultimate catch. Husband material, through and through.
With ten years of dirty water under the bridge between them, it would take a lot to convince her he’d changed for the better. Ironically, if it wasn’t for her accident, he could kiss the idea of this reunion goodbye. He might have been able to talk her back into bed with him, but her guard had been up that night after the Silver Saddle. Chances were good she’d never have considered him as anything more than a bed buddy.
Back when they’d split up, he’d been shocked when she’d thrown the engagement ring at him. He’d been an arrogant teen who’d grown into an arrogant twenty-one-year-old. Things always went his way—and if they didn’t, he got off with a warning. Speeding tickets, a brush with the law for underage drinking at a party, sneaking into his neighbor’s backyard and using the pool... Vic had been let off the hook more times than he could count. His family name afforded him privilege, but Aubrey was a privilege he didn’t appreciate until she was long gone.
Their final argument as an engaged couple had been venomous and heated, the venom coming mostly, if not completely, from his side. The conversation had started off innocently, with her mentioning grad school. When she’d skipped off to college, he hadn’t seen enough of her. He couldn’t wrap his head around more years without her. Her priority had become studying and not him, and he hadn’t liked it one bit. When she’d mentioned wanting to continue her education, he’d been completely ungracious.
“Graduate school? What the hell for? You’ll be my wife, Aub. A pampered woman, a mother to my children. What more could you want?”
He flinched now as he thought back to what a selfish asshole he’d been. In his desperation to keep her close, he’d done the complete opposite. He’d pushed her so far away, she’d seen no other option than to leave him permanently. He guzzled down the rest of his glass of wine before refilling it from the bottle on the table.
“More stress at the ranch?” Aubrey asked. Their shrimp bruschetta arrived, and he lifted a strip of candied bacon off the top and gnawed on it. He figured it wasn’t a lie to say yes.
“Yes, but nothing I can’t handle.”
“I’m not surprised. You’ve always excelled at your job.”
Humbled by the compliment, he redirected to her. “You’re one to talk, teacher of the year. I’m proud of you.”
“Thank you.” The wistfulness in her smile was genuine, but her smile faded when she added, “I miss work. I was just getting to know my students. When I sent my lesson plans to the substitute taking my place, it was like handing someone my firstborn. I’m itching to go back and do it myself. Immediately after typing up that email, though, I had a headache behind my eyes. I’m beginning to worry I’ll never be normal.”
He reached across the table and took her hand again, regretting that he wasn’t on the same side of the table so he could hug her close while he reassured her. He realized it wasn’t his place, but he couldn’t help standing up for the woman she was—the woman she would be again. “Listen to me, Aubrey. You will recover and be more of a force to reckon with than you were before. You always knew what you wanted, and you were strong enough to say it.”
“Well, guess what, Vic? I want more than to be your little wife and pop out your babies. I have dreams, too. I want to achieve things in my life that have nothing to do with you. I know that’s hard to believe, seeing as how your future’s been preplanned from birth, but the ranch is not my dream. The world doesn’t stop and start on your command, and neither will I.”
“Is it any wonder why I love you?” Her current wide-eyed admiration was at odds with the fiery speech she’d given him before she’d ended them forever.
He knew she meant the I love you—at least, some part of her did—but he couldn’t reconcile that love with their tumultuous breakup. It was embedded so deeply in his hippocampus, he doubted even a knock to the head would erase it completely.
