Page 87 of Almost True
Aidan
Six months after Maddie had officially rocked the tech world by resigning her position as CEO of her company and moving to the small, nowhere town of Silverton from the Big Apple, I’d decided it was time.
Our lives had folded together seamlessly since she’d moved back.Oh wait.No.
Our lives had been headbutting against each other since the moment she got back into town and we got serious about what a long-term commitment was like. She’d never been in a relationship that lasted longer than a few months, and she’d definitely never dated a single dad.
Luca loved her, loved us together, and generally had no issues, other than that he’d hit full pre-teen mode on me around Christmas and become moody and reluctant any time he talked to me. This, I regret to admit, madememoody, and at times, reluctant. Poor Maddie got to deal with us both.
The beauty of it was, she did. And she did it well. She didn’t seem scared by our moods or the way we’d go quiet when upset. She’d coax Luca out of his shell and she’d soothe my bruised, frustrated dad ego.
But it took a while before our schedules synced since she had meetings all over the country to resign this position on that board or whatever else. I’d been naïve to think her resignation of the CEO position meant she would have time. She still traveled, took on a larger role at a non-profit she’d started years ago, and like seventeen other things. At one point when I’d seen her two days out of fourteen and had grunted out something about not ever seeing her, she’d sat me down and we hashed it out.
All of it.
My fears—that she didn’t need me. She’d end up leaving. She didn’t actually want to be here and I was holding her back. That I wasn’t doing enough for her.
Her fears—that I could never love her like I had Viv. That Luca didn’t want her around. That she wasn’t doing enough to bring value to our relationship.
But we saw it. Both of us had a similar illness—my need to do the right thing, the honorable thing, and her need to produce and achieve. They coalesced in this surprising but perfect way because, just like we had years ago upon first meeting, we understood each other.
She explained she loved work, but she loved coming home to us. I thought about asking her to move in right away, but she’d made clear she wanted to be engaged and then married, that she knew it might sound old-fashioned but she didn’t care.
And ultimately, neither did I. I just wanted to be with her, and though we’d both expressed long-term commitment, we’d been taking it relatively slow.
But the time had come. I was done waiting, especially since I’d realized I had nothing else to wait for. We’d had every discussion. We’d done everything we needed to do to feel ready. But I’d gotten hung up waiting for her to give me the signal until I finally realized she wantedmeto be the one to make it happen.
So tonight? I planned to do just that.
I’d debated a long time about this. What kind of proposal would a woman like Maddie like? I didn’t have a private plane to fly her off to some gourmet meal, and she’d surrendered access to the corporate jet with her job. But knowing her, that wasn’t what she wanted. Or at least I hoped I hadn’t missed the mark too completely with this plan.
It would’ve been handy if it’d been summer, but I couldn’t wait another four or five months. February in Utah could be brutally cold, but miraculously, I caught a break with a fresh blanket of snow under a sparkling night sky.
It wasn’t fancy, but it would be right.
I looked up as Maddie slipped out the door. “Luca is so into that new series. He’s going to be devastated to wait for the next book.”
Nerves bounced around my gut. “Sure is. Yeah.”
She tipped her head to one side. “You okay?”
I huffed, my breath showing white in the chill of the evening. The black diamond sky overhead made it feel like the stars were close, watching. “Yeah. I’m more than okay, Maddie.”
She smiled. “Good, because I—”
She sucked in a breath as I took her hand and went to one knee in front of her.
“I’ve been waiting for you to let me know you were ready. Like a fool, I’ve been sitting around, biding my time until I felt certain you wanted this. Until I realized that everything you’ve done since you got back has shown us that. And I know I’m ready.”
“Okay,” she said, nothing but a whisper.
“Madeline Reynolds, I love you. I don’t know why I’ve been given a second chance to love an amazing woman, but I have and I want it. With you. I can’t believe how lucky we are that you landed here over two years ago on your failed vacation.”
She chuckled at that, and my heart surged, glowed, nearly burst. “I love your ambition. I love the way you treat the people around you. I love that you’ve worked so hard to redefine what you want and who you are after something awful.”
She shifted on her feet, restless to just stand there, I could tell. My smile flashed and she grabbed my hand with both of hers and pulled it up to her lips.
“Maddie, I love that you have let me be the man I am—someone who loved deeply, and lost. Someone with a child and a whole host of obligations. You’ve found ways to enjoy those parts of me I struggle with instead of trying to change them or making them a project. You’ve let me be a whole human, and I can’t tell you what that has meant to me.”
