Page 212 of Love Arranged
I loosen my grip on the wheel. “Yeah.” As good as I can be, given the circumstance.
You won. He lost.
But I lost more, and that will always be the case.
“We can listentomorrow?—”
I shake my head. “I’d rather get it over with.”
“Okay.” She taps on my phone screen.
“Congratulations,” Trevor says, his voice surprisingly earnest. “You put up a hell of a fight for the position. Way more than we anticipated, and we weren’t as prepared as we should’ve been.”
Lily pauses the recording with a scoff. “They had almost two years.”
My shrug might appear casual, but my shoulders are tense and ready for an invisible threat. “They wasted a lot of it by underestimating me.”
She reaches for my hand tapping against my pocket and laces our fingers together. “Are you sure you want to keep listening?”
“How much more could he possibly have to say?”
She checks the app. “A minute.”
“Fine.” I refocus my attention on the road.
Her gaze remains pinned on me before she returns to my phone.
“I can make an educated guess as to why you chose to run for mayor, and in a weird way, I respect it. My father doesn’t share the same views as me—he told me as much—and neither does my brother, but that’s a whole other issue.”
Lily spares me a look, but I say nothing because I don’t want to pause again.
“They’re both unhappy with my loss, but I’m not. We both know I don’t deserve it…You do. Nothing I say can make up for anything that has happened in the past, and that’s fine. It’s my mistake to live with.”
My molars grind at hearing that word again.
Trevor laughs to himself. “I’ll quit my rambling because I doubt you want to hear it anyway.”
Lily holds my hand tightly, lending me some of her strength.
He carries on, and God, I hope we’re nearing the end of this conversation.
“All this to say, I’m going to get out of your hair for a while. I’ve always wanted to travel, and now that my wife is embarrassed to show her face around town, this seems like the best time.”
“Thank God,” Lily mutters.
“Here’s to hoping they find somewhere else to live,” I joke half-heartedly.
“With the mayor and his wife being forced to move out of their home, who knows,” she replies.
“Serves them right after they tried to kick you out of your business.”
A small smile tugs at the corners of her lips, and just like that, Trevor’s voicemail is forgotten. Hopefully, with enough therapy, he and his family will become a part of my past that I no longer think about.
I have so much to look forward to, and the best part about it is that the Ludlows can’t take it away from me.
Together Lily and I head to the cemetery, where I greet my parents without any flowers this time. My head is sucha jumbled mess, I didn’t think to bring any, but at least the bouquet I dropped off a few days ago is alive and well, the pink flowers standing out against my mom’s marble headstone.
I had their headstones replaced when I moved to town, and had the wordsLoving FatherandDoting Motheretched into the marble, right belowBeloved WifeandDevoted Husband.
