Page 87 of Snowed In With the Mountain Man
Dahlia stilled, her head slowly rising so she could look him in the eye. A mortified frown crumpled her expression. “She left you?”
He lifted a shoulder. Suddenly he wished he hadn’t kept silent on this topic for so many years. Maybe then he’d know how to talk about it. “We left each other. It was a mutual decision.”
Her lips quivered a bit, and he could all but see her wanting to believe him. “That sounds like a line. It’s never really mutual, is it?”
He sighed, looking up to the ceiling as he tried to find the words to explain. “Maybe not always. But by the time Rena and I split, we were both in agreement that it was a mistake.”
“A mistake?”
He looked back down, and his heart ached at the vulnerability in her eyes. He didn’t know for sure why she’d run out of here the way she had, but from what he’d learned of her history, he could guess.
He’d always known that prickly armor of hers hid a world of hurt, and he suspected that today he’d caught a glimpse of it.
Brushing a finger down her cheek, he leaned back and gazed at her. “Rena and I never should have gotten married in the first place. The truth is neither of us really wanted to. We’d known each other for years, started dating in high school, and the big plan was to graduate, see the world, then come home and settle down.”
Her gaze searched his face when he paused. “You don’t have to tell me. I get that it’s too hard.”
He’d only paused because he’d surprised himself by that torrent of words. Even more surprising was the fact that the moment he’d started talking, he’d realized that hewantedto tell her. He never dove deep into his past with anyone, but here in this isolated cabin, the story seemed to want to come out of him.
“I grew up in a very religious family, and Rena did too.” He shifted uncomfortably. He’d never tried to put all this into words before. “Now, I’m a God-fearing man, and I’ve always done my best to walk the right path…”
She nodded, and somehow that simple acknowledgment put him at ease. It was important to him that she knew he’d never tried to shirk his responsibilities and that his faith and his beliefs were important to him.
“I think one of the reasons Rena and I were drawn to each other in the first place was because we both had these grand plans.” He chuckled softly. Those days felt like a different lifetime. “We’d both been born and raised in Charleston, and our families assumed that we’d follow in their footsteps. But we were both a little rebellious, I guess.”
He shrugged. In hindsight, after all he’d seen of the world, they weren’t that rebellious at all. They were just two kids who’d wanted a taste of freedom.
“We used to daydream about traveling. Neither of us had ever seen anything outside our hometown, and we threw ourselves into planning all these adventures.”
When he glanced down, he saw a hint of a smile on her lips.
“The problem came when graduation neared and we told our parents about these plans.”
“They didn’t approve?” she guessed when he paused.
He shook his head. “They wouldn’t hear of us traveling together without being married. Even when we argued that we wouldn’t be traveling like that. We didn’t plan on sharing rooms or anything, but…” He shrugged. “I’m still not sure if they didn’t trust us to keep our word, or if it wasn’t about us at all.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
He met her gaze for a long moment. Her open honesty, the curiosity she didn’t try to hide…
There was a strange sort of comfort in it.
“I mean…” He huffed as he ran his free hand over his hair. She was still holding his injured one even though all the splinters were out. “For my parents, in particular, it always seemed to be more about appearances than anything. Even if they believed we were just traveling as friends, they didn’t want to raise eyebrows or ruffle feathers in our community.”
“So they pressured you to marry?” she guessed.
He nodded. “To be fair, we could have changed our plans. We could have come up with some other way to see the world and follow our dreams…”
His heart ached again, this time for the kid he’d been. For the kid Rena had been. “Neither of us knew what we were getting into. Marriage seemed like such a simple solution at the time.”
She leaned back, her gaze filled with concern. On his behalf. The thought had him smiling.
“So you got married just to make your parents happy?” she asked.
He sighed. It wasn’t quite that simple. “We talked about it a lot, me and Rena. We prayed on it too. Neither of us had any experience dating anyone else. We had nothing to compare it to. We thought it must be love.” He winced. “That sounds terrible, doesn’t it?”
“No.” She shook her head quickly. “It makes total sense. Brady was my first real boyfriend, and I felt the same way with him.”
