Epilogue
Every steptowards Annabelle’s quaint countryside home felt like it was taking Floyd to meet his maker. He thought that he would feel alright when he made this journey, he assumed that he would simply be alright with getting the closure he needed either way. All day long he had tried his best to tell himself that getting to the end of this mess would be the best way... even if he did not get the answer that he so desperatelywanted.
But as he made each step, that became less and less true. He wanted the answer that he wanted, and that was all there was toit.
Maybe she will still get married to the man she knows better now, he told himself gravely. If that is the case, then I must take the news in a dignifiedmanner.
As he reached Annabelle’s front door, he realized that his breaths were coming out laboured and panicked. He stopped for just a few moments, hoping that standing still would help his breathing to return tonormal.
It did not help. If anything, the longer the time he stood there, the worse he felt. In his mind, this was something that he had been working towards for five very long years. To learn that all of that would not work out would bedevastating.
Putting it off will not change the answer, he convinced himself. I simply need to get in there to find out eitherway.
With a strong determination, Floyd took a step forward and he curled up his fist ready to knock on the door. Just as his skin was about to connect with the wood, it swung open unexpectedly to reveal a terribly worried looking Annabelle on the otherside.
“Oh,” she gasped in shock, clutching onto her chest as if she was trying to calm her heart rate down. “Floyd, it is you. I was just coming to look for you. I did not know where youwere.”
Her words were enough to encourage Floyd to think that it was good news, but the way that her hands wrung anxiously together made him much less sure. Her body language was all at odds, which only amped up the emotional mess that he was experiencinginside.
“I...” he started, before his words trailed off. He coughed awkwardly and wished that he could glean more from the way that Annabelle was looking at him. “I erm, I do not know where tostart.”
“No, me neither,” Annabelle whispered. “This is rather a strange situation that we find ourselvesin.”
Floyd moved from foot to foot as he desperately racked his brain. Standing there, saying nothing, dancing around the subject was doing nothing to help the internal battle that he was fighting. He needed to get Annabelle started before he wentinsane.
“I need to get back tonight,” he said sadly. “I do not wish to, but as I have said before, it is the only way this can work.” He paused, trying to give Annabelle a chance to speak, but she said nothing. She bit down on her bottom lip and glanced her eyes towards the ground instead. “Like I said, I shall be gone forever once Ileave...”
“I do not want that,” Annabelle gushed, finally opening her mouth. She took a step closer to Floyd as she did but he remained stiff and frozen. He was not going to do anything until he knew exactly what was happening. “I do not want to never see youagain.”
That did not sound like a promise to come with him. “I understand,” he said morosely. “But that is the way that it has tobe...”
“You donotunderstand,” Annabelle counteracted as a bright smile spread across her lips. “I do not wish you to leave alone. Much as I love my life here, and I have built up a fantastic existence for myself, I am ready to take on my next adventure with you. I am ready to leave all of this behind, to move to Ashbridge, to be withyou.”
“You... are?” Even though it was exactly what Floyd wanted he could not quite believe it. It seemed unreal for him to actually get what hewanted.
“Floyd, I left my life behind to be with you before and I would like to do it again. You have your riding school where you live, you have built up a reputation and a successful business. I have a job here, but it is one that I can do anywhere.” She reached out and took Floyd’s hands, noticing the tremble in them as she did. “I have wanted to be yours for six years and now this can be the truth ofit.”
Floyd ran his finger along Annabelle’s finger, noticing that the third one on her left hand was bare. “What about your fiancé?” he asked cautiously regardless. It was only right that he be certain about her potential relationshipstatus.
“I told him that I cannot be his bride because my heart has always been with someone else,” Annabelle rasped. “I believe he was upset, but he understands that he deserves someone who can give themselves to himentirely.
Floyd cupped Annabelle’s face in his hands and he tugged her lightly towards him. He was so glad that he could finally touch her again, that she could finally consider her his. This was always the way that it was supposed tobe.
“I love you,” he told her happily. A tear formed in the corner of his eye, but it was a joyful one. The most nerve-wracking day of his life had turned into one of the greatest. "So much, Lady Annabelle Hathaway. I love you and I always havedone.”
Then, without even thinking anymore, Floyd crashed his lips against hers and he kissed Annabelle lovingly. All the passion, all the emotions, all the loss of the last five years, it all came out in that moment, cementing their brand newunion.
This is right, Floyd thought happily to himself. This is the way that it had to turn out, I am just so truly grateful that we both seeit.
“I have loved you too,” Annabelle replied thickly as they finally pulled apart. “So much. I just wish we had always been together.” She ran her finger lovingly down his cheek, noticing the way that her chest swelled with a hot love as his did. She did not like hurting James, but what they shared was never this. It would not have been fair to either of them to spend the rest of their lives pretending that it was. "I did not know where to find you, I always thought that you would be too difficult to locate to start looking. I did not know you lived somewhere that means so much to us. If I had thought to go there, then maybe we could have not wasted the last fewyears.”
“At least now, we are more ready for one another.” Floyd did regret the lost years, of course, he did, but at the same time, he needed that time to grow up and to achieve his lifelong goal. And to also swallow his pride to do what needed to be done. Annabelle needed the time so that she could grow up, too, he hoped that she saw that. “Our lives are much more inorder.”
"Yes," Annabelle nodded and giggled through the mixture of emotions. “You are right.” Her face turned serious for just a moment. “I suppose I always thought that you did not love me either, which I now know was not thetruth.”
“How could you assume that I would not love you? Just look at you. You are, and always have been, the one forme.”
Those words uplifted Annabelle, it felt like all the tiny missing bits of her life were finally coming together. Now, she was mature enough to accept it wholly too, which waswonderful.
