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DYLAN
Traveling Europe wasn’t such a bad idea with my house empty of things to live in and the business no longer a problem. My parents were traveling and so they had offered me their house to stay in. My mom was apologetic when she heard what had happened. She knew or had assumed that Kayla and I would always be together.
Hadn’t we all?
All of my things had been packed up and moved into a storage unit. If I did decide to travel, I wouldn’t go anywhere tropical. The last week in Hawaii had been torture and I couldn’t put myself through that again. Even the curve of the palm trees had reminded me of her.
I caught a taxi to my parents’ house. The residence was far enough away from my neighborhood and Kayla it shouldn’t hurt too bad to be there. When the yellow cab dropped me off, I made a point not to look at her mother’s house which was still next door to my parents.
Maybe coming there hadn’t been the brightest move I’d ever made. Images of Kayla bouncing the basketball to me flashed in my mind as I stared at the driveway. The backyard would be worse since she and I had played back there more than anywhere else.
I had done my best to make the cut clean and to eradicate her from my life, but I had already failed. It was like telling your body you didn’t need your lungs. It was an impossibility when I wasn’t sure I would survive without her.
The morning after she left, I woke up and called the lawyer, turned around and blocked her number from my cell. I didn’t want to be tempted to go to her or push her into agreeing to something she obviously didn’t want. Plus, she would most likely text me like we were friends. Just friends. I didn’t want to deal with that with my heart so raw from her rejection.
I went inside my parents’ front door and sluggishly tossed my bags to the side. I didn’t want to be there. I honestly didn’t want to be anywhere. There was nowhere in my life that Kayla hadn’t permeated.
The house smelled fresh, like they were still on a trip for three weeks. I think they had left on a cruise but I wasn’t sure. Mom and Dad traveled all the time. My childhood home was decorated with a classic style that was still moderately child-proof. My mom constantly nudged me for grandkids. I’d threatened her with a Newfoundland puppy for a grandson. She’d backed off after that.
I slid my shoes off and stretched. At the bottom of the stairs I turned, catching the out-of-place color from the corner of my eye. A bright yellow Post-it note had been stuck on the mirror in the front hall.
Come to the patio.
I recognized the loopy handwriting and my heart skipped a beat. I didn’t want to just make up as friends. I thought I had made that clear to Kayla. I had promised her normalcy if things didn’t work out, but I wasn’t going to survive normal. Not again.
No matter how much I tried pep-talking myself, a fine sheen of sweat collected between my shoulder blades and my heart skipped a beat as I went to the back door. I wanted to see her. I had to see her.
Even if it was for one last time.
I slid open the back door and my jaw dropped.
She had set up my parents’ back deck to look like her first night in Hawaii, the table with a white cloth, the dinner we weren’t allowed to eat because she got the flu. White Christmas lights had been strung up along the arbor and could have passed for the night sky over the ocean.
Soft sounds of the ocean played from a small stereo hid on the side of the deck. Real potted palm trees lined the deck in random spots and a collection of leis had been strung up by the table. The scent of hibiscus was strong.
Kayla stepped from the shadows in a white and blue dress and her hair decorated with flowers. She raised her eyes to mine, visibly shaking as she held out a long jeweler’s box. “I love you. I always want to be with you. I’m so sorry for what happened in Hawaii. I... I’m starting to realize I’m not a good person.”
I stepped out of the doorway completely. “You’re the best kind of person.” I watched her, slowly closing the slider behind me. The setting was more than I could have expected and it was confusing me. She said she loved me, but she always said that. Did she mean be with me as a friend or as man and wife like I wanted? “Why now?” Had she changed her mind because she thought it was the only way to keep me in her life? Like she would sacrifice herself for my friendship?
Flattered wasn’t what I was feeling, if that was the truth.
“I didn’t know what it meant to lose you.” She looked at me with dark circles under her eyes. Had she lost sleep worried about her and me?
Losing me would hurt her, and I knew that. But I still couldn’t stop myself from trying to cut my losses.
“I don’t want that.” I shook my head, frustrated that I had to say again to her what my expectations were. Didn’t she get it yet? My hopes crashed again and I mentally rebuked myself for my stupidity. “I don’t want desperate love.” I sighed, turning back to the door.
“Not a desperate love or a pity love, or even a friend’s love.” She stepped forward, holding out the box and opening the top. An elaborately made wooden watch rested inside. There were no hands and a selfie we had taken at one of the beaches had been etched into the wood. “How about a forever love?”
Disbelief rattled through me. Would I be able to hold things together? I’d been on an emotional roller coaster the last week and the reception from Kayla was unbelievably hoped for but never expected or even believed possible.
I pulled the ring from my pocket and held out the box one more time. This would be the test. The final test. I couldn’t handle anymore rejection. “If you’re serious, marry me for real. Not the online one. For real. I should’ve asked you a long time ago.”
“I don’t believe in divorce. If we get married, its forever.” She warned me, lowering the watch a couple centimeters but holding her gaze steady as she held me in her regard.
“Are you sure?” I had to know that it was a definite yes. A forever yes like she’d promised.
Tears brightened her eyes and she nodded, helping me slip the ring on her finger. “Yes, I’ve never been surer.” She blinked at the hibiscus flower on her finger. She looked up at me, her eyes wide. “It’s perfect.”
“At least we can say we already had our honeymoon.” I laughed when she giggled and we fell into each other’s arms. I was never going to let her go. No matter how much she pushed.
This was forever.
Chapter 23
Kayla
We only had two months left of the summer season and our grand opening of the Paradise zip line ride would start any second. Tourist numbers were up and we’d surpassed our goals by almost two-fold. The renovations couldn’t have been smarter.
I stood on the last platform of the three lines, having offered the first ride to Dylan. He didn’t know yet why I was being careful. Three months since our honeymoon and our real wedding was scheduled in two weeks. Our parents were so excited for us.
We were going back to Hawaii for just a few days. Our parents were meeting us there and then we were coming back. We had to finish what we started on that island.
Tom, the ride-specialist lifted his hand to shade his eyes. His radio hissed and beeped, announcing the first rider was on his way.
Each line was only 45 seconds to a minute long, and I counted in my head the moment when I knew he would see my announcement.
There was a billboard that was set up halfway between the two ends of the second zip line. Instead of an advertisement for one of our vendors like we usually had, I had reserved the space for just that day. On the board I announced we were pregnant with twins and a shot of the ultrasound.
He came into view, his smile huge as he swung onto the platform.
Dylan landed in the final spot only ten feet from me. The brightness of his eyes and excitement on his face weren’t for the ride. He had seen my sign.
As soon as the harness had been detached from the zip line, he rushed me, swinging me around in a circle and squeezing me tight. “Are you happy?”
I took his face in my hands and stared into his eyes. “I didn’t know I could be this happy.”
We kissed – not for the first time and not for the last.
All my life my other half had been right there. Right in front of me. I didn’t know what I was missing.
Never again. And he would never leave me.
He’d put me back together and made me whole.