by Drea Stein
“I know you believe that there is a logical answer for everything, but sometimes life … and love takes a leap of faith.”
“This isn’t about leaping off the tire swing into the river.”
“Yes and no.” He took her hand. “Life is sometimes like that, and love is like that. I want to take that leap with you. I want to be your man, to be with you, fully with you, to marry you, to have children together, to make a family.”
“I like what we have now,” she said. She was thinking about Stevie and about her parents, and how that crazy love didn’t always last.
He looked at her. “I know you’re thinking about Stevie. I am not him. I love you. Look, I didn’t know how to do this, but,” he reached into his pocket and fished something out. Her heart thudded and she felt the edges of gray cloud around her vision.
He flipped the box, she heard the rasp of the hinge and there is sat, blinking and winking against the blue velvet background.
“Don’t.” She held up her hand. “Please don’t,” her voice was low, a whisper and she took a deep breath, found her strength, “I can love you, Colby, but marriage, forever, it’s not all moonlit kisses and—”
“Unicorns and fairy dust. Honey, it’s hard work, I know, but neither one of us is a stranger to hard work; otherwise, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”
“I … don’t know. Why can’t we just keep it like it is, live together, just be happy?”
He looked at her as if she had slapped him. “Because if you knew me, Tory, you’d know I don’t work that way. I love you. I want to marry you. I think that love is actually all or nothing, Tory. You’re either in it or not.” The box snapped shut.
“I….”
He shook his head. “Don’t say anything now. We shouldn’t say anything. I’m going to go take a walk.”
And he did, sending her one long, searching look before he was gone.
She was shaking. She wanted to run out after him, to tell him to come back. But she couldn’t, couldn’t make herself do it, couldn’t take that leap of faith.
Chapter 54
She watched, and she waited, saw Colby come and go. He looked hopeful at first, and then the days passed, and he looked more and more mournful. Even Princess looked sad, the one time he brought her to work.
Finally she’d had enough and went into the office, a pitcher of water for the plant. He was sitting down at his desk, booted feet up and staring off into nothing.
“How ya doing, sugar?” she said.
He looked up. “Fine.”
“You don’t look fine.” She opened a window, poured some water on her plant. “How’s Tory?”
“Fine,” he said curtly.
She finished watering the plants and took a good look at him. True, she hadn’t seen him much, but he hadn’t looked this low since … well, since she’d told him the truth about who she was and who he was.
“Scoot,” she said, pushing his boots off to the side.
“What’s happening, hon?”
“Nothing,” he said, like the teenager she remembered.
She gave a long, theatrical sigh. “Honey, I know men, and you’ve got all the classic signs of a good brood on. Even Princess looks miserable, and she’s too dumb to know any better. Let me guess … girl trouble?”
“I bought her a ring.”
“Oh now, honey, I told you you’d scare her off if you did.”
“Well, you were right. She asked why what we had wasn’t good enough. Then when I told her I wanted more, she accused me of having feelings for you.”
“I hope you do,” she said, patting his arm.
“Not those kinds of feelings.”
Eleanor frowned. “Oh, you mean she thinks me and you are, well….”
“Were. She took your motherly concern as something else.”
Eleanor laughed. “Hmm, well I haven’t had much practice with the motherly concern, I’ll give you that. But, sugar, why didn’t you just tell her?”
“I did. And that’s when she accused me of holding back, of wanting to know what else I was keeping from her.”
“Are you?”
“Well you told her about Kayla, and now she’s knows about you. I don’t know if I mentioned how much I really hated Bobby Dean, but I don’t think that’s too important.”
Eleanor sighed. “Despite all the mistakes I made, you’re a good man Colby. Are you sure she’d right for you?”
He bristled. “I’m sure. More sure than I’ve been of anything else in my life. It’s because of that asshole Stevie Wilder.”
Eleanor frowned. “Never heard of him.”
“Ex lacrosse player, two-timing bastard who broke her heart not once but twice.”
“So she’s jaded, a little wounded when it comes to love. You just have to be patient. A lot of us are like that.”
He looked at his mother. “I don’t understand it, but you really did love Bobby Dean, didn’t you?”
His mother smiled, a small sad one and looked off in the distance. “He had his flaws.”
“He cheated on you.”
Eleanor shrugged. “Yes, but they all meant nothing to him. I was the one he came home to. And well, maybe it’s a problem with me, honey, but that was enough for me. I felt alive when I was with him, in a way no one else made me feel. I took the bad with the good. Still, I have my regrets. I never should have sent you away like I did.”
Colby looked up at his mother. “I suppose I wouldn’t be the man I am today if you hadn’t.”
She laughed. “Well, that’s a Reynolds point of view if I ever heard one.”
“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” he said, just a trace of bitterness in his voice.
“Ah honey, I am sure things will work out. Just give it some time. And if not, well she’s not the one for you.”
He looked at her. “She’s exactly the one for me. I want her to come to her senses and realize that we’re right for one another—that more is right; it’s good.”
“I know, it’s what you’ve always wanted, a place, a family to call your own. You have this.” She gestured around.
