“Warned by who? Miles? I think that worked out rather well.” Marge turns to me. “He brought his sweet Penelope here on their first date. He needed a lot of guidance as well, but at least he listens. Anyway, I had a beautiful menu all set for him, but they had to leave early, something about her son.”
“I’m sure whatever you make us will be fantastic.”
She brings her hand to my cheek. “You haven’t changed a bit. Still the sweetest girl with the biggest heart.” Her eyes move to Everett. “You better hold on to this girl this time.”
“I plan to,” he replies without a pause.
My heart begins to race, and she laughs softly before walking away.
I want to say something, to start the conversation we need to have. Things with us were always full steam ahead, and we never talked. Then, if we did, I was never brave enough to say what I really wanted.
This time, I don’t want the mistakes of the past to interfere with whatever future we might have.
“Everett . . .”
He leans forward. “I wanted tonight to be just a fun date, a chance to smile a little, but I can see you’re not relaxed and you want to say something, and I do too.”
I nod. “I just don’t want to leave things unsaid.”
“Do you want to go first?” he asks.
It’s really the last thing I want, but if I’m going to step into this new world I’m creating, then I need to be brave enough to actually speak up.
“Yes.”
“All right.”
“I have so many worries about all of it. The fact that we’d be starting a relationship again, that there’s a baby involved, that you’ll feel trapped by it all. Everything is just so daunting. How do we navigate it?”
Everett leans forward, reaching for my hand. “Trapped? That’s ... not even possible. I’ve been living in this version of purgatory since the day you left me. I’ve never moved on from you, Violet. Having you back in my life has made me feel free again. I waited for you, without even knowing I was doing it. As for the baby, I’m aware of what it all means. We’re going to havehard times together. There will be good days and some bad ones, but sweetheart, I will take a million bad days if it means I’m by your side. There is nothing I fear about this relationship other than not being in it. So, let me shoulder the hard times and be by your side for the good. Let me have whatever days we can have together because I can’t go back to a world where I don’t have any.”
Tears form, spilling down my cheeks and dropping. Each word he said puts a piece of me that was broken back in place. I’m not healed, not by any means, but I’m mending—because of Everett.
“I don’t want to complicate your life,” I say, my voice barely a whisper.
“Violet, you’re the only complication I need.” He releases my hand and comes around the table. Everett sits beside me and cradles my face. “I love you. I always have. I made you a million promises when we were young, but I never forgot the one where I said I would fight for you until my last breath.”
The memory comes back when someone was being mean to me and Everett got in a fight because of it. I begged him to stop, not to fight for me because he would get in trouble. He wasn’t hearing any of it, and he stood in front of me, breathing heavy, promising that he would never stop fighting for me.
“You don’t have to fight alone, I’ll fight for you. I don’t ever want to lose you again,” I say and then lean forward and kiss him. “Ever.”
“Then let’s stop making excuses and just be fucking happy together.”
“I like that plan.”
I like it a lot.
twenty-seven
Everett
Our lips come together and I feel it everywhere.
After the most incredible date, she’s here, in my home, and I’m going to take her to bed tonight with promises and every string I can possibly find.
To have had her, to have remembered, brought everything back with a vengeance. The long-ago heartache was new again. Violet was my other half, and even though we were kids, I knew it then and it’s still true today.
The mess of her life is nothing compared to what it was like when she left me.
