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“I’m not a dragon, I’m a unicorn!” Katie shouts as she runs past.
Dad chuckles. “Can I be a unicorn too?” Setting down his beer, he turns to me. “I’ll take Katie home so you can get your girl back. Call me when it happens, okay?”
“Ifit happens.”
“It’ll happen. It has to. You and Maren—that’s something special right there. She loves you, son, and I can’t wait to see y’all raise your beautiful family together.”
Funny how you can go from being lost in the woods to totally, completely found in the space of one conversation.
Or maybe that transformation has been happening over the course of many conversations. Many days. Weeks. Years even.
I’m just ashamed it took so long for the truth to click. I have a fuck-ton of lost time to make up for. I’ve left Maren out to dry—on her own—forseven days. Yeah, I checked in on her periodically through text. But I haven’t been there for her in any real sense during a very vulnerable, scary time. She’s over six months pregnant with a condition that could cause real complications.
Even before I let her walk out on me, I was absent. Maren was right to call me out for disappearing on her for weeks. What I did was wrong.
I really do have to pull out all the stops.
A plan takes shape as I shower and change. Jeans, button-up. Boots. Comfortable but dressy. I make some coffee to go and grab my checkbook. Haven’t used it in ages, but I’m not sure how to pay for a diamond these days. I want to be prepared.
Turns out Riley’s diamond guy does accept checks. The ring is a stunner. He puts it in an antique box with a dark red velvet interior.
I call Maren’s dad as I’m walking out of the store.
He doesn’t pick up. I get why he doesn’t want to hear from me. But I still have to try. So I shoot him a text.Please, it’s important.
When I call him again, he answers.
“I have a lot of apologies to make, but I want to start with you. Meet me at McIntosh’s bagels?”
It takes a little convincing, but eventually he agrees to head over to the cute coffee and bagel shop in South Port. I’m at a table outside when he arrives. I stand and offer my hand. He takes it, looking up at me wearily.
“Sir, you have every right to hate me right now. I’ve shown my ass and I sincerely apologize for hurting your daughter and your family. Please let me make it up to y’all.”
He sits. I push the coffee I ordered him across the table. “Wasn’t sure how you took it, so I made it how Maren likes her coffee.”
“That’ll work.” He takes the plastic top off the cup. “My wife and I are worried about our daughter. She’s taking your breakup hard.”
I nod and clear my throat. “It kills me that she’s in pain. She deserves better, Mark. She deserves the best. I want to be the one to give it to her.” I dig the box out of my pocket and open it, turning it so that the ring faces Mark. “Sir, I’d like to ask for your daughter’s hand in marriage. I promise to never, ever intentionally hurt her again. I’ll work my fingers to the bone to make her and our baby happy. I’m seeing a therapist. I’m working on my trust and anxiety issues. Our family is the most important thing in the world to me, and I’ll never take it for granted again.”
Mark stares at me with wide eyes. Out of all the things I could’ve said to him, he clearly wasn’t expecting this.
“But you let her leave,” he says. “Y’all are still sonew.”
“That’s fair. But this isn’t my first rodeo. I know a good woman when I meet one. I know love when I feel it. And the love I feel for your daughter and the baby...” I wipe my eyes. “I’ve never experienced anything like it. I let her go because I was scared of how much I love her. I was scared I wouldn’t survive losing her. Now I know what I want, sir, and I want to be with Maren for the rest of my life.”
But Mark doesn’t appear to be moved. Instead, he gets up and puts the lid back on his coffee, his brow creased. “Maren has barely slept or eaten for an entire week because of you.An entire week. What kind of man lets the woman he loves suffer like that? I don’t accept your apology.”
And then he turns and starts walking down the sidewalk. My heart plunges into my stomach.
“Mark! Wait.” I jump to my feet and jog after him. “That’s fair. I messed up. I sent her things all week to try to?—”
“What?” Mark stops and looks me in the eye. “Makeyourself feel better? Because let me tell you, none of what you sent made Maren feel any less awful.”
The arrow hits its mark. I swallow and run a hand through my hair. “I didn’t know what to do. I tried my best, and my best clearly sucked. But I’m still trying. I know I can make Maren happy. I have before, and I can do it again. I’m begging you, give me one more chance to get this right. You say you want Maren to follow a different path than you and Leigh did. If that’s really the case, let me try to win her back so I can give her the world. It’s what Maren deserves—I think you and I can agree on that.”
He searches my face for one agonizing beat, then another. “What can you offer her, other than your money?”
“A family, for starters. A home. A community of friends and family who want to see her succeed. I’ll give her all the support she needs to make her dreams come true. If she doesn’t want to teach, I’ll be there every step of the way to help her figure out what shedoeswant to do. I’ll shoulder my fair share of the work it takes to raise our family. I’ve been doing it all on my own for years now, so I know what it takes. I also know I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, having to do it all alone. And right now, Maren is alone. So please, Mark.” My voice breaks. “Let me make this right.”
