He closed his eyes for a second, remembering that day andthe events that led up to the end of it all. He sat up in his chair and turned his gaze to Erykah. “I met Tracey in college.”
“Was it love at first?”
Chris shook his head. “Not at all. I thought she was out of my league. She was a year ahead of me and went to school on a cheerleading scholarship. I admired her looks but didn’t really know a lot about her.”
“Then what happened?”
“We ended up in the same science class my sophomore year. She was struggling with the material, and the professor asked if I would tutor her. So I did.”
“Oh, a nerd-jock romance?”
Chris cocked his head. “Do you read romance books, Dr. Kennedy?”
“Maybe.” Her face flushed. “Ellynn actually liked them a lot. She’d leave different ones all over our apartment when I was in college. One day when I was stressed over an exam, she put one in my face and told me to chill out.”
“It worked?”
“Yep. I read those sweet ones that give off Hallmark vibes, maybe one a month. I’m selective, so it takes me a long time to choose.”
He liked knowing that about her.
“Back to your story.” She pulled her legs up underneath her, her attention rapt on his face.
“We started talking in between classes. I expected her to ignore me and pretend she didn’t have a tutor, but she said hi the next time we ran into each other in one of the student cafeterias. Then she started emailing me in between tutoring sessions. Just random items that interested her, but they had a joking undertone. Then, with the urging of one of my classmates, I asked her out.”
He paused. “Oddly, we fit. She was popular, I wasn’t. Butwe could stay up all night talking and laughing. She encouraged my dreams, and we dated until I graduated from college.” He swallowed. “I proposed graduation night, and she said yes.”
“So that made you, what, twenty-two?”
“Right.”
“But you said thirteen years?”
“She didn’t want to get married right away.” He shrugged. Now he could see that was a red flag, but then, he’d thought she was just really cautious with their future. “I had plans for grad school, and she had another year left in her own program. We both agreed we’d set a date when I graduated with my master’s degree.
“When she graduated, she moved to Utah. We talked every night on the phone and took turns visiting each other. When I graduated, I got a job near her, but she still wasn’t ready to have the wedding. It wasn’t until all of her friends started to get married that she finally wanted to settle down. By that time, Tracey wanted to move back to Colorado as well.”
And his own doubts had begun to surface. But being engaged for so long had caused its own form of self-doubt. Were his feelings simply because they’d waited so long to plan the wedding? Or were his feelings valid? He’d never talked to her about it, and he should’ve.
“So did you?”
He nodded. “It took a year to plan our wedding and get new jobs, but we did it. We settled in Denver, and I was excited we were finally taking steps forward.” Despite his apprehensive thoughts. “But then she started picking fights. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to them. Every time I asked if she was okay, she would apologize, blame it on a bad mood, then promise to be better. Claimed she was turning into a bridezilla.”
Chris had desperately wanted to believe the lie. Didn’t want all their years together to have been a waste, even though God was showing red flag after red flag. He never truly consulted the Lord about his feelings, just tried to work everything out on his own so he could say he kept his word. He winced inwardly and glanced at Erykah.
She bit her lip as if nervous where the story would go. Since she already knew he’d been dumped, it really couldn’t get that much worse, in his opinion.
“This continued until the night before the wedding. We had the worst fight ever. She said some things that really shook me and made me want to call the whole thing off.”
“But you didn’t?”
“No. I’d made a commitment and wanted to see it through.”Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Erykah blew out a breath. “But she changed her mind?”
“Everything was fine until she was walking down the aisle. It was like a bad version ofRunaway Bride.”
“She ran?” Erykah gasped, placing a hand over her heart.
