Chapter Thirty-Eight
Running out of a wedding reception into the rain, carrying a bouquet and sobbing, she’d probably terrified the parking attendant, but by that point Parvati had given up on any pretext of dignity or caring what other people thought of her.
When they delivered her car, she managed to keep it together long enough to get out of the parking lot before pulling over less than a mile down the road to bawl.
Breaking up with Max was nothing like breaking up with Parker had been.
She was wrecked. Destroyed.
Max had teased her about not crying at Sidney’s wedding? Well she was crying now, damn it.
The second thoughts began almost immediately.
Had she ever given him the benefit of the doubt? Or had the stories she told herself about him been designed to remind her that he couldn’t commit? Had she ever really committed to the idea of them either? Or had she always had one foot out the door because she was afraid he was the same way? Had her fears been a self-fulfilling prophecy? Was that fair to him? Had she been too guarded with her heart? Had she made a huge mistake?
She hadn’t even said goodbye to Sidney, running out the side door. The happy couple would be headed off to their honeymoon by now. Would Sidney wonder why Parv wasn’t there to wave them off? She would never get that moment back—but right now all she could think of was Max and the way he’d looked at her when she’d told him it was over.
She made it to Angie’s house in one piece, but was still such a basket case when she got there that her sister took one look at her and groaned, “Dear God, you’re a mess,” with the perfect amount of disgust to snap Parv out of her urge to bawl for another two hours.
Angie wrapped her in a towel to keep her from marring the furniture and put Parvati in her sitting room again—the one part of the house that was completely Angie’s, not overrun by Kevin and the kids—and thrust a glass of water into her hands with a command to hydrate. Then she leaned against the arm of the loveseat across from Parvati’s chair, folded her arms, and glowered.
“I think you’re being an idiot, by the way.”
“I know.” Parvati sniffled and sipped her water.
“What happened?”
“We broke up.” Parvati didn’t elaborate. There really wasn’t anything else to say.
“For a reason? Or just because you care about him more than you’ve ever cared about anyone and that terrifies you?”
“Is this supposed to be helpful?” Parvati glowered as Angie glanced at her phone, her thumb moving across the screen. “Who are you texting in the middle of my emotional crisis?”
“Katie. She thinks you’re being ridiculous too. I thought you believed love conquered all. What happened to that?”
“Well maybe I’m afraid he will never love me as much as I love him. Did you think of that? That maybe love only conquers all when you both love one another, not when one of you has had an unhealthy crush since she was fourteen that she really needs to get over.”
“So that’s all this was? A crush? The realization of a fantasy?”
“Of course not. I just…I was always going to be that girl to him. The one who was obsessed with him. The one who would take whatever scraps of affection he wanted to give her.”
Angie cocked her head to the side, considering that. “That may be where you started, but relationships change all the time. What makes you think yours wouldn’t?”
“He doesn’t let people in, Angie,” she explained. “I probably know him better than just about anyone and his first instinct is still to shut me out. I bet no one we know would even know we’d broken up if I didn’t tell them. Max doesn’t share his feelings. He doesn’t share himself.”
Angie eyed her phone again. “People change.”
“Not that much. And I can’t ask him to change who he is.”
“What if he could show you that he wanted to change? That he was already changing? Would that make a difference?”
“That isn’t going to happen, Angie.”
“Hypothetically.” Her thumb moved over her cell phone screen.
Parvati narrowed her eyes. “Are you still texting Katie?”
“And Devi. And Asha. Ranee’s at a conference in Atlanta and I think she’s already asleep or we’d definitely patch her in.”
“I’m glad to know my crisis can bring the family closer together.”
Angie rolled her eyes. “Don’t be sarcastic. We love you. We want to help you fix this.”
“I know this might go against your worldview, Angie, but not everything can be fixed. Not even with a color-coded to-do list.”
“I don’t accept that.” Her oldest sister looked at her with militant determination.
“I know if you could give me a happy life through sheer force of will you would—and I love you for it. But sometimes you have to accept that things aren’t going to work out the way you want them to and move on with your life before you become so tangled up in trying to force a fairy tale that you make yourself miserable.”
“I agree. But what if this isn’t one of those times? What if this is just the time where Prince Charming is a little slow on the uptake but he really loves you like crazy?”
“That is a fairy tale—but the sad thing about fairy tales is that they aren’t real.” The doorbell rang and Parvati frowned in the direction of the front door. “Did you invite someone over?”
Angie glanced at her phone. “It’s probably Katie. Sit tight.”
Her sister vanished to go answer the door and Parvati stared fixedly at the curtains, wondering exactly how long it would take her to get over this gaping, empty feeling, as if her emotions had been scooped out by a melon baller.
She’d read somewhere that it took half as long to get over a relationship as the length of the relationship—but did that mean half of the three months they’d been together or half of the fifteen-plus years she’d loved him?
The scuff of a footstep in the doorway drew her attention off the diamond pattern on the rug—but it wasn’t Angie who hesitated on the threshold.
Max stood between the propped-open French doors, still wearing his wedding tux and looking like something out of a bridal magazine, though his expression was more tentative than would have been allowed to grace the pages of The Vow or Modern Bride. “Can we talk?”
Parvati stood, needing to not be looking up at him—at least not so much. “What are you doing here?”
“I needed to see you. You ran off before I got to my rebuttal.”
“But how did you know I was here?”
“I asked Sidney where she thought you would have gone and she suggested Katie’s, so I called Katie, but she hadn’t seen you so she texted Angie and Angie told us you were planning to stay here and then updated us when you showed up at the door, but by then we were already headed this way.” He took a half step into the room and she took a step back, which made him stop. “I must have broken every speed limit on my way up here.”
