Michael finished chewing the mouth full of food. “I’ll store most of it until we’re ready to find a more permanent place. The rent for your apartment is less expensive than mine as well. We can split the rent here and put half of what we were both paying into an account for a down payment on a house.”
Rowan stabbed a cherry tomato. “It all sounds so logical when you put it that way.”
It shouldn’t surprise her. He was methodical about everything, especially when it came to money.
“Has this been stressing you out?” he asked.
“A little. It’s one of those things we keep saying we’ll talk about but between the end of the calendar year and the beginning of tax season, you haven’t had a lot of time to discuss it.”
“I’m sorry, Rowan.” He picked up her hand and kissed her knuckles. “I wish you’d said something earlier. I think it was one of those things I thought about discussing with you and then thought I had discussed it with you, when I hadn’t—I just thought I had.”
She had to smile at his circular explanation and squeezed his hand. “I understand. I know you’ve been busy with work.”
He released her hand and scooped up another forkful of food. “I know it feels like this wedding is barreling down on us, but we have the rest of our lives to figure these things out.”
“I know. It does feel like there’s this catastrophic event looming on the horizon.”
He chuckled. “That’s one way to describe a wedding.”
“That’s not what I meant. It’s just… It’s this huge thing that has huge significance and I feel like there’s going to be some sort of gatekeeper that’s going to determine the rest of our lives depending on how well it goes.”
“If I had known you were going to be this stressed about it, I would have suggested we elope.” He took her empty plate and bowl and stacked them on top of his.
“Your mother never would have forgiven us,” she said.
“She’d have gotten over it eventually.” Standing, he kissed her forehead and gathered up the plates and utensils. “I’ve got the dishes.”
“Thanks.” She gazed at his back as he walked to the kitchen. He really was perfect. Sweet. Considerate. Handsome with a good paying job. She was happy and knew, no matter what, Michael would be there for her. He’d never walk away from her.
Her phone dinged with an incoming text and she picked it up. Claudia had sent a selfie of her and Maria from the concert. Rowan grinned at their obvious excitement. Her smile slipped a little when she realized they’d managed to capture the stage behind them with Luke staring down at them from the stage. She zoomed in on the picture.
Her whole body felt like it was constricting around her. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen a picture of him. For the first year after their breakup, she’d devoured any information she could get her hands on—concert schedules, news articles, who he was dating. She’d been obsessed until she’d seen a picture of him at an awards ceremony with some cute country singer on his arm.
After eating her way through a pint of butter pecan and drinking her way through a quarter bottle of vodka, she’d gone cold turkey.
Blocked all the fan sites and pages and had a friend that worked in IT create a program that wouldn’t even show her anything with his name on it.
The only thing she hadn’t been able to stop were the concert tickets that were sent by special delivery every time he was in Colorado or Wyoming, but she’d never been able to bring herself to go.
She moved the picture and centered it on Claudia and Maria then noticed Claudia holding up her left hand.
Rowan zoomed in even more.
“Oh my God!” She exited to the texting app.
Rowan: Are you engaged?
Claudia: Yes! Didn’t you read the caption?
Rowan: No. I just opened the picture. OMG! I’m SO HAPPY FOR YOU!!!
She scrolled up and read the text -I said yes!
“What’s going on?” Michael leaned over her and looked at her phone.
“Maria proposed to Claudia. Look!” She opened the picture again and he took the phone.
“Are they at the Luke Stone concert?”
