“Ask me! Don’t go digging around in my personal life asking questions that no one has a right to know unless I want them to. Ask me.” I was furious, though I knew the main reason was because he brought up my ex. It wasn’t that it still bothered me about his cheating. It bothered me that Grant knew he cheated on me, but I wasn’t sure why.
“I’m sorry.” He passed his beer from one hand to the other looking down at it, refusing to meet my hostile eyes.
“You should be. Now you will answer everything I ask.”
“Fine, shoot.”
“Why is this thing between us so important to you?”
“When I saw you, I knew you were the only thing that could make life bearable again. I have no brothers or sisters, and all my friends are married with kids or are relentless bachelors. I don’t want that to be me. Not anymore. I can’t explain it any better. I knew I was just bullshitting with Rebecca and I—”
“What? Her name is Rebecca?”
“Yeah, why?”
I wanted to flee, but had nowhere to go. I was trapped on the pond with him and I was suddenly terrified. I knew better than to believe this was just a coincidence; my mother had been pointing signs out to me my whole life and my father wholeheartedly agreed with every single one. I had dismissed their belief in fate at times, as it was too unrealistic for me.
“What’s the matter, Rose? I’m sorry I talked about Rebecca. I told you—”
“Don’t. Don’t say that name.” Rebecca was the name of the woman that drove a wedge between my parents and the mother of my half-brother, Paul. My mother had fled Texas after my father had broken her heart badly and he had married Rebecca. My parents reconciled fourteen years after my mother left during a chance meeting at a motel she once owned. There were an incredible amount of signs that led them back to one another. The story, though I believed every bit of it, was unbelievable. Against all odds, they had found and kept their happiness for all these years.
I looked to Grant, who was eyeing me suspiciously. “You believe in it, too.”
“In what!” I was becoming hysterical with each passing second. Downing my beer, I got up to jump in the pond.
“Rose, don’t freak. It’s okay. Just talk it out with me.”
“It’s nothing but a huge coincidence, Grant.”
“What is?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” I dove in and felt the cold water take away the heat from my limbs. When I surfaced, I exhaled and slowly let my good sense fall back into play. It was just a coincidence. Nothing could possibly ever be this cut and dry. “God, this feels unbelievable,” I murmured, sifting the water through my hands.
I heard the water splash next to me and felt his arms come around me as I cleared my eyes.
“I love it here, and you feel unbelievable.”
“Grant, this—you and me—it’s too fast, too much. Are you trying to scare me away?”
“I’m more scared of not saying how I feel, of not telling you I want you, of not taking the chance with you, and begging you for the same.”
“God, that’s some amazing line.”
“I want you,” he said as water cascaded around his perfect features. “I’ve had enough years of doing the wrong shit, and being with the wrong women. I took one look at you and a thousand memories we hadn’t made hit me in waves. I can’t explain it and it may seem fast to you, but to me, it’s as natural as taking my next breath. Maybe I’m full of shit, maybe you’ll prove me wrong, but so far everything inside me says the minute I saw you I was done with the unknown and my life had just started. Call it impulse and heartbeat in tune for the first fucking time in my life. I’m going after something I feel in my gut is right.”
He pulled away from me, the sudden absence of his warmth all too noticeable. He watched me for a beat and then submerged himself under the water before he pulled himself back onto the float. He resumed his seat, popping another beer as I noticed his jaw line harden, but I refused to cater to his tantrum. This was too much, and it was ridiculous for him to think that
I would just go along with it all without thinking it through or getting to know him better.
“I’m not giving up,” he said, cutting his eyes at me as I remained in the water. “I might be a little ticked off with myself right now, bearing my soul to you like this, saying all these things I never thought I would say to a woman and making a damn fool of myself, but I’m not giving up.”
“I don’t know what to say, Grant.”
“Stay with me, here, today. That’s enough.”
I pulled myself onto the island in the center of the pond. Soon after, we dropped the serious discussion and began splashing around with the ducks and at each other. We argued over the radio as I switched it to a rap station. Grant protested profusely until I started rapping to him, fully involved with arms and the swivel of my hips, keeping him entertained. An hour later, the sun started to drop behind us and I was buzzing heavily as my eyes started to follow Grant’s every move. I could feel my hunger building as he spoke about his home in Tennessee and how he couldn’t wait to be back in Texas permanently. In exchange, I told him stories about Dallas and me, and the torture we put our parents through growing up. He listened attentively and laughed as I told him about the first time Dallas and I got drunk together.
“So we pull up to the drive-through window, and the shots we’d just had suddenly hit us hard.”