“It’s not enough,” he said simply, and her heart almost broke at the look of sadness in his eyes.
Chapter 55
“Did you get your appetite back” Tory looked at Lynn who was mashing a peanut butter fudge brownie around on her plate.
Lynn looked up. There was a slight flush on her cheeks and she smiled. “Peanut butter and chocolate. Can’t go wrong. Want some?”
“No.” Tory slumped down into her chair. The Golden Pear was its usual bustling self. Happy moms feeding their kids bits of muffins, a businessman, drinking a cup of coffee and checking his phone. Even a happy couple in the corner who couldn’t keep their attention on their iced coffees.
All around her, the world was going on. Looking out, she saw it was a bright, sunny day. Queensbay was bathed in its light, in the promise of a glorious summer to come. Tory loved the summer, the runs along the beach, the time out in the boat with her dad, sunbathing down at the cove. But not even the thought of that could lift her out of her funk.
“So mani-pedis at the Queensbay spa. Are you sure we shouldn’t plan, ah…some entertainment for the spa day?”
Tory looked at Lynn. Phoebe had been very specific with her requests. She wanted a low key send off into matrimony, no limos, no crazy nights out on the town. Just a day of pampering with some friends at the day spa.
“What’s you obsession with beefcake?”
Lynn shrugged, took a bite of the mashed up peanut butter chocolate brownie and said, “I don’t know, seems awfully wicked, doesn’t it?”
“Kind of gross if you ask me,” Tory said. “I don’t want to see some random stranger’s body parts.”
“Well I suppose now that you have your own beefcake to look at, you don’t need all of that. How is Colby? You haven’t been talking about him much.”
Tory gripped her cup. “He asked me to marry him.”
Lynn squealed and grabbed her hand. The man in the suit looked up at them, a mildly annoyed expression on his face.
“He did what? When? Why are you just telling me now….Oh.” Lynn’s face fell as she saw the expression on Tory’s face.
“Well, he showed me the ring and I told him not to ask me.”
“What? Why? I mean it’s clear that you love him.”
“Do I?” Tory could hear the miserable tone in her voice.
“You do, don’t you?”
“I thought that I loved Stevie and look where that got me. I was taken for a sucker and couldn’t get out of bed for weeks. I mean, you didn’t see me, but it was bad. I don’t think I could survive that kind of heartbreak.”
“What makes you think Colby would do anything like that to you?”
“Nothing. I mean…well he didn’t tell me about his ex until I brought it up. And then there’s his mother.”
“I thought you said she was dead?”
Tory laughed. “No. Eleanor, the woman of a certain age who works for him, who he told me was an old family friend.”
“That’s his mother? Damn, I hope I look that good when my kid is thirty. You know, when I have one,” Lynn added hurriedly.
“But again, he didn’t tell me until I asked him.”
“Well, look I get how he didn’t bring up his ex. I mean you didn’t tell him about Stevie right away, did you.”
Tory shrugged. Lynn had a point.
“But his mom, I guess that’s a little weird. What was his excuse?”
“Didn’t really give one.” Tory thought about it.
“Maybe that just means his relationship with her is complicated. But I guess it explains her behavior.”
Tory shrugged.
“What are you going to do about things?” Lynn asked, her voice sympathetic.
“I don’t know.”
Lynn shifted in her seat, as if she wasn’t sure about what she was going to say next. She looked around at the café. It was still bustling but she kept her voice low.
“Are you sure you’re really over Stevie?”
“Of course I am. I mean he’s a no-good cheating bastard.”
Lynn cocked his head. “The only person he ever cheated on you with was his old girlfriend.”
Tory sighed. “His one true love. That’s what he called her. He apologized, crying, telling me he was sorry, that he thought that maybe there had been a chance with me.”
“But she was his true love.”
Tory took a deep breath. “And I just got in the middle.”
“Am not saying what he did was right, but I mean think about it. Think about how you felt about Stevie.” Lynn looked at her.
“Like now?”
“Yeah, like now.”
Tory closed her eyes and thought. It was if a movie flashed before her eyes, scenes of her and Stevie – studying the library, laughing over something, his suggestion they go the prom, the humiliation of prom night, the way he had looked at her when she moved back to town, and then their time together as a couple and then his tearful goodbye as he explained that he would only ever love another woman.
“Ok now, think about how you feel about Colby.”
The scenes shifted. Colby and the way he made her laugh, the first kiss in the moonlight, the first time they had made love, the way he smiled at her and the whole world lightened.
“See a difference?” Lynn asked after a moment.
Tory opened her eyes, her heart pounding wildly. She hadn’t truly loved Stevie and a part of her had known that he wasn’t the one for her. But with Colby it was different. Everything thought about him was filled with love, laughter and caring.
“I saw a difference.”
“Good,” Lynn said, taking a sip of her lemonade. “So now the only questions is what are you going to do about it?”
Chapter 56
“Don’t you have someplace better to be?” Jake Owen asked, hoisting himself up onto the barstool. Colby looked him over and then turned away.
