Page 72 of Score Her Heart

“Good luck! It’ll turn up.”

I hoped she was right, but a part of me wasn’t that optimistic.

I went back into the bedroom and got down on hands and knees, searching the carpet for that stupid silver ring. It wasn’t even that nice a wedding band, but I loved the weird story behind my marriage. If Riley saw me not wearing it, he was going to think the worst. He was going to think that I didn’t love him.

It was at that moment, crying on the floor of our bedroom, that I realized why I was so upset about losing my wedding ring. And why I decided to get drunk last night instead of dealing with my feelings.

I loved him too.

I loved Aaron Riley, my best and oldest friend, and the man who was always there for me when I needed him. Maybe that was the real reason the universe told Eric to leave me at the altar because he wasn’t who I was supposed to be with.

I had always loved Riley in a way. In high school, we had been fooling around when his teammate Jackson had asked me out. Jackson was cute and sweet, so I had encouraged Riley to ask out Stacey Graves because I knew she had a thing for him. Jackson ended up being a douche, and I broke up with him a couple weeks later, but Riley and Stacey dated all senior year. She did not particularly like me. I think I made a mistake all those years ago, and now I knew why.

I’m not sure when Riley discovered he loved me. When Finnegan told me that was why he had saved my wedding day, it scared the shit out of me. Not because I didn’t feel the same way, because I was pretty sure I did, but I was scared that if I allowed myself to love someone again, they would leave me again. Like Riley had when he left for the NHL and like Eric had when I was supposed to marry him. Now Riley was probably mad at me for getting shit-faced with Dinah, and I had lost my wedding ring.

I was so afraid he was going to come home, see me without my ring, and think that I wanted a divorce, which I definitely did not want. Not anymore. I loved this man who protected and cared for me my whole life and would do anything I asked. I wanted to stay married to him and maybe later have babies with him.

Holy fuck, I wanted to have a baby with him. Not like this second, but one day. I wanted all of that with Riley. All those things that Eric decided I couldn’t have because he didn’t want them. Riley could give that to me, and I really wanted that. I wanted the happy life together that he had promised. I wanted our happily ever after.

I put my hands over my face and breathed heavily as tears fell down my face and my shoulders racked with my sobs. I gasped in shock suddenly when strong hands pulled my hands away from my face. Through tear-stained eyes, I stared back into Riley’s worried blue eyes. He scanned me with an anguished look etched across his face. His thumb brushed across my cheek and wiped away a tear.

“Hey,” he whispered softly. “What’s with the tears? What’s wrong?”

I shook my head, shaking tears onto the floor beneath me. “I can’t find my wedding ring!” I blubbered.

His face softened, and he wiped more tears away from my face with his calloused fingers. “Why are you crying? It’s just a ring.”

“Aaron! It’s my wedding ring!” I exclaimed. “I haven’t taken it off since we got married! I--I felt like if I took it off, our marriage would be over.”

His eyes got cloudy in confusion at my words. “Fi, why is it so important for you to find your ring?”

I pulled away from him with a hurt look on my face. “What do you mean why is it important? If I lose that, I lose you.”

“Fi, what are you talking about?”

“Aaron, I love you. I love you so fucking much, and that’s so scary to me to love someone so completely.”

“What?”

“I don’t want to lose you again.”

He held my face in his hands, his blue eyes searching mine for answers. “Fi, when did you lose me before?”

“When I told you to ask out Stacey, and then you left for the NHL. Left me. Like everyone else does,” I sobbed. Fuck, the tears were really coming now. I had a vague notion in the back of my memory of him kissing me goodbye this morning and this happening then, too. Fuck. “Like Eric did.”

“Sweetheart, you didn’t lose me, not then. Not now. I’m not going anywhere,” he tried to reassure me. “I’m sorry if I made you feel like I abandoned you; that was never my intention. But to be fair, your ex didn’t really want me around.”

I slid my hands around his neck. “Aaron, I’m sorry I wasted so many years on a man who didn’t appreciate me. I wasted so much time being afraid of my feelings for you.”

He leaned into me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I didn’t let him get another word in edgewise and instead pressed my lips to his. Kneeling on the floor in front of each other, he wrapped my hair around his hand and kissed me back. When he pulled away, he didn’t look happy like I thought he would; he looked kind of annoyed. I shrank away from him and bit my lip.

“You so totally stole my thunder,” he finally said.

“What?”

He laughed and ran a hand through his blond locks. “I came home right after the game, and I was going to take you out somewhere nice for dinner and do the whole grand gesture thing and tell you how much I love you. That it’s the real reason why I married you.”

“What?”