Chapter 12

chapter

twelve

Annabelle

"I'm telling you, Lizzie, it was the single hottest thing I've ever experienced." I finish unpacking the rest of my bathroom items and organize them in the tidy linen closet.

"Ugh, I need to get laid," she says.

"Me first. My husband owes me."

"Sounds like he gave you exactly what you deserved."

"Whatever." I move back into the bedroom and pick up the pile of his folded t-shirts. I bring the stack of cotton to my nose and inhale. "Sometimes you have to play a little dirty."

"Literally."

"So did you send your resume in for that nurse's position?"

"I did! I can't believe the timing. It's gotta be kismet, don't you think?"

"I absolutely do. Kelsie said the pediatrician, her uncle, has had the practice for years. So it's established. And he recently brought on a general practitioner to the office. Sounds like it covers all the bases."

"Yes. Man, I would love to move the kids to Saddle Creek. Raise them there."

"I know. Me too."

"Does that mean you're going to stay for good?" she asks.

I place the t-shirts in the top drawer where I've seen Greyson keeps them. "Yes, I'm going to stay. I mean Grey's my best friend. If he doesn't ever love me like I want him to love me, it doesn't mean we can't have a good marriage. I know he cares about me. I know he wants me."

"Yeah you do! I really need to get laid."

I laugh. "You should make that happen soon." My hand hits something hard as I'm straightening the shirts. I palm the item and pull it out. My stomach immediately twists into knots.

It's a ring box. Like the get on one knee kind of ring box.

"Oh no," I whisper.

"What's the matter?"

"I found a ring box hidden in his drawer." I open it to find a simple band with a single solitaire diamond. It's not a big one, not like the heavy paperweight I wear on my hand. "It's an engagement ring, Lizzie."

"Don't panic. I'm sure there's a logical explanation," she says.

"Logical being he loves another woman and had planned to propose to her. Marry her. But out of his stupid, misguided need to protect me or whatever, he married me instead." My eyes blur with tears as I stare down at the ring.

"That is not the only possibility," my sister says, her voice gentle now.

Even she doesn't believe what she's saying.

"I gotta go. I'll talk to you later," I say.

"Give him a chance to explain before you do something drastic."

"Sure." I hang up the phone and slide to the floor, my back right up against the chest of drawers.

I don't know how much time has passed when Greyson finds me sitting in the same position, the ring box in my hand.

He exhales slowly, then lowers himself to the floor next to me. "So you found it?"

"I did."

"And?" he asks.

"I'm not mad, Greyson. I'm just sad. Sad for you that you sacrificed your own happiness to marry me instead of the woman you clearly wanted to propose to."

"What?"

"It's obvious you bought this for someone intending to ask them to marry you. But instead of getting to do that, you came to my wedding and saved me. Yet again. You seem to just always be there, right when I need saving."

"That's not what happened," he says.

I release a forced laugh, my eyes stinging from the tears. "Really? I'm not stupid, Grey. I know you care about me. I know you would do anything for me. But this goes too far. You cannot change all your future plans because I needed help. That's not fair."

"Not fair for who?"

"For you. For the woman you bought that ring for. I mean what did you even tell her when you rolled into town with a new wife?"

He shakes his head.

"See? You can't even come up with an explanation. Oh my God, she must hate me so much."

"Bella, that is not what is happening. I am not this altruistic, honorable man you seem to think I am. I didn't sacrifice anything marrying you."

I start to say something, but he puts a finger to my lips.

He picks me up and puts me on his lap, straddling him so we're face-to-face. "It's my turn to talk, your turn to listen."

"You are right that I bought that ring intending to propose. But it didn't work out."

And now I'm his consolation prize. Today just gets better and better.

"How could it have not worked out? That ring is perfect; you are perfect." I shake my head. "I don't get it."

"I am not perfect. I am evidently a complete fuck up, and I can't believe Brook was right." He rubs a hand down his face.

"What was she right about?"

"About you. Not knowing what I thought was so blatantly obvious."

I shake my head. "I don't understand."

"Darlin', I bought that ring for you when you were sixteen. I never got a chance to show it to you, never really got a chance to give you a proper proposal. Because your grandmother took y'all away before the school year even ended."

If I thought I was crying before, now my eyes are swimming in tears.

"You kept it all this time?"

"Yeah. Always intended to give it to you. Then when you told me you were getting married, I figured I'd lost my chance. I even had it with me the day we said our vows. I'd put it in my pocket as a reminder that it was time for me to let go of what I couldn't have. What wasn't rightfully mine."

"But then I asked you to be my groom."

"You did."

"Then why didn't you give it to me then?"

"Because it's a fraction of the size of the one you handed me to give you."

"But you picked it out for me," I say.

"I did. Do you know why?"

"To save me from having to move away when you knew I wanted to stay."

He nods. "That was part of it. The thought of you moving away, of not getting to see you every day, felt like I was losing a limb. I don't think I even fully realized what I was doing buying that ring until later."

He cups my face. "Bella, my sweet, beautiful Bella. I am in love with you. I always have been. I don't want to stay married to you because of some weird sense of obligation or honor. I want to be your husband because you're the only wife I've ever wanted."

He leans forward and kisses my forehead, then thumbs away my tears. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I truly thought you knew how I felt. Literally everyone else knows."

"So, you want to be my husband for real?"

"In every sense of the word."

I close my eyes, and then a laugh bubbles out of me. "Oh my God, I'm such an idiot. Why didn't you ever smack me upside the head?"

"Uh, because I don't hit women."

"No, I mean, I just had no idea how you felt. I've spent the entirety of my adult life being annoyed that I could never fall in love with any man I went on a date with. No matter how charming or sweet or whatever. None of them stirred anything inside me. And it was all your fault."

"My fault?"

I nod. "Yeah, because I didn't tell you the truth either. I've always been in love with you too, Grey. You're the beginning and the end for me." I take off the offensive, heavy ring weighing on my left hand. Then I hold it out to him. "Can I have my ring now?"

"You would rather have this one than that designer ring? That's got to be, what? Three carats?"

"Three and a half. It's obnoxious, and I didn't pick it out. I want that one. The one teenage you bought for teenage me. We've wasted a lot of time."

He plucks the ring out of the box and slides it onto my finger. "Annabelle Greer, will you be my wife forever? No matter how many of my beard hairs get in the sink? No matter that Papaya loves me more than you?"

I laugh. "She really does. Little skank." I wrap my arms around his neck. "I love you, husband."

"And I love you, wife."