It only took a moment and she was walking toward him across the reception room. She came to a stop right in front of him. “I’m sorry. I know I gave you the impression that I didn’t care, and in fact just wanted you to go away. But it wasn’t that I didn’t care. I was just trying to keep things simple, and not make any close friendships that would hurt if I had to suddenly slip away, and I was trying to keep you safe, too. But I should have made sure that you understand that I do care. I hope that you have a very successful school year and I wish you all the best.”
“Okay,” he said, clearly a little confused.
“You don’t believe me,” she said.
“Giada, you made your wants perfectly clear. I respect that. It’s not how I wanted things, but I have to respect what you want. And now you’re out here trying to apologize for what? For making your boundaries known? That doesn’t call for anapology. I wanted more, you didn’t. We’re good. But now you feel bad about it? Is that because now you want more?”
“I don’t know what I want. But I know that when I heard you were going off to school I felt sick at my stomach that you were planning on leaving without even saying goodbye.”
“I honestly didn’t think it was a big deal.”
“I do.”
He looked at her, really looked at her, and reminded himself of what he was doing. “It can’t be both ways. Either you’re interested in me, or you’re not. I’m not going to be any good at bouncing back and forth at your convenience. That’s not who I am. Either we work on this thing we both obviously feel is just out of reach at the moment, or we don’t.”
“You don’t understand what I’m coming from,” she said quietly.
“I think I do, to a degree. Your husband controlled you. He beat you when you didn’t walk the line he drew. And he most likely threatened the kids to try to keep you in line. You ran, and now you’re here trying to give them some sort of normalcy, but when it comes to any other man, you’re afraid to let them control you, so you keep yourself shut off.”
She looked up at him with tears in her eyes, but quickly blinked them away. “Maybe you do get it, some of it anyway.”
“I’m not him.”
“I know that.”
They stood there for a few seconds looking at each other.
“I have to go,” he finally said. His words were gentle, not rushed, almost apologetic even.
She nodded and backed up a couple of steps. “I’ll think of you. Take care of you.”
He tilted his head slightly and gave her a confused look.
“Hey! There you are! You’re gonna be late. Here’s my keys!” Havoc said, tossing the keys to his truck to him across the room.
“Here’s mine,” Ronan said, tossing Havoc the keys to his old truck.
“I’ll get that tire fixed today. And you owe me!”
“Thanks. I”ll bring yours back this afternoon.”
“Wait, aren’t you going back to school?” Giada asked.
“Yep. And speaking of, I gotta go!” he started for the door.
“Then how are you going to be back this afternoon? Don’t you go to M.I.T.?”
“I did. I transferred to Tulane.”
“What?! When did you do that?” she asked.
“Last week. I thought there was a reason to stay close to home. I was mistaken, but I’d already transferred, so Tulane it is.”
“So, you’re staying home now.”
Ronan smiled at her. “I gotta go, Giada.”
“But, I don’t understand! And there’s still so much I need to explain.”
