Page 106 of One Foggy Christmas
“I hoped I was your new way forward.” Rejection colors his eyes. “I thought you were ready to take on more. Maybe explore a relationship and a future. Live life to the fullest.”
“My life looks different now, but it can still be full even with much less than I once had or wanted.”
“I feel like this is what you do. You pull men in then change your mind and push us away.”
“That’s not fair.”
“What’s not fair is you leading me on for the past six months.”
My brows drop. “I didn’t lead you on.”
“You came to my house on Christmas Eve, begging for who knows what. Then you divorce Nash—a pretty obvious sign that you were choosing a life with me over him.”
“Divorcing Nash had nothing to do with you.”
“I don’t know what else you want. I gave you space, thinking you’d be ready for a relationship by now.”
“Eventually, I will be ready. Just not right now.”
Stetson blows out a curt breath. “Sounds like it’s time we both move on from our past and what might have been.” He shakes his head as he stands. “I hope you don’t regret thisagain.”
It’sthatstatement that tells me I won’t.
SADIE
“Were you surprisedby how Stetson reacted to your rejection?” Dr. Shinn asks at our next therapy session. I drive to Syracuse twice a month to meet with her. She helps me sort through the jumbled mess inside my brain.
“I didn’t expect him to be so cold.” I think back to Christmas Eve when I had an even tougher conversation. “I guess I expected Stetson to react more like Nash. To be patient and understanding. The fact that he wasn’t gives me a glimpse of why I might’ve broken off our engagement in the first place.”
“Do you still wonder about that? About the decisions you made three years ago?”
“Not as much as I used to.”
Dr. Shinn tilts her head, narrowing her gaze. “Why do you think that is?”
“I guess the more time away from my accident, the easier it is to see why I did what I did. I don’t question those decisions anymore. I accept them.”
“Does accepting your choices change how you feel about Nash?”
“I think it makes me appreciate him more.”
“Where are you today with the whole Nash situation?”
My eyes drop to my hands as my fingers slide across the vacant spot on my ring finger. “I’m not sad anymore, but I think about him often. I regret how it ended, but I’m glad it happened. I don’t miss him, but I miss the feeling he gave me.” My lips lift as his smile crosses my mind. “Nash was more than just this one guy I married one time. He was the calm in the middle of my storm.”
NASH
“Nash, you areabout to be a wealthy man,” my lawyer says as the elevator doors shut in front of us.
I lift my lips, wondering if I’m showing the appropriate level of excitement for someone who’s about to sell his company to a private equity group for millions of dollars.
“What are your plans with the money?”
“I don’t have any.”
Laughter pours out of him. “You’re the only millionaire I know with no plans for the future.”
His words are innocent, but I still feel the sting of hurt.
