Knocking on the door, I shift on my heels and wait until the door opens.
“Arlo, hey.” He looks confused, and I can understand why.
“Hey, man, can I come in?”
“Umm, sure.” He moves aside to let me in, and I follow him into the living room.
“What’s up?” he asks.
“I want to clear the air. When I left, I didn’t just hurt Rina; I hurt you and lost one of my best friends. I never really tried to fix that, and I would like to do so now.”
“You can’t really fix something that happened fifteen years ago,” he says.
“You’re right. But I’m hoping to marry Rina today, and it would mean a lot if there wasn’t any bad blood between us.”
“You’re hoping to what?” His eyebrows almost reach his hairline.
It’s not that we’ve hidden that we’re married, but we also haven’t thrown it out to the world as this huge announcement. All the Huttons know we’re legally married now, but no one expected us to have an actual wedding, especially Rina.
What he also fails to realize is that Ainsley, also Ledger’s fiancée, has been helping me plan the whole thing and is getting Rina ready for this elaborate plan today. And if he’s clueless, that means she took secrecy seriously.
“Umm, Ainsley helped me plan the perfect wedding for Rina. She’s helping me get her there today, and I would really love it if you were there to give her away.”
“Holy shit, who are you right now?” he asks with wonderment.
I chuckle at his shocked question. “She deserves it, man. I’m just trying to do right by her and make up for the past.”
He eyes me for a long minute. “When you left, I lost my best friend. When you came back, it was like we were never friends to begin with.”
“I know. Because of everything with Rina, I handled things with you terribly. I didn’t know how to be your friend when your sister was the woman I loved but I broke her heart. I thought you were all better off without me here. And then I got hurt, and I just shut myself off toeveryone, not just you. I fucked up a lot of things, but I’m working on it.”
“You never needed my forgiveness, you know. I knew there were things that happened to you, but I just wanted you to feel comfortable talking to me—or hell, anyone—about it.”
“I get that now. I was … stubborn.” I scoff. “Really fucking stubborn. But I’d like for us to be friends again, whatever that looks like to you.”
He holds out his hand, and I eagerly shake it.
“We’re good, man. So, what’s this about a wedding?”
Relief hits me hard. Ledger’s always been a good guy, but he had a lot of responsibility back in the day. He’s different now, and I’m grateful for easy forgiveness. I fill him in on my plan, and he quickly agrees to walk Rina down the aisle.
He walks me to the door, hugging me once we’re there.
“Welcome to the family. I’ll see you later, I guess.”
I clap his back, clearing the emotion from my throat.
“Thanks, Ledge. Now, I’ve got to go see a man about a ring.”
The drive to Rosedale gives me time to reflect on how much has changed. Therapy is going well, and although I go less often than before everything with Tyler, I’ve kept it up. My back is slowly getting better. I started physical therapy, and it sucks so badly. After everysession, I come home, collapse on the bed, and try not to cry from the pain. Rina’s taken to helping me into a super-hot bath with Epsom to lessen how long I’m down for. Her support has been instrumental in continuing through the torture that is physical therapy. Besides that, the twinge is lessening, so we’ll see what things look like in six months.
I’ve never been happier with my life, and it’s all thanks to Rina.
Pulling up to the jeweler, I step out and hope that the ring is ready. She’s been wearing the original ring I gave her, but I wanted to surprise her with not a replacement but an addition to represent our future.
“I was just about to call you,” the owner, Jack, says as I walk in.
“Oh, yeah?”