“I can’t believe Angie ratted me out to you.” Though frankly she could. It was so freaking Angie to think she knew best and act accordingly.
“Don’t be mad at Angie. It was either this or have Tori call you and pretend to be in labor. She offered—which was really very sweet—but I thought you might kill me if we did that to you.” Another half step and this time she forced herself not to retreat, even when he was only three feet away. Close enough to reach out and touch her. “Your friends were pretty determined to help me get you back. Don’t you think you should at least listen to what I have to say?”
Something about what he’d said caught at her brain. “Did you tell them we’d broken up?”
“I was telling anyone I thought might know how to help me get you back. I know you don’t think I’m capable of admitting weakness or asking for help—and a few months ago, you may have been right, but I have changed, Parvati. And not because you asked me to, but because you changed me. You opened my eyes. I’m not sure I ever would have realized how empty my life was without you. You’re my link to everything. You’re my heart. I’m not even sure I knew I had one before I gave it to you. So please. Give us a shot. Break up with me if you don’t love me. Or if I hurt you. But not because you think I can’t love you enough. Because if there is one thing I know I will always do, it’s love you.”
She couldn’t seem to speak. The space where all her emotions had been scooped out was full again—bursting, so full she couldn’t find room for words. “Max…”
“If I have to beg my sister for help or even your sisters, I will. You show me how to let people in, how to connect. You teach me that I need to be responsible to you—even if I suck at it sometimes because I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know anything about healthy relationships, Parv, but I love you and I will always keep trying. Please just give me the chance to prove I’m not a freaking island. I’m a peninsula. Because of you. Okay? You’re my isthmus. Which sounded much more romantic in my head.”
“That was quite a speech,” she managed to whisper around the bursting well of feels.
“I practiced it on the drive. Did it work? Because if it didn’t Sidney and Josh are waiting outside to vouch for me. And I’ve still got Tori ready to fake going into labor so I can rush her to the hospital and be a hero—thus proving how reliable I am. I mobilized the troops—”
“Max,” she cut him off gently, putting a hand on his shoulder and going up on her toes. “It worked.”
He didn’t need any more encouragement to close the last of the distance between them. His arms slid around her, his lips settled on hers, and Parvati was home. God, how was it possible she’d missed him so much in just a matter of hours? One minute she’d been running out of the wedding reception, feeling like she’d broken her own heart on the rocks and the next—
“Hang on—” She broke the kiss, leaning back in his arms. “Aren’t Sidney and Josh supposed to be leaving for their honeymoon right now?”
“They decided to take a later flight. She said she owed us.”
Parvati teared up at the gesture—her best friend giving her blessing by helping Max and putting her own life on hold to do it—but gestures could be expensive with flight change fees. “We should tell them they can go the airport. Maybe they can still catch their original flight.”
“Good idea,” Max murmured, but his eyes were on her lips and he was lowering his head—
“You guys!” A rustle of tulle announced the arrival of Sidney, still in her wedding dress. “Glad to see everything’s working out, but can we wrap this up? Tori’s water just broke.”
Max laughed. “We’re good, Sid. We don’t need the fake labor plan,” he explained—not seeming to notice the tight strain in Sidney’s voice, or the fact that Sid had never been that good an actor.
“Good for you,” Sidney said. “But Tori’s water really did break in Angie’s driveway. So come on, Romeo. Your car is the fastest.”
* * * * *
“So this is what it means to be connected to people, huh? Everyone bossing you around and appropriating your car and making you sit around for hours in an uncomfortable tux waiting for the arrival of a very slow baby?” Max griped good-naturedly.
“Shut up.” Parvati grabbed his arm and wrapped it around her shoulders, leaning into his side. “You know you love it.”
He looked at her, the weight of the moment in his eyes. “I do.”
They’d been at the hospital for nearly seven hours now, joined by the entire bridal party and Lorelei. They were all still in their formal wear because it seemed like every time one of them would feint toward going home and collecting jeans or yoga pants, Nick would rush into the waiting room with an update and everyone would forget that they were currently dressed to the bridal nines.
Then Nick rushed in with one last update—his eyes glazed with wonder. “Lorelei, come meet your little brother.”
There were tears, cheers, questions after the mother (who was wonderful), the name (Jordan Neil), when they could see him. Parvati hugged everyone—grateful for Max’s pocket square when she became a sappy mess. But if ever there was a day she was allowed to be a sappy mess, it was this one.
“Jordan Neil.”
He was perfect. It was over an hour later when he was put in the nursery and they were finally able to see him en masse. Parvati looked through the glass, Max standing behind her with his arms looped around her waist as he peered over her shoulder.
His voice rumbled through his chest at her back. “I was thinking we could get married.”
Parvati twisted—trust Max to find the one thing that could distract her from Jordan in that moment. “What did you just say?”
“You did catch the bouquet. It’s tradition.”
“Don’t you think that’s a little fast?”
“I’ve known you since you were six years old. You’re my best friend. You’re the only one who calls me on my bullshit and drags me kicking and screaming into the human race. I need you, Parvati. And I love you like crazy. Let’s make it legal.”
Wow. When the universe decided to give her her dreams, it didn’t play around. It was fast. It was so fast. But it felt like she’d been waiting all her life for something to feel this right. She wet her lips. “You’re supposed to ask me, remember? Not just dictate the way things are.”
He grinned, sheepish, that dimple flashing. “I’m afraid you’ll say no.”
She turned fully in his arms. “Ask, Max. I won’t say no.”
Then the love of her life smiled. He dropped his arms, reached into his pocket, pulled out a box and sank down onto one knee in the hallway in front of a nursery full of babies only a few hours old.
“Parvati Jai. Will you marry me?”
THE END