His gaze lingered on hers. “It doesn’t look as if the last few weeks have been predictable. I barely recognize you.” He hesitated. “Was the makeover for Philippe?”
“No. It was for me. I haven’t made enough changes in my life and that was one of them.” How much should she say? “About Philippe—”
“Don’t tell me.” He covered her lips with his fingers.
Her heart thudded. “But—”
“Can we forget the past, Gracie?” He slid his hand behind her head and looked deep into her eyes, searching for the truth. “If I met you for the first time today, you’d still be the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. Are you able to forgive me? If you give me another chance, I swear I’ll never again give you reason not to trust me.”
Her heart bumped hard against her chest.
Forgive him?
Could she do that? If someone had asked her before this if she could forgive an affair she would have definitely said no, but now she knew choices weren’t as easy as that. It was impossible to know what you’d do until you were in that situation. Life was messy and complicated. And what was love if it wasn’t hanging on when things were tough? If a person meant enough to you, then surely love was worth fighting for?
“What if you have another midlife crisis?”
“Then I’ll have it with you.”
“You’re suggesting we join a gym and buy a sports car?”
“I wasn’t, but when you put it like that it doesn’t sound so bad.” He smiled down at her, but there was a wariness in his eyes as if he didn’t quite dare let himself think this might have a positive ending. “What do you say? Can we forget the past or will it always be a barrier between us?”
She thought about Mimi spending all those years alone, thinking of her lost love.
And she thought about David.
She saw their life in slow motion. Working on the school magazine. The first time they’d kissed. The death of her parents. The death of his parents. Scraping money together. Buying their first house. The night they’d found out she was pregnant. Sophie’s delivery where David had driven like a maniac to get her to the hospital. David dancing with Mimi and fixing things around the house. The way he calmed every storm. His Happy Memory Project. Niagara. Florence. Rome. Highs and lows. Didn’t every marriage have highs and lows?
Yes, there had been a bad patch. Worse than bad. But bad didn’t have to mean over, did it? And sometimes the bad made you appreciate the good.
“I don’t think we should forget the past, David.” She rested her hand on his chest. “I think we should use it to make what we have stronger. Treat it as a foundation, not a barrier. We should look at what was missing, and somehow fill the gap between us.”
“So—we have a future?”
“We have a future.” She’d barely said the words before he was crushing her against him, his lips against her hair as he murmured that he loved her, that he would spend the rest of his life making her happy.
Eventually, he pulled away and in his eyes she saw relief and respect. She saw love.
“Monica, other people at home—” he cupped her face in his hands “—they’ll think you’re crazy giving me a second chance. They’ll tell you not to.”
She knew he was right. She also knew that marriage and happiness weren’t so easy to judge from the outside. She’d been angry with her father for enabling her mother, but she knew now she had no right to judge. Her father had loved her mother. He’d done what he thought was best, even if from the outside it hadn’t seemed that way. A marriage was as individual as a person. What kept two people together was different for every couple. There was no blueprint.
“It doesn’t matter what they think. It only matters what we think.” She leaned her head against his chest and felt his arms come around her again.
“I love you, Gracie.”
Warmth spread through her. “I love you, too.” She really did. Yes, she was hurt. Yes, part of her was still angry. But all through the whole terrible nightmare she’d never stopped loving him. It wouldn’t have felt like a nightmare if she hadn’t loved him.
No one made the right decisions all the time, although she’d tried hard. She’d controlled every aspect of her life and David’s life.
That was going to change.
She lifted her head to look at him. “So if you resign, what will you do instead?”
“I’ll do some freelance writing. And I finally finished my novel, so I’m sending that off to a few agents although I doubt anything will happen. I’m braced for rejection.”
“You finished it?”