“Almost every week when we were kids,” he said. I held out a piece and he leaned forward and bit off a corner with a loud crunch.
“You talked to your mom about me?” I paused with my hand halfway to the board. “Did you tell her that I was the reason the press was camped outside her house?”
“Of course.” He shrugged and took another bite before winking at me. “Well, to tell the truth, she already knew.”
“Explain.” I used my queen to take his knight.
“Well, there’s really not much to explain.” He shrugged. “I was miserable. Then three months ago, you showed up, and I was happy. When I showed up to Sanjeet’s wedding without you, miserable again, it was pretty easy to figure out… according to her, anyway.”
I smiled and stroked his face.
“She also didn’t try to set me up with any of her friends’ daughters at the wedding, so that was a giveaway.”
“Was she upset about what I… what I did?”
“She said I was a fool for running away from you.”
“She did?” I asked. Dan’s mother raised an amazing son, made delicious peanut candy from scratch, and took my side in arguments. I’d never met her, but I loved her already.
“Yeah, she said that it was obvious that you really cared about me, and, though you may have done the wrong thing, you did it for all the right reasons.” He moved one of his pawns to block my bishop.
“I did.” I sighed. “I never meant to cause you or your family any pain, and I didn’t think it through. I was just so angry and I—”
“You were protecting your king?” He raised an eyebrow with a smirk.
“Yeah.” I huffed out a small chuckle. “I was.” I leaned forward and kissed him. “And speaking of protecting your king… checkmate.”
“Damn those delicious nipples.” Dan swept all of the pieces off the board before grabbing me around the waist and rolling me underneath him.
“She was right. I overreacted. I shouldn’t have left you like that. To tell the truth, I was scared.”
“Scared?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “From one runaway to another, I was afraid to face all of that again. I was hoping I’d never have to, but, thanks to you”—he planted a kiss on the side of my head—“I didn’t have a choice. And it turned out to be a good thing.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ah, well, I guess you don’t get the UK papers here, and you may have been a little preoccupied these past two weeks…” He shot me a sardonic smile. “Let me show you.” He tried to stand and I pressed my hand to his chest.
“No, I don’t want you to move. Just tell me.”
“All right.” He chuckled, settled back onto the floor, and wrapped his arms around my waist.
“Wesley is dying, and when the media contacted him about my story, he decided to do an interview confessing everything.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “He did. He also asked to see me.”
“Did you go?”
“I did.”
“Did you get closure?”
“I did.”
“I’m happy for you. You deserve for the world to know how amazing you are.”
