Exhaling, I understood. Everything was suddenly clear to me. Shaking my head, I responded. “No, you don’t. You love me. You’re just mad because you realized that I’ve been seeing someone else.” My smile this time was real. It felt really good to see that he was jealous.
“How?” That was all he could manage to say. Words were never his friend.
Gently, I responded. “How what? How could I date someone else? How could I get over you? Is this what you’re asking?”
The hard look on his face softened considerably. He managed a small nod. “I love you,” he muttered, his tune suddenly changing. “How could you be with someone else?”
Looking at him, measuring his mood, I made a suggestion. “Can we go talk in your garage?” Experience had taught me that even though we couldn’t see anyone watching, we were probably the talk of the neighborhood at the moment.
Grabbing my hand, he all but dragged me across the street. Once inside the garage, he hauled me into his arms, buried his face in my neck, and latched his hands around me so that I couldn’t even back away. “I love you, Tegyn, only you. I want it to be only me and you forever,” he began.
Somehow, I stayed strong. Shaking my head, I murmured sadly, “We can’t do this. We tried. We don’t want the same things.”
He released me just enough so that we could look each other in the eye while we talked. “Yes, we do. How can you say that?”
My eyebrow arched instantly. “I want to be loved and cherished. I want marriage and children. I want to grow old with someone.” I sighed. “You will never offer me that kind of security. And I’ve finally discovered there are guys that just might give me that. I can’t keep coming back to you only to be hurt and disappointed again.”
His arms loosened and I started to step back just as he suddenly dropped to one knee before me. When I looked down, I realized he was holding out a ring. “Marry me, Tegyn. Be with me and only me forever.”
Now that he had asked, I still couldn’t answer. Instead, there were so many questions in my mind. “How? Where…?”
“Today. When I heard you were coming over, I decided to take a chance. It is Valentine’s Day…” He drew me close and kissed me. In that action and from those lips, I felt how much he loved and missed me. “So, what do you say?”
What could I say? I had loved this man almost as long as I had known him. I loved him more than was safe or sane or sensible. When we dated, he had my whole heart. That was why, as much as I liked D, when coupled with his divorce not being final, I had feared giving myself over with complete abandon. “Yes,” I murmured against his lips. “Always yes.”
Between us, in my front jeans pocket, my phone began to ring. Pulling back, I peeked at it. Naturally, it was D. Obviously, he didn’t want it to be over between us. At the same time, given our last conversation, we had no future. I frowned.
“Do you need to answer that?” Trent asked, with a confidence that suggested he was finally certain he had secured me in his life for good.
Shaking my head, feeling slightly saddened and more than a little guilty, I said quietly, “No, not anymore.”