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“I don’t know what I think anymore,” I honestly replied, my heart torn in two.
She nervously chuckled, “Well, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you for the last six years, and if you would have allowed me a visit or read any of my letters, you would have known.”
I peered up at the ceiling, emotionally spent and then looked back at her.
“Come on,” I said, leading her down the hall.
She followed me into the kitchen and I handed her a beer, chugging down mine in four swigs. Opening another right away. She excused herself to go to the bathroom and I sat on the barstool, hunched over with my arms propping up my head. A splitting headache was forming and I welcomed the distraction from the pain I felt in my heart.
“I guess it’s a good thing you’re moving on, McGraw,” she announced, walking back in the kitchen. “Maybe this is the push I need to also move on from you. To move on from us. There’s no more secrets or lies. No more demons lurking in the shadows. We’re both free now.”
I glanced up at her. “Moving on?” I replied confused.
“Giselle.” She rubbed her forehead, leaning against the cabinet in front of me. “It’s why she’s been acting so funny toward you. It’s actually why I came here to talk to you. She found the ring.”
I jerked back, stunned.
“When were you going to tell her? I mean not that it matters, but we would like to meet her. I know Giselle’s really hurt that she had to find out that way. I tried to explain to her that you were probably looking for—”
“It’s yours,” I simply stated, catching her completely off guard.
“What?” She looked at me with confusion and hurt in her eyes.
“It’s yours, Aubrey, the ring, it’s yours.”
She lowered her eyebrows. “I don’t understand. When…”
“Well, fuck. Might as well get everything out in the open, huh? Why the fuck not.” I shrugged.
“Dylan, what are you—”
“I was going to ask you to marry me.”
“Oh my God, no, please don’t tell me—”
“Yeah, darlin’, when we went away to the cabin. I was going to propose, I had it all planned out. The only reason I didn’t was because I couldn’t get a hold of your dad. I had been trying for weeks, leaving messages, texting him that I needed to talk to him. It’s why I was constantly checking my phone the entire week. I was hoping he would call me back.”
Her face paled and she looked like she was going to be sick. She already knew what I was going to say next.
“He called as we were heading to run on the trail. It’s the reason I told you to go by yourself. I didn’t want you to overhear our conversation. I needed some privacy so I could ask for your hand in marriage.”
Fresh tears slid down her beautiful face. It took everything in me not to pull her into my arms and tell her I still loved her.
“Do you honestly think I would have let you go alone, Bree? You know me. I’ve had to live with that regret for almost half of my life. I didn’t think the call would take that long. Ten minutes tops, so I let you go. Your dad was so excited, and he wouldn’t stop talking. Catching me up on his life, giving me marital advice, ironic, considering how he failed his marriage but fuck… I was trying to be polite. The last thing I wanted was to be rude to my future father in law. I thought about you the entire time. As soon as we got off the phone and I realized almost an hour had gone by and you still weren’t back. I fucking knew. I knew something bad had happened to you. I could feel it. The worse part was I allowed it,” I paused to let my words linger and then spoke with conviction,
“All I wanted was a future with you, and one bad decision ended up costing me that.”
33
Aubrey
A year went by since that night of clarity at his house.
There wasn’t much more to say after that. We exorcised our demons and the truths were finally told. We were both emotionally drained, and at that point we agreed we needed some space from one another. To reflect on years of regrets that neither one of us could change.
Dylan told Giselle about the ring the next time he had her for a weekend. She couldn’t wait to tell me all about it when she got home a few days later. Saying that she was right and he did still love me. We’re meant to be together. He wouldn’t have kept the ring all those years if he didn’t want to be with me.
I wanted so desperately to believe her, but too much had happened.
