I took her hands. "I shouldn't have cut off our camping trip because of work. That's something my father would do, and I want to make sure I never follow his example."
She squeezed my fingers. "Don't you think you'd feel better if you forgave your father?"
"I'm not sure he deserves it yet." I thought saying it proved that I was not unbendable.
"Maybe it shouldn't have anything to do with him," Corsica said. "I'm not mad at you anymore, and I've got to say the rest of the evening looks a lot bette
r because of that. Why keep wasting all your energy like this? If you forgive him, then you can move on."
"You make it sound so easy," I sneered.
She brushed my unruly hair out of my face. "I just think it would be best for you. I'm on your side, Penn."
That did it. It felt like a dam was splitting open inside me. I couldn't name what I was feeling, so I turned it into anger.
"You're not really on my side," I snarled. "You're just like every other woman who’s had her head turned by the better things in life."
Corsica stepped back. "You reminded me of how much I love camping. You're right; I don't need a lot of extra things or fancy things-"
"You just need things," I said. The cracking sensation in my chest was blinding. "You'll say anything you can to make me believe we're perfect together. Well, guess what? No couple is perfect. My parents are the best illustration of that."
"They are not perfect, but they are a great couple," Corsica declared. "They've been through so many ups and downs and missed connections and neglected opportunities, but they still love each other, and they are still willing to try."
I shook off her grasp. "You'll really say anything, won't you? Just to make-believe in romance and lure some man down the aisle."
The words flowed out before I could stop them, and when I finally got myself under control, Corsica was gone.
Chapter Seventeen
Corsica
"What decade does Penn think it is? The fifties?" I shouted. Ginny covered a smile, but my friend's humor did not take the edge off my anger. "He thinks, he actually thinks that I graduated from college with no other ambition than to catch a man and get married!"
"Thank God he’s wrong," Ginny muttered. ”Because if that was true, you'd be marrying Joshua. Ugh, he would be so ready to jump right into this conversation and try to marry you. How's that for a reversal! Does Penn know that? Maybe you should tell him."
"Tell him what? That I have someone who wants to marry me? Then I'm just proving his egotistical, chauvinistic, pig opinion."
"Whoa," Ginny said, holding up both hands. "That's a lot of names. Penn never struck me as a pig."
I snorted. "He'd be happy living in a muddy ditch the rest of his life. You should have heard him explaining it so carefully in the woods. As if I were hanging on his every word and just waiting for him to propose."
"But you did sleep with him."
"Ginny! Whose side are you on?" I threw my hands up in the air and then clenched them into fists. "Penn has been a pig this entire time. I just got a little distracted."
Ginny choked back a laugh.
I spun around. "This is all your fault, you know. If you hadn't teased me about being stuck in my shell… If you hadn't challenged me to be more spontaneous, then none of this would have ever happened."
My friend smiled to herself and shrugged. "Maybe you'll thank me some day."
"For letting him sleep with me and then accuse me of trying to coerce him into marriage?" I scoffed. "Not in this lifetime."
Ginny sighed. "He was upset about his parents' big announcement. Maybe he'd gotten used to being the only man in his mother's life."
"No. Not true," I shook my head hard. "Penn hadn't seen his mother in years. He'd stopped talking to her after she defended his father. Penn said she needed to make her own mistakes, and he needed to get on with his life."
"But now his parents are back in his life. And so are you," Ginny said. "It's got him in a panic. He doesn't know how to deal with a family suddenly popping up and surrounding him. He just accidentally took it out on you."