Page 117 of Someday You Learn

“Can I get that in writing to have on record for the future?” I tease.

She narrows her eyes at me. “Watch it. I just got over being mad at you.”

“Yeah, but anger leads to some pretty incredible makeup sex, so I think I’ll take my chances.” She shakes her head at me. “But I think you need to give us a chance to get this right.”

“Oh really?”

“Yup. But to make it fair, I say we play for it.”

“And what shall we play?”

“Oh, I think you know.”

Her laughter coats my soul, easing some of the remorse I feel every day, but then she grows serious again. “When you left my dad’s house, how did he seem?”

“Well, he’d stopped yelling at me, so that was a plus.”

Her jaw clenches. “God, his temper…”

“Honestly, I think it was what Beth said to him that really got through to him.”

She tilts her head in confusion. “Beth was there?”

“Yeah. Your dad and Beth…they uh…” I scratch the back of my head.

“What aren’t you telling me, Parker? I thought we said no more lies.”

I sigh. “Your dad and Beth have been dating for six months.”

Her eyes widen. “What?”

“Yeah. You’re not the only one who’s been keeping secrets.” She barely blinks while she processes this information. “But just know, he’s been struggling with how to tell you about it. Seems we all need to work on our communication skills.”

“Does he know that you planned to tell me?”

I nod. “I told him that giving you time to process this would be just as important as the time I gave him.”

“Oh my God…all this time.”

I stroke her arms gently. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I just…”

“The past twenty-four hours have been a lot to take in.”

She lets out a sigh. “Yeah, they have.”

“But I know that I feel better.”

Her smile instantly makes me feel more at ease. “Me too. There’s one more thing I didn’t get a chance to say to you, though.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m sorry for giving you the ring back,” she whispers. “I shouldn’t have, but I was so angry and—”

I press a finger to her lips. “Don’t apologize. You had every right to feel that way. But if it’s okay with you, I’d like to give it back to you when our engagement is real. How does that sound?”

Her lips spread under my finger. “I like that idea a lot.”

---