Hannah sighed, not so sure anymore that talking to her family would help.“Nobody is talking about getting married,” she said irritably.She had been wondering the same freaking thing.
“But he wants you to quit your job and move in with him?”Caitlin asked.
“Stay with him, was how he put it,” Hannah said.
“And you don’t want to?”Zoe asked.
“Want to what?”
“Stay with him.”
Hannah rubbed her face.“Yes, I want to be with him, but not if he has this ultimatum—leave your job or else.”
“But is that what he said?”asked Zoe.
Hannah frowned.“No, but that’s what he implied,” Hannah said indignantly.“My work is the problem; I have to quit my job.You should have seen his face when I suggested he stopped working and stay with me.”
Caitlin smiled.“Hannah, sweetie, let’s begin at the beginning.Darryn is a man.And a man is…” she motioned with her hands.
“A man?”Dana giggled.
“Yes,” Caitlin said, nodding her head.“They know what they want, they have long conversations about things with themselves, and by the time they talk to you, they only mention the tail end of that whole conversation.The result usually is that what they say and what they mean are two completely different things.”
Dana and Zoe nodded in agreement.
“He was very clear with what he wanted,” Hannah grumbled.“My job is what is keeping us apart, and that has to change.”
Caitlin cocked her head.“So you don’t have a problem being away from him for long periods of time?”
“That’s not what I said!”Hannah cried in frustration.“But why do I have to make all the sacrifices?”
“Well, if you feel that being with Darryn means you’ll have to sacrifice something, you shouldn’t do it.He is obviously not the right one for you then, because I can tell you, for the right man, you’d give up everything in a heartbeat,” Zoe said and shrugged.“A pity, I thought you two are a cute couple.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to give up everything for him, it’s…” Hannah began hotly but realized she didn’t know how to finish the sentence.It was only what?
“And if he asks you to marry him, will that change what you are willing to give up?”Zoe asked.“Is that your ultimatum?”
“It’s not an ultimatum, but—”
Before Hannah could continue, though, Caitlin looked over her shoulder to something behind her.“We have to go, Hannah.You and I have talked about this.You are the only one who can decide what to do, what will be right for you.The question you have to answer for yourself is this—will you be happy being away from Darryn?”
And with waves and smiles, they ended the call.
Hannah sat staring at the blank screen.She had hoped to get some sympathy from her sisters—they were all twenty-first century women, for goodness sake!But she was obviously mistaken.But then they all still worked.Nobody had asked them to quit their work.
Granted, Caitlin moved her rooms to her home with Don; Zoe still had her interior design business, although she did most of her work for the hotels now; and Dana was still teaching although she had to move to Cape Town.
They all had to adjust.
Hannah stood up slowly.They all had to adjust.Did the men, though?No, the damn men… Her thoughts trailed off.They also had to adjust, she grudgingly acknowledged.Don wasn’t cycling competitively anymore, not because Caitlin asked him not to, but because he wanted to have more time with his family.
The same was true of Dale and David.Their previous lives as footloose bachelors came to a screeching halt once they’d met their wives.But they didn’t look unhappy—on the contrary.
Was the reason she was so angry because Darryn asked her to quit her job or because he hadn’t asked her to marry him?Would she have reacted differently if he’d given her a ring?Why?
A ring on her finger and a signature on a piece of paper didn’t make that much difference.Somewhere along the way, he’d be tired of her and would leave, whether or not they were married.That was what her dad did.
But Darryn wasn’t her dad.She remembered his eyes.On her.Like Caitlin said—the Cavallo men only had eyes for their loved ones.
