Page 91 of Catching Our Moment
He kissed my forehead then went into his closet and grabbed his toiletry bag before disappearing into his bathroom. He poked out around the corner. “I’m sorry. I wish I could stay with you—believe me.”
“I know,” I said.
“Maybe you and Shyla could do something.”
“I don’t want to burden her. Besides, I think I’ll just take it easy. I don’t get many nights to myself,” I said.
“Okay. I just hate leaving?—”
“I’m a big girl, Shaw,” I said.
He moseyed over to me, his eyes soft. “I know. I just wanted to take advantage of every minute here with you, and I feel like I’m abandoning you.”
“Shyla told me she was going to give me the lowdown on what it was like to be a WAG. I’ll be fine.”
“Did you have fun meeting everyone at dinner?” Shaw was folding some clothes into his bag and making room for his toiletry kit.
“I did. You have some great friends here.” Then, I remembered something Gus had said. “Hey, why does Gus call me Rock Woman?”
Shaw paused his packing and glanced up at me. A blush spread up his neck and to his cheeks.
“Shaw?”
With a hand on his hip and the other one wiping at his brow, he let out an uncomfortable laugh.
“What?” I said, knowing I stumbled on something. “He was saying you were responsible for him being with Mia and something about a rock.”
Shaw slowly moved and sat down beside me. His hand on my knee was a warm assurance.
He let out a big sigh, “Mia and I moved into town around the same time. Gus and his friends are a tight group who all grew up together—like we did—so while we were thankful they befriended us, we were still outsiders. He rubbed my thigh distractingly. “We decided to start hanging out.”
“You dated Mia?” My eyes were frozen open in shock. “You dated Mia? For how long? Did you sleep with her?” Green and red alternated as colors that blinded me. Why did I have to ask that question? I didn’t want to know that answer. Mia was gorgeous, a natural beauty and nothing like Riley—or me, for that matter.
He let out a breath through his nose. “Yes, we dated. No, we didn’t sleep together. I think we were both lonely, and honestly, she was hung up on Gus, and he had his head up his ass.”
I just stared at him. Was I always going to compare myself to the women he’d been with? God, I hated feeling so damn insecure.
His hand squeezed my knee. “Anyway, watching those two dance around each other reminded me of you and me in a way. Well, him with his head up his ass reminded me of me—being an idiot and not having the balls to lay it all out for you. So…” He let out a pathetic, self-deprecating chuckle as he stood and went to his highboy dresser, opening the top drawer and reaching inside. “I told Gus to stop being a coward and to go after her. To tell her how he feels before he was left with regrets—like me.” He reached for something inside and came back to the bed. “I told him my ‘Mia’ was married to another man because I hadn’t had the balls to tell her she was meant to be with me.” He sat next to me, our thighs touching. “Hold out your hand,” he said softly.
I did.
“I said, ‘Instead of holding her heart in my hands, I was left with this rock,’” he said, handing me a plain, smooth, gray granite rock.
I was immediately transported back in time. I stood quickly with the rock in my hand, studying it as if it were an artifact, long believed lost and forgotten.
“It’s the pet rock I made for you,” I said. I looked up at him as he sat on the edge of the bed, elbows to his knees, hands clasped together. It was from the creek on Maeve’s property, where we all used to hang out. I knew he’d been nervous about leaving for college—about all the expectations set on him—and I’d wanted something he could hold onto, something from home, but not sappy.
I think I drew googly eyes on it at one point and maybe wrote a few inspirational words on the other side. I turned it over. All the writing was long gone. I’d given it to him before we left for college. A little token from home—from me.
“You gave me that rock as a joke, but I held onto it as a talisman, a reminder.” He sat up straight. “It was granite, hard and tough, just like you. It was enduring, just like our friendship. And I held it when I needed a way to center myself, just like you used to do for me.”
He gestured at it. “I carried it with me in my pocket. I got a few strange looks from people in the TSA line at airports, but I just explained it was my lucky charm. No one ever knew the story behind it. That’s why Gus called you my Rock Woman. He knew you were the one I thought about—the one that got away.
I gripped the rock in my hand, tested its weight, and thought of this man. The rock represented the proof that I’d been in his heart for years. Years he’d wished I’d been there to hold his hand.
A tear ran down my cheek as I stared into a face that had handsomely aged with time. Through the sun-worn skin, small laugh lines, and thicker scruff of beard, I still saw the softened lines of youth that had been there the day I’d given him that rock. I loved him then, and I loved him now.
Holding the rock, I bent over and kissed him, the three words banging incessantly in my head and my heart. I deepened the kiss, throwing my arms around his neck to keep my mouth from uttering them.
