“Afraid so.” She scuffed her foot on the ground. It was dangerously easy to confide in him under cover of darkness, and that scared her a little, but not enough to stop her from talking. “Truth is, I always thought I would be married by this point in my life, but it’s never happened.”
“Why not?”
“Haven’t met the right guy,” she said. “I’d love to be married, but I don’t want it badly enough to get hitched to just any old person. You worry about marriage not making people happy… well, I could see that happening to me if I’m not careful. But that doesn’t make me want to give up on the idea entirely. I just want to make sure I choose the right person. And if that means I haveto wait a while, then I guess that’s how it has to be.” She sighed. “I am starting to wonder whether he’s out there at all, though.”
“You mean, because you haven’t found him yet?”
“Yeah. It seems less likely with each passing year.”
“I bet you will.” He paused for a moment. “You’d make a good wife, I think.”
“You do?”
“Sure. I mean, it isn’t something I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about — what would make a good wife — but you care about people. You take care of people. You’re a good friend, and you’re responsible, and if someone was looking for a partner, you seem like you’d be good at that. I’d choose you for a business partner, if I was looking for one.”
“Thanks.” She laughed. “That’s an oddly sweet thing to say.”
He laughed too. “Well, I meant every word,” he told her.
“The weird thing is, I thinkyou’dbe good at marriage too, if you decided it was something you wanted,” she said. “I mean, if you ever managed to get out of your own head about it, that is.”
“I could never get married. I’d spend the whole time thinking about how my dad ran out on my mom,” he said.”
“That wouldn’t be you. You wouldn’t run out.”
“Got me all figured out?”
“Well, I know you take duty and family seriously,” she said. “I know you’re not the kind of man who would abandon his family like your father did to you. Even if your marriage did fall apart.Although, to be honest, I don’t think that would happen to you either.”
“Well, youreallycan’t know that.”
“Of course not. I’m just saying, there are people who give up when the going gets tough, but I don’t think you’re one of them. I think you would try to make it work, even if that was hard. I think you’d fight for a long time before walking away from something.” She looked at him. “Am I wrong?”
“Youdothink you have me figured out.” There was a bite in his tone that let her know he wasn’t altogether pleased with her guessing games.
“These are things I admire about you,” she told him. “You do get that I’m complimenting you here, right? I think you’re a good man. If you don’t want to get married, that’s your business, but I’m just saying that if youdidwant to, you’d be good at it.”
He nodded. “I think I was pretty good at taking care of my brother,” he said. “After Dad left, I had to step into that role a little bit, and all I ever wanted was to make sure he was happy and that he didn’t feel like anything was lacking in his life. I did the best I could for Max. I guess, if I think about it, maybe that’s why he isn’t as turned off to the idea of marriage as I am. I always tried to shelter him from the worst of everything that was going on. I don’t think he always saw how difficult things were. He knew Dad was gone, and he knew we didn’t have as much money as we did when we were little, because there were no more luxury vacations and expensive toys. But I don’t know if he got how much Mom was struggling. I don’t think he ever walked in on her crying over the bills at night. I did everything I could to make sure he didn’t see that.”
“You’re a really good brother to him,” Harper said softly. She was surprised by how moving she found Theo’s confession to be. He really did love his brother.
“I know this wedding is important to him,” Theo said. “I’ll do whatever I can to make sure it’s perfect.”
“I think it’ll be perfect no matter what,” Harper said. “I know I’ve been fixating on the details, but the important thing is that Max and Tara are getting married. They’re going to be a family. That’s what they really want. You were right when you said that all these little things I’ve been stressing over aren’t going to matter in the end.”
“Well,youwere right too. I know you’re just trying to make beautiful memories for them.” He looked over at her. The dusk obscured his face, for the most part, but she thought she saw him smile. “I’m going to be more cooperative,” he told her. “I’m going to stop pushing back on every little thing. I know I’ve made this more difficult than it needed to be, and I’m sorry for that.”
“You’re just trying to make sure they have the best of everything,” she said. “I respect it.”
“Yeah, well,you’rethe actual wedding planner, so maybe I should take a step back and listen to your advice a little bit,” he said. “I’m going to stop trying to control everything and actually follow your lead on this.”
“If you mean that, I appreciate it.” She wasn’t inclined to take his word for it. After all, they had already had a lot of tension between the two of them, and it seemed too good to be true that things could simply be easy between them now. That they could get on the same page and plan this wedding without any more conflict. That would be a miracle.
But on the other hand, she had never felt more in tune with him than she did tonight, sitting in the light of the rising moon and finally speaking openly with one another.
So, who was to say? Maybe they’d discover that miracles were possible after all.
CHAPTER 15
