He was back a moment later with a box of tissues.
“Thank you,” she said, and took it.
While she oh-so-gently blew her nose, hoping it wouldn’t start bleeding again, he picked up his phone and started streaming Tim McGraw’s “It’s Your Love.” He held out his hand to her. “You do owe me a dance.”
She started to cry all over again.
“Hey, stop it. You’ll start bleeding, and I happen to like this shirt.”
Which he filled out very nicely.
As they swayed back and forth, the last trickle of tears slid down Darby’s face. She smiled, hoping it was the end of an era and the beginning of a new, better relationship. Later on, Gregory microwaved popcorn and made hot chocolate, and the two of them talked. About his past girlfriends, her past boyfriends, the job she lost, and the boss who’d hated her.
“I think I earned that,” she said at last with a sigh.
“Maybe you did,” he agreed. “But maybe things have a way of working out for the best too. Maybe the worst thing in your life leads you to something better.”
“It’s possible,” she said, but she wasn’t sure.
At last he shook his head.
“What?” she demanded.
“It’s being with this new you. Or the old you come back. Either way, I can’t wrap my head around it.”
“Thanks,” she said with a frown.
“But I always knew the old Darby was in there somewhere.”
“Maybe I didn’t want to let her out. Maybe I didn’t think she was, I don’t know, good enough. Well, except when it came to the mouth. Being a verbal slasher had its own sick reward. I could make people feel like nothing, and I guess that made me feel like something.”
It was a horrible thing to have to confess. She could feel the heat of embarrassment racing up her neck and flooding her cheeks. She suddenly couldn’t look Gregory in the face. So ironic that the woman who had once thought she was way too fabulous for the likes of him now desperately wanted to make herself worthy of his friendship.
“We all do dumb stuff,” he said.
“There’s dumb and there’s wicked.”
“Okay, Wicked Witch of the West, I guess you’re going to have to spend some time with me, making up for your bad behavior.”
She heard it in his voice and looked up to confirm. Yep, he had a smile on his face.
“Anything you say,” she said.
“Anything?” He waggled his eyebrows.
“Within reason.”
“How about dinner tomorrow night?”
“Good idea. I’ll pay.”
“I might just let you,” he said.
It was late when he finally walked her back to her house.They stopped at her front walk and turned to face each other. “Thank you for giving me a second chance,” she said.
“Thanks for finally asking for one,” he replied. He gave her a final smile, then turned and headed back toward his home.
“Wow,” she said, and sent up a quick prayer of thanks that everyone in Eagledale wasn’t as mean as she’d once been.
