Page 24 of Undone

Her brown eyes widened. “Are you?”

He shouldn’t be surprised by her reaction after he’d been a dick. “I’m sure it was devastating.”

Her tension seemed to dissipate a little. “It was. I’m sure the same as your father’s loss was to you.”

“We expect to outlive our parents, but not our spouses. Or our children.” He scraped a hand through his hair. “Erin, can we start over?”

Her head twitched. “What do you mean ‘start over?’”

“Can we forget the past and move forward from here? Like two adults?”

“I already did, Dylan. I moved on not long after you left Fisher Falls. You just didn’t like that fact. And despite what you might think, I was not seeing Kyle while we were together. I was in love with you. If you had stayed, I would’ve married you, if you had asked.”

Despite already knowing that, hearing her say it stabbed him in the heart. “We were only kids.”

“We also turned into the adults we are now.”

“We are the adults we are now because of the paths we took,” he explained.

“You’re saying you’d be different if you hadn’t left?”

“Absolutely,” he answered. “And you’d be different if you had.”

She chewed on her bottom lip while she considered that. “That may be true. But at the time, wewereyoung, and I wasalso in no position to leave with you. I was only sixteen and still in high school. You know that.”

“You also insisted you’d never leave Fisher Falls.” He raised his eyebrows. “That turned out to be true, didn’t it?”

“Absolutely,” she echoed.

“Do you have any regrets?”

She tipped her head to the side and countered, “Do you?”

Only of leaving you behind.“No.”

“I don’t, either.”

Were they both lying to each other? “Well, there you go. We both lived the lives we were meant to live.” It might have crossed his lips, but he didn’t fully believe that.

“We’re only in our thirties, Dylan. We still have a lot of living to do.”

He jerked his head toward the farmhouse. “Then, come on, we should go do that. I’ll finish showing you around.”

“Before we do, I’ll answer your question… Yes, I would love to start over. I’ve only ever wished you success and happiness, Dylan.”

“I’m working on it.” He waved his arm toward the farmhouse, and they began walking that way.

“You never got married or had children?” she asked as they approached the door to the main portion of the farmhouse.

He unlocked and opened it, then waited for her to cross the threshold before him. “I figured you’d already know that.”

“I never asked.”

Since gossip was considered an Olympic sport in Fisher Falls, she wouldn’t have to ask. Maybe she just didn’t care enough to listen.

He followed her inside and locked the door behind them. Being their private residence, the farmhouse wasn’t open for tours or to the public. “You didn’t care enough to know?”

“I figured it wasn’t my business.”

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