Page 32 of Our Now and Forever

“I take full responsibility for getting caught up in the whirlwind and going along with it. It wasn’t until the dust settled that I realized what we’d done. That’s when the panic set in.”

Rubbing the top of her knee, he said, “I’m sorry that you went through that alone. And that you thought I wouldn’t listen to you.”

In Snow’s experience, men didn’t apologize often. She was relieved to have her misgivings finally out in the open, and that Caleb understood that they’d made a mistake. This was the closure they needed.

“I’m sorry, too,” she said, some of the suffocating weight she’d been carrying for so long lifting away.

“At least now we know what we need to do,” Caleb said, taking this much better than she’d expected.

“Yes, we do.” Finally, they were both on the same page.

“We have to go back to dating.”

Snow threw her hands in the air, which Caleb fully expected.

“Hear me out,” he said, leaning forward. “You’re saying that since we cut to the chase too fast, we should call the whole thing off. But who’s to say if we’d kept on dating for, say, six more months, that we wouldn’t still be married right now?”

His wife didn’t have a ready answer for that one.

“We can’t go back and change what we did,” he added, taking advantage of Snow’s silence. “But we can go ahead and do the part we skipped.”

Thin brows narrowed over her golden eyes. “You’re trying to confuse me. Unless you have a time machine, we can’t change anything.”

“Not change,” he clarified. “Think of it as completing the middle step.”

She jerked back. “You’re calling a do-over?”

It was Caleb’s turn to throw his hands in the air. “I’m saying we go back to dating.”

“But we’re married,” she argued. He wasn’t sure if she was playing slow on purpose or trying to throw him off.

Regardless, he was certain this was the answer.

“Listen to what I’m saying.” Caleb pressed a hand on each side of Snow’s knees and held her gaze. “You said we went from newly dating to man and wife.”

“Yes, we did. And that’s why—”

He held up a hand. “Hold on. We can fix that by going back to dating.”

“Meaning get a divorce and then date each other?”

Caleb smiled. “According to the people in this town, we aren’t married.”

Another furrowed brow. “Then you’re suggesting we pretend we’re not married, which is what we’re already doing. Which means we have to lie to everyone.”

“Look,” he said, rising to his feet, “we both know that we could end this marriage with a couple signatures on a document and no one in this town would ever be the wiser. Add the fact that we’ve been apart a hell of a lot longer than we were ever together, and regardless of our legal situation, we aren’t a married couple at all.”

“I’m not sure,” she said, “but I think you just agreed with what I’ve been saying for the last twenty-four hours.”

“I do agree,” Caleb said, watching suspicion cloud Snow’s features. He was determined to make her see that they could still make this work. All they needed was a little time. “Right this minute, maybe we aren’t two people who should be married. But,” he added, “if we continue dating, picking up where we left off before the Vegas trip, we could get there.”

“So we not only lie to other people, but lie to ourselves.” Snow shook her head. “You’re grasping at straws, Caleb.”

Dropping onto the couch, he asked, “Before that trip to Vegas, did you want out?”

Her jaw tightened. “No.”

“So you liked me?”

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