“That’s wonderful. Do you stay in contact with her?”
“She texts about once a week with pictures of where she and Hannah have been. We chat a little, but I’m just watching from a distance as she gains confidence through her travels with Hannah by her side. Can’t wait for them to get married.”
“Are they engaged?”
He shakes his head while I sip from the bottle. “Not yet, but Hannah said she’s proposing soon, even sent me a picture of the ring. I’m just waiting on the phone call when it happens.”
I nod. “What about your parents? What are they like?”
“My mother completely dissociated after Elizabeth and I moved out of the house. She now just focuses on her friends and activities, keeping up the facade of a healthy marriage when in reality my parents don’t sleep in the same room, and my dad is off with some new conquest every week.” He grabs the bottle from me and tips it back, taking an even larger gulp, allowing me to study him for a moment.
That has to be the most serious thing he’s said to me. I don’t know what it’s like to have two parents and I can’t tell you what a healthy marriage is supposed to be like, but what I can say is that what Theo experienced watching his parents has caused him grief.
“Did I just scare you away?” he asks, looking insecure as he pushes the bottle of wine toward me.
“No, not at all.”
“Are you just saying that to be nice?”
I take a sip from the bottle. “Nope. I don’t say things to be nice. You should know that by now.”
“True.”
To make him feel a little better, I say, “No family is perfect. I’m living that reality right now. Like I was saying, I love myaunt, I really do, but she lives in a space where reality doesn’t matter to her. She lives off her late husband’s life insurance, doesn’t work a job, and focuses on things that are more pipe dreams than real life. I’ve dealt with it for a very long time, I’ve had conversations with her, begging her to make choices that don’t necessarily put her in situations where she’s going to be massacred by the town, but she refuses. She’s just not responsible and it…it drives me nuts. She tells me things are taken care of and then all of a sudden we don’t have any electricity because she forgot to pay the bill. Or she tells me she has twenty thousand dollars for the candy shop when in reality she doesn’t. I know it’s not the same thing as your dad, but I know the pain of dealing with your family’s poor decisions.”
Lips pressed together, he nods. “I can see how she frustrates you sometimes.”
“She does. I’m more serious and she’s more, I don’t know, unserious.”
“That would be the opposite,” he says with a nod. “But you still get along with her and she still has your best interest at heart. Like this night for instance—the lights, the music—you can’t tell me that you haven’t thought to yourself, ‘Gee, I really wish I said yes to that proposal.’”
“Is that not bringing it up again?” I raise a brow.
“Just pointing it out. I keep seeing you grab your ring finger, looking for a ring there. Just say the word; I have it back at the house.”
“You actually have a ring?”
“Did you not look at the ring when I was proposing to you?”
“No, I was too distracted by the insane man kneeling in front of me asking for my hand in marriage.”
“Well, you have to take a look at this thing. It’s huge.” He reaches into his pocket, pulls his phone out, and then shows me the screen.
There’s an oval diamond, probably the size of my pinky nail, attached to a thin silver band. There’s nothing super extraordinary about it other than its huge jewel.
“Is that real?”
“Are you actually asking that question?”
“I am,” I say, studying the ring. Unsure what I’d do with something that big on my hand given all the work I do around town.
“I’m insulted. Of course it’s real; I wouldn’t propose to you with a fake ring.”
“I don’t know, maybe you thought this was a whole fake-proposal thing.”
“Renley, there is nothing fake about what we have going on. Everything about it is real. Even the way we swap spit.”
“You’re so…charming.”
