Page 93 of Pity Parade

She doesn’t give me the answer I want. Instead, she says, “Come to the fireworks tonight. We can talk more while I’m overseeing the singles’ mixer.”

“I’ll be there. I can’t tell you how much this means to me.”

Standing up, she says, “It’s not going to be easy to win me over, Heath.”

“That’s fine by me,” I tell her. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”

Her head bobs up and down slowly. “I’ll see you tonight.”

I want to call her back as she walks away, but I know I need to give her space. So instead of following my impulse, I turn around and walk to my car. Then I drive back to my cottage.

When I get there, I go inside and pace around for nearly an hour. I’m about to change into my swimming suit when there’s a knock on the door. I can’t imagine who it is, but even so, I’m more than a little surprised to see Trina standing there. She’s still wearing her sundress from the parade, but she’s added an adorable straw hat to keep the sun out of her eyes.

“Trina!” I jump back and indicate she should come inside.

She walks in tentatively before turning to face me. She takes off her hat and then takes a step closer to me. “I’ve thought about you a lot since last year as well. But before I agree to go out with you again, I need to make sure of something.”

“Anything,” I tell her.

She tentatively reaches out and puts her hands around my neck before closing the gap between us. My heart starts beating like it’s trying to jump out of my chest. I feel like a teenager in love for the first time. Trina pulls my face down toward hers and then lifts her mouth up to kiss me. I feel our connection to my very soul.

The contact is chaste at first, but it gains momentum and soon takes on a life of its own. I pull Trina close so that there’s no longer any space between us. Then I show her what her presence does to me. I kiss her with all the pent-up feelings I have. I kiss her with a passion I haven’t known in a decade.

When I finally pull back, I rest my chin on her head, and ask, “Did you get the answer you were looking for?”

Her voice is shaky as she answers, “I did.”

“Can I ask what that was?”

She exhales loudly before telling me, “I worried I might have misremembered my reaction to our kiss last year. I thought I might have romanticized it, and it wasn’t as great as I thought it was.”

Leaning down, I whisper in her ear, “And, did you?”

Her whole body convulses in a shiver. “It was every bit as amazing as I remember. It was incredible.”

“I thought so, too,” I tell her. Then I tease, “You can see how that scared me.”

She swallows hard. “I’m a little bit scared myself.”

With her still in my arms, I tell her, “I think we could be very good together.”

“You could break my heart,” she says matter-of-factly.

“There’s a bigger chance you’d break mine,” I tell her. “But I don’t think either of us has heartbreak in mind, Trina. So, what do you say? Should we give it a go?”

After a pause that feels like an eternity, she whispers, “Yes, please.” I know in that moment there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for this woman. I’ve treated her unfairly, but still, she’s willing to give me a chance.

It’s past time that I move on with my life, and Trina is the only person I can imagine doing that with. There’s just one thing I have to tell her. But not today. Today is for us.

CHAPTER FORTY

TRINA

I don’t know what came over me. I had no intention of going after Heath once the parade ended, but my car seemed to have a mind of its own. One minute, I was driving around town trying to clear my head, and the next, I was standing on his doorstep.

Sitting out on his deck, I tell him, “I’m scared, Heath. But I’m also excited.”

“Life can be scary,” he says. “But that just kind of makes it more fun, don’t you think?”

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