“I apologize for what happened tonight and for how it happened,” Rick said. “I never intended for it to work out this way.”
Diane let out a frustrated breath, placing her head in her hands for a few moments to try to regain some sense of control. She forced herself to wipe away any hint of animosity or anger from her features before she spoke again, this time calmly. “I do appreciate you coming here, Rick. I appreciate what you’re trying to do and I accept your apology. We can now say our goodbyes and part as friends.” To show him she meant what she said, she offered her hand in a final, farewell gesture.
Rick clasped her hand. “That’s not what I want.”
“It’s what I want,” Diane responded angrily, pulling her hand from his, “and it’s what should happen.”
“Don’t judge this evening solely by appearances,” Rick said. “It’s not what you think it is.”
Diane felt her face grow warm. “It’s not what I think it is? Help me understand what you mean by that. We’ve hardly been in touch with each other this last week and then I get no call, no contact whatsoever from you to inform me that you’ve decided to get back with your previous girlfriend. It somehow gets thrown in my face at a time when I make a stupid fool of myself in front of everyone. And you’re trying to tell me it’s not what I think it is?”
Rick’s jaw muscle had hardened after her words, standing defiantly out against the strong structure of his face. “I’m sorry about tonight,” he responded. “But haven’t we both learned from past experience that we can’t trust appearances only?”
“What I’ve learned from past experience,” Diane said with a small tremor in her voice, “is to never open up your heart when it won’t do any good. It’s a lesson I wish I’d heeded.” She turned to walk away but Rick stopped her.
“I understand you’re still trying to get over what happened but you’ve got to hear me out,” he said, grasping her arm. “You can’t let this ruin what we could have together.”
“I don’t want what we could have together,” Diane insisted, defiantly meeting his gaze. “I don’t want to share anything with a man who just spent a romantic, moonlit night with another woman while pretending to care about someone else.”
“Would it surprise you to know,” Rick stated calmly, “that the moonlit night you heard Cassie speak about occurred several months ago before I’d even seen you again?”
Diane paused before she spoke. “What surprises me is that you want me to believe that you and Cassie are not an item yet she accompanies you here, she puts on every appearance of intimacy and closeness and these gestures were not shunned by you in the least. How can I feel comfortable continuing our relationship after witnessing something like that?”
“Diane,” Rick said, “my mother is the one who invited Cassie to come with us.”
“From what I remember of you and your mother, you were quite close,” Diane shot back. “Funny she knew absolutely nothing about our association.”
Rick stepped up to Diane and placed both hands on her shoulders. “I know you’re upset with me and I know you’re angry. I don’t blame you. Just listen to me for one moment. Then if you’re still upset, I swear I’ll leave you alone—no questions asked.”
Diane ran a tense hand over her downturned brows, still troubled. She wanted to soften her heart and listen but she didn’t know how. The hurt and anger inside her were still too fresh, her injured heart still too vulnerable and unsure. At least she could give him the token gesture of hearing him out. She decidedly slipped out from under his hands and went over to sit on the top porch step, keeping her eyes fastened on the misty shadows beyond the yard. Rick soon positioned himself beside her.
“When I went away,” Rick said, “it’s true I didn’t keep in touch with you like I should have. I was inundated with meetings and appointments all day, every day. I was up late each night.”
“With Cassie.”
“Cassie was around,” Rick admitted. “She tried to monopolize every spare minute she could. Since I stayed at my mother’s, Cassie would wait up with my mother until I returned. I never had the chance to speak privately with either of them.”
Diane furrowed her brows. “Your mother knew about the charges being dropped against me and everything else about the R & J.”
“It was something I shared in Cassie’s presence. I didn’t speak about anything personal. Telling my mother about my association with you was not something I’d considered doing—up until my mother planned an impromptu return here with Cassie as our guest. Only then did I regret my silence.”
Diane listened carefully, confused.
“Cassie, I’m sure, suspected enough from my distance to know what I was feeling,” Rick said. “She remained unusually non-talkative about any personal issues. She wouldn’t return my texts and she made sure that we were always with my mother whenever we were together. I imagine she felt that proximity—and time—would make me change my mind about our relationship. When we drove back together, with my Mom following behind us in her car, it was then I told Cassie the truth about how I felt about you. I told her that her previous concerns about me returning and seeing you were more on the mark than not and that she had been right. I told her that I still had feelings for you. I was honest with her even though I knew she would be hurt. I told her yours and my relationship would have never ended had lies not come between us. With the lies gone, I told her I still loved you, I was currently seeing you and that I had every intention of continuing our relationship.”
Diane sat rigid and still. She couldn’t speak but remained cautiously silent, her fingers interlocked over her knees.
