He surprised me with his next words. “I didn’t want to come. I meant what I said in my office, and I’m furious that you walked out on me without giving me a real chance to explain myself. I deserved that chance.”
I widened my eyes at him. “You’refurious? How dare you?”
He held up his hand to cut me off. “Do not interrupt me.”
Did he have any clue how hard the past month had been for me? How I’d been ready tofinallyconsider giving everything up for him that day in his office, only to find he’d been playing with my life from an ivory tower?
“Gretchen called me,” he said.
My jaw dropped. “Shewhat?”
“She told me that Bill’s out of town and that I should come immediately.”
Stunned into silence, I finally noticed the dark scruff on his face. His wild black hair, damp from the rain. Chestnut eyes, angry but glowing in the candlelight. His impeccable posture remained, but he was a different man, his composure cracked.
“Why’d you come?” I pleaded, my throat thick. “You promised you wouldn’t chase me. You’re making this too hard. You can’tbehere in myhusband’shome.”
“And whereisyour husband? Where is he ever?” David shot back. He took one large step, grasped my chin between two fingers, and inspected my tear-streaked face. His tone softened. “How could he leave you like this?”
Though David’s eyes betrayed his exhaustion, there was determination in them. I turned my face away and put a hand to my welling chest, trying to depress it.
Once I’d collected myself, I braced myself for the conversation I thought would never happen. “You lied to me,” I said. “And you hurt me that night at the ball.”
“I know that I hurt you, and I’ve spent weeks regretting that night. But the idea of him touching you—holding you, dancing with you, when it should have been me . . . the hardest part was that you looked so goddamn happy. It ripped my heart out.”
I struggled not to get lost in his words, as I’d known I would once I gave him a chance to explain, and focus on the truth. “You made me feel like trash,” I said.
“I lost control,” he uttered, swallowing audibly. “I saw red, and I should’ve left the party immediately. I never meant to make you feel that way.” His stiff, cold bearing broke when he flinched. “For that, I’m sorry.”
“None of this matters, David. Just say what you have to say, and get out.”
He scrubbed his face a moment and sighed. “There’s no excuse for buying the house. But here’s the truth—everything. I don’t care anymore whether you’re ready to hear it. But you have to know that this is the truth, because I’m not going to repeat myself.”
I nodded for him to continue.
His jaw worked side to side. “When you told me that Bill had made an offer, I panicked. I’d never been as scared as I was in that moment. I could not—wouldnot—let him buy that house. I instructed my realtor to make the owners an offer they couldn’t refuse.”
I closed my eyes and took a shaky breath. “Because you wanted to hurt us—”
“Because I wanted it to be me.”
I wanted that, too. The unbidden thought came with a wave of shame. And I understood that although David had done something very wrong, I wasn’t angry with him but myself. I wanted that house, that life, with David, not Bill. And upon learning I could have it—I’d become scared to death and run away.
I blinked my eyes open. David had never been one to hold back, but I recognized by the agony in his eyes and the bluntness of his words that he was putting it all out there now.
“BecauseIwanted to be the one buying you your dream home and fixing it up for you,” he said. “I wantedusto be the ones to grow old in it.”
The memory of David in the house flooded over me, and I gripped the ends of my sleeves. It was so real. I’d seen him there.
Did he see us there, too?
He looked so painfully beautiful in the candlelight. Raw emotion shadowed his face, and I wanted to pull him to me. I had spentmonthsfantasizing about pulling him to me—and never letting him go. “That’s what you want?” I asked. “That home?”
“I want it with you. Only you. Because we belong there.”
I inhaled deeply, absorbing the meaning of his gesture. A future—with me. He’d had enough faith in our connection that he’d bought a house, even knowing it might drive me away.
And I . . . oh,I could see it.
