Page 125 of Zane

“Still not planning to run a marathon, but I’d love to be ready to get back into the kitchen sooner rather than later.”

“I get that,” Gareth said. “But wait for the go ahead from the physiotherapist.”

“I’m not that close to getting back into the kitchen. But I want the option, if something should pop up.”

“How’re the headaches?”

“Better.” And Zane was glad that was the truth. “They’re not completely gone, but they’re lessening in frequency and intensity. It seems like the healing is happening more quickly now. The difference from last week to today is marked.”

“That’s good,” Gareth said. “Have you seen the neurologist recently?”

“I’m going back on Friday.” And he hoped that, even though he could drive himself, Kelsey would be willing to go with him.

“How’re things with you and Kelsey?”

Wasn’t that the question of the hour? Again… “Things are a bit tense. Though maybe awkward is a better word.”

Gareth frowned. “What did you do?”

Zane gave an indignant huff. “Why are you assuming I did something?”

“Kelsey has always struck me as all-in when it comes to your relationship,” Gareth said. “You, on the other hand, have been more reluctant to fully commit.”

“Well, honestly…” Zane paused, thinking what he was going to say.

He was going to tell Gareth that it hadn’t had anything to do with his reluctance to fully commit, but that wasn’t really true.

“Honestly?” Gareth prompted.

“Yeah. Okay. Maybe that’s partly true.”

His older brother leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “So what happened?”

“I may have overreacted on Friday night,” Zane confessed.

“At the basketball game?”

After hesitating, Zane dove into the details.

“So, wait.” Gareth sat forward. “You both decided to remove your rings until you were ready to fully commit, but you thought she should wear hers so guys wouldn’t hit on her? But you didn’t jump at the opportunity to put yours back on?”

“That pretty much sums it up.”

“I think you already know that that was perhaps the wrong position to take.”

“Yep. It feels like I’ve lost a lot of the progress I’d made with Kelsey.”

“You haven’t,” Gareth told him. “Do you think I’ve never messed up with Aria? Oh boy, I have. I almost lost the best thingthat’s happened to me back when we were dating. I’m sure that every married man has had a misstep or two. It didn’t mean the end of the relationship. It meant that we had to step up and do the hard work to make things right again.”

“The hard work?”

“Well, for me, I had to apologize profusely for the way I reacted to something Aria hadn’t revealed to us when she came to work at the clinic.”

Zane nodded, remembering when he’d heard about all of that. “I do owe Kelsey an apology.”

“What are you going to apologize for?”

He thought about it for a minute, then said, “I need to apologize for asking her to wear her ring when I wasn’t willing to wear mine.”

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