Page 74 of Still The One

‘Hello! I’m Dave. Congratulations!’

‘Who the hell is that?’ Kait asks, walking up behind me, my sister at her side.

‘Hello there. I’m Dave. Did you know this guy’s a professional cycler? Like Lance Armstrong!’

‘Motorcycles, Dave. I race motorcycles.’ We hear Foster’s voice before seeing his face.

‘Is that right?’ Dave asks as the camera finally fills with Foster’s gorgeous face.

I laugh. ‘This is not the wedding reception I always imagined.’

Fost frowns, his eyes moving to my right. I glance over my shoulder only to jump back at how close Kait and Jess are.

‘Would you two go away?’ I ask. ‘I promised you could carry him around to meet anyone you want later. For now can I speak privately? To myhusband?’

The two of them back off and I look back at the screen.

‘Your husband,’ he repeats the words. ‘I love the sound of that.’

‘Me too, but it’s still really weird to say!’

‘Evie?’

I look at his face. ‘What?’

‘You should move in with me. Get a job here. What do you think?’

My jaw drops. ‘I just got my Oregon nursing license and have an interview with OHSU tomorrow. You were excited for me. Now you’re asking me to move across the country and start the whole process over?’

He frowns, his eyes narrowing. ‘Will you at least think about it, like you asked me to think about moving there?’

Dang it. It’s been a month and he knows me enough to back me into a corner. Now I see his point.

‘Yes,’ I say. ‘I will think about it. We’re a team now, right?’

‘Right. I’ve got your back and you’ve got mine.’

‘As long as we both shall live,’ I say with a wink.

‘I love you, Jellybean,’ he says. ‘Now pass my face around the room and let your family interrogate me. I’ll call you later?’

‘You better,’ I say, blowing him a kiss and handing the iPad to my sister who gladly chatters as she walks away from me.

Now

‘Honestly, Fost, if I had to choose who broke me more, it’d be you.’ My voice trembles as I speak, nervously glancing up at Foster from the swing I’m on. I can’t believe he’s here, after all these years, and I’m admitting this stuff to him. Memories of the first time he let me down flood back and my heart aches. ‘When our relationship spiraled out of control, it changed me forever. I was so deeply in love with you that the pain that followed caught me by surprise.’

Foster nods silently, his head still lowered.

‘But I understand,’ I continue, swallowing past the lump in my throat. ‘You weren’t ready for marriage. Neither of us were. It just took me three months to realize it, and by then, it was too late.’ I pause, as regret floods my chest. ‘I’m sorry for how I ended things.’

I stop swinging and walk over to where he’s sitting, watching me intently like a protective parent. I sit next to him, one leg folded on the bench beneath me and the other hanging over the edge.

‘You left a note,’ he reminds me, his eyes never leaving mine. ‘Wasn’t I even worth a phone call? I came home to an empty house one day.’

‘I didn’t take everything,’ I protest weakly.

‘Empty ofyou,’ he clarifies. ‘The only thing that mattered.’

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