Oh. That was surprising. And a little sad. But I was impressed by his honesty. “Dylan, I-I’m touched. Flattered. But?—”
He mercifully interrupted me. Pushing off from the exam table, he said, “But you know what? I see that you’re in love. And it looks great on you.”
I swallowed hard, feeling a little guilty to be happy. But he’d called it—I really, truly was. I gave a little nod.
He pointed a finger at me. “I’m happy for you, Ani.” I couldn’t help but smile, because I could tell that he sincerely meant it.
“And I love this practice.”Uh oh. That was a sudden switch of gears. “Pen and Helen told me that I could start incorporating baby massage classes.” His face lit up. “Hey, you need a babymassage? I’d be happy to come over and teach you both how to do it.”
He bent down to the baby’s level. “You would love it, Baby R. It would calm you right down.” He stood up and paused for a beat, regarding me honestly. “Great to see you thriving, Ani.”
“I’m not the one for you, Dylan,” I said softly, reaching out to briefly touch his cheek. I tried to give him the same gift of honesty that he’d given me. “You know why? Because we’d lead each other in crazy tangents. Each of us needs a stability point, or else we’d wander from project to project, without something anchoring us home.”
He seemed to agree. “I really respect you. You’ve got courage to do big things.”
“So do you.” I smiled. “You dreamed of med school. You changed my life.”
We stood there hugging, Rosie fast asleep in her carrier on the floor.
“Can I ask you something that’s been on my mind?” I got up the courage to ask.
“Of course.”
“We married young, and we’ve both agreed in the past that we were the kind of people who might get easily swept away.” I halted, unsure if I should continue. “Do you think…do you think that’s a flaw of mine?”
I braced myself, because I knew he’d be honest. I had to hear the truth so that I wouldn’t keep making the same mistakes.
He chuckled.
“What’s so funny?” I asked with righteous outrage. “It took a lot for me to ask that!”
“Don’t be so rough on yourself,” he said with a big grin. “I mean, you didn’t marry that Tyler guy, right? That’s why we’re here, to learn from our mistakes. Everybody makes them. You’re one hell of an amazing woman, Ani Green.”
“Well, you’re an amazing guy,” I said back. He deserved someone good and kind—but that someone was definitely not me. I felt oddly relieved as I picked up Rosie’s carrier. I hope I’d learned from my past. I didn’t want to start another relationship without asking the tough questions, having the tough conversations.
I kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you for that.”
“I have that effect on people.”
“Maybe we’ll take you up on that baby massage,” I said.
“You wouldn’t be sorry,” he said, then added,“I love you, Ani.”
“I love you too.” I gave him a hug. “Don’t do anything bad to my patients, okay?” I paused. “Or to Pen,” I added with a smile.
Adam
Ani and I had arrived home after work the next Friday, only to be immediately shooed out by both of our mothers. That was how we ended up having drinks on the grand patio of The Centurion, a grand old hotel downtown that overlooked Lake Bellevue.
The moms, as we called them, told us not to show our faces until checkout tomorrow. The reservation was made. They’d even packed us a bag. We’d been given the gift of eighteen precious hours of freedom.
I’m not going to lie. I wanted to spend every single one of them in bed with Ani. But I figured it would be polite to at least eat first.
“The sunset is spectacular,” Ani said. I agreed. After all, this was the famous bluff with all the oaks, the famous view after which our beautiful little town was named. It came completewith beautiful Lake Eleanor, over which the sun was now setting in hues of fiery golds and pinks.
“Stunning,” I said.
“You’re staring at me,” she said, frowning. “Why?”