“Cassie, I discovered today,” Rick continued, “is the kind of woman who will not let go without a fight. You saw enough of her actions to see that for yourself. With what our relationship amounted to in the past, I can’t say that I blame her—although I don’t, to any degree, condone what she did to you.” He paused. Diane sensed more than saw his eyes on her. “My mother must have gathered enough information from what happened this evening to have the insight to request that Cassie and Cassie only join her for an outing. I’m sure it was her way of giving me the chance to see you. My mother also spoke of her intentions of leaving early tomorrow morning with Cassie. She loves you, Diane. She always has. She wanted to give me the chance to come to see you and I took it. I’ve been waiting here for over two hours.”
Diane dropped her chin to her chest, not knowing what to say.
“Your grandfather felt concerned when I showed up and you hadn’t returned,” Rick said, “especially when you weren’t answering your phone. I tried to be discreet but he guessed what had happened. He wholeheartedly assured me that despite your shows to the contrary, you might not hate me as much as you let on.” Rick paused for a moment. “I’m putting a lot of stock into his opinion at the moment. I was absolutely sure, when you first saw me with Cassie, that I might not ever see you again had I not made the effort to come by.”
“To see you with Cassie, after not hearing from you all week...”
“I never intended to hurt you again,” Rick consoled her. “I’m sorry that circumstances worked out the way they did. I tried calling you this afternoon to give you some idea of what was transpiring but...”
“You called me to let me know Cassie had come back with you?” Diane interrupted him, surprised.
“I wanted to explain the situation and assure you that you had no need to worry,” Rick replied.
That’s why he’d called earlier, Diane abruptly realized. She turned her head reluctantly toward his. “I didn’t know,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
Her apologetic tone seemed to work like a soothing balm over the previously-strained atmosphere. “If you knew how I felt leaving in the first place,” Rick said, “you wouldn’t have been worried. It was hard for me to go with things still tenuous between us. I knew I wouldn’t have much time to talk to you and I felt concerned about your reaction to our distance even without Cassie
in the picture.” Rick remained thoughtful for several seconds before he spoke again. “I need to be honest with you about something. When I was first driving away from here, I had a recurrence of all the feelings I’d had when I first left. I felt the anger, the bitterness, even the betrayal I’d felt. I remembered my vehemence in vowing I’d never trust someone as implicitly as I’d trusted you. For one brief moment, it all came back. Then I abruptly realized that all my hatred and anger were gone. All the lies, every tainted memory I’d ever carried against you had virtually disappeared. All I could think of was how much I missed you and how much I wanted to be with you. I realized then how much I still love you.”
Rick took his hand and wrapped it around hers, pulling her closer toward him. “I’ve wasted over three years of my life that I could have spent with you. I let someone else’s lies come between us. What I decided then and there, driving along that road, was that I wouldn’t allow myself to waste any more time away from you. I love you, Diane. Somewhere in my heart, I’ve always loved you. What I want for us—what I hope for us—is that you can forgive me enough to put us back on the road we should have been on a long time ago. I want you with me. I want you to always be with me.”
The emotions in Diane’s heart after Rick’s words were too varied to discern but she turned hesitantly toward him. “After tonight,” she whispered quietly, “I thought it was over.”
“I don’t want it to be over,” Rick said. “Despite my mother’s certain protests, if you’ll have me, you’ll be mine in two months or less.”
“Two months?” Diane repeated, surprised. In two months, she could be living with Rick, sharing his life, loving him—occupying a place she’d always dreamed of but had never imagined possible. “My grandfather must have sensed something like this would happen,” she said.
“Why do you say that?”
“He told me if the opportunity ever came up to be with you that I should take it,” Diane explained.
“He might owe part of that intuition to the fact that when I came here that morning to talk to him, I asked him what he would think if I continued to pursue an association with his granddaughter,” Rick informed her. “Do you believe now that I never intended the situation with Cassie to disrupt my efforts? That was the last thing I wanted. When I saw you with my mother this evening, you can imagine how it put me on the spot. I felt every bit as uncomfortable as I knew you would. I think I foresaw every emotion that crossed your features when Cassie walked out. I knew then I was in trouble. I believe Cassie saw it as her chance, as well. I’ve never seen her as forward as she was tonight.”
Diane dropped her eyes. “I don’t blame her. Thinking I was losing you made me every bit as desperate.”
“You’re never going to lose me,” Rick promised. “We have to make up for every second we missed not being together.” Rick stood and helped her up, hugging her tightly against him. Diane let herself relax her weight against his, the uncertain emotions of the evening fading completely from her rigid shoulders. Rick pressed his fingers beneath her chin and tilted her face up to his. “I love you,” he said.
“I love you, too,” she answered.
As Rick bent his head to kiss her, Diane leaned toward him, feeling a deeper sense of love and belonging than she’d ever imagined she could experience again. Her heart felt full, complete—finally at rest. Being with Rick was where she was supposed to be; this was where she was always supposed to be.
Diane remembered having heard once that there was a fine, thin line between where lies end and truth begins. She would forever be grateful that she and Rick had been given the chance to begin again at the point where lies end. There was no better place in the world.
Where Lies End Page 15