Page 18 of Father of the Bride

Ignoring that, Sunny looked around. “But it looks like it was worth it.”

“Maybe. I guess I did okay.”

She smiled. “Now that the shock is wearing off and I’m getting my bearings, I wanna say I’m very happy to see you.”

“Likewise. Sitting here with you is like…it’s nostalgia, but it doesn’t hurt. That much.”

“I know what you mean.”

He wasn’t sure she did.

It wasn’t something he could ever put into words for her. He could barely make sense of it himself. All he could do was feel it. The air was harder to breathe. His pulse raced wildly. It was like he was standing at a mirror that reflected his younger self back at him, only there was no sense of time or understanding between the two versions of him. Only sadness and regret, because whatever had happened to them in the almost thirty years that bridged them felt like it hardly mattered at all.

“Did you ever think about me?” he asked her.

She nodded. “Every now and then. I wondered how you were doing.”

“That’s all?”

She picked up her wine glass, swirled it, and took a sip. Mark waited patiently. He was willing to wait until she finished the whole bottle of rosé if that was what it took.

Finally, she answered. “As time passed, I…”

“Forgot about me?”

“Maybe...”

“I never forgot you, Cici. I was happy in my marriage. I loved my wife. But I never forgot you.”

She sighed, frustrated with herself for being jealous of a dead woman. “I know I wasn’t your first, but you were mine. No woman ever forgets that person.”

“What do you think your boy would say about that?”

“We both know you couldn’t care less what he would say about that.”

He laughed. “Maybe I’m curious.”

“If by curious, you mean messy, then I agree.”

He inclined his head. “Why’d y’all get divorced?”

“He cheated.”

Mark was more taken aback by the matter-of-fact way she delivered the news than the news itself.

He went to speak, but she cut him off.

“With a woman I know. Who’s a little younger. I don’t know what it is about y’all when you pass forty, but—“

“Y’all?”

One shoulder lifted. “I said what I said.”

“And what yousaidwas some bullshit.”

She burst out laughing. “Please tell me you don’t watchReal Housewives of Atlanta.”

“Well, one was a patient, so…”

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