“It’s Aussie night – thought I’d try out something new,” Colby said. He didn’t really want to see Jake Owen. He hadn’t wanted to think about Tory since he’d walked out. He thought she would call him, had waited for her call, but there had been nothing. He wished desperately that he could have taken it back. Not that he didn’t want to marry her. But because he’d rather have Tory in his life on her terms than not at all.
But nothing. Which was why he was trying to drown his sorrows with Australian beer. Of course he had to run into the quarterback.
“Tory here?” Jake asked after ordering a beer for himself from the bartender. Quentin nodded and pulled out a glass, filled it and slid it down the long polished counter of the bar.
“No.” Colby said. Jake waited patiently.
“If I tell you are you going to run out and try and hit on her?” Colby said. He looked over at Jake. Part of him knew that he was spoiling for a fight, a physical one, with somebody. Jake would be a bad bet to take on, but still Colby knew he wasn’t thinking rationally.
Jake laughed. “What’s that line…she’s just not that into me. Nope I learned my lesson. And we’re just friends.”
Colby looked at him.
Jake shrugged. “Well we are. Not that I wouldn’t have been interested because well, umm, you know, she’s Tory and well, let’s just say she’s changed a lot – for the better – since high school.”
Colby clenched his hands together tightly. Jake saw and hurriedly added, “You know she’s a mature, capable, intelligent, beautiful woman. Who happens to be pretty hot too,” the last was said under his breath but Colby heard it anyway and swiveled on Jake.
“Well she is,” Jake said defensively.
“She’s more than that,” Colby said.
“Then why are you sitting here?”
“We had a fight,” Colby admitted. Though has it been a fight? It had been, what, an ultimatum? Or was Tory running away?
“Can’t see it,” Jack said but there was a teasing tone in his voice.
“You ever have a fight with a girl?”
Jake shrugged, “I usually don’t stick long enough to have a fight.”
“Tory doesn’t seem to either,” Colby said darkly. He’d messed up, hadn’t been thinking. He shouldn’t have pushed her so hard.
“Yeah, that’s why I always thought we would be perfect for each other. Shortest relationship in history, but I figured after what happened with Stevie she was a little gun-shy.”
“What do you know about Stevie,” Colby attention perked. Maybe finally he’d get the real story on Stevie.
Jake looked uncomfortable. “Well, I didn’t see what happened in high school, though I guess he stood her up for the prom to go with Heather. That girl had him wrapped around her finger. But they had one of those off and on again relationships. Mostly off, though.”
He took a sip of his beer. “Anyway, when Tory came back after a college, um, more than a few of us noticed that she was looking, well like she looks now. And that she was fun and fun to be with you, you know, stuff no one had even noticed in high school. She didn’t pay attention to anyone though, except for Stevie.”
Jake shook his head. “He was on another of his breaks from Heather, though this time it looked real. He was getting his business started and well I guess he caught sight of Tory and he was the one she said yes to.”
Colby took a sip of his beer and waited.
“They seemed good for a while. They moved in together. Heard Tory even lent him some money to help him buy a new truck. Then of course, Heather decided that she wanted Stevie back. And he just couldn’t say no to her.”
“Tory said he cheated on her.”
Jake shook his head. “And then some. Before you knew it, Heather was pregnant and telling Stevie he had to do right by her. Stevie fessed up to Tory. No way to hide it around here.”
“How’d she take it?”
“At first she seemed ok. She moved back w
ith her parents, but I guess it caught up with her. She was, pretty upset, depressed I guess. Took a while to get over her. No one saw much of her for a while. Then she re-emerged with new shoes, even blonder highlights and started dating again. But she only went out with any of them once or twice. Date’m and Dump them Tory.”
“What?” Colby said.
Jake held up his hand in placating way. “It’s just a nickname. Not one I came up with. Guess she just decided to keep things casual after Stevie. He burned her pretty bad.”
Colby sipped her beer, trying to fight the simmering anger he was feeling toward Stevie.
“What happened to him?”
“Stevie?”
Jake smiled, a little fierce, a little dangerous. “Oh well, it was made clear to him that he should re-locate his new family and business a little farther down the coast. And to not even think of showing up here.”
Colby nodded. “Did you kick his ass?”
Jake smiled. “Only one punch. He’s got a kid now, and he and Heather, if it doesn’t beat all, are truly meant for each other. Anyway, true to his word, he’s steered clear of here and Tory.”
Colby felt a tinge of regret. He’d like to say a few things to Stevie Wilder but he guessed it didn’t matter what he thought. It only mattered how Tory felt.
“Look,” Jake said, slapping his big hand on the bar so that Colby felt it shake. “How about you buy me a drink and will find play some darts and forget all about girls for a while.”
Colby smiled. “Not bad. I might try to sell you a car. Apparently I do that when I’ve had a bit to drink.”
Jake smiled. “I sure did like that Mustang you lent Tory. Think maybe you could find me something like that?”
Chapter 57
There was a knock on her door. She froze. She had been waiting, waiting for a sign from him, about him. But he had stayed away. And she couldn’t blame him. Still her heart filled with hope as she went to the door. And it plummeted when she saw that Eleanor stood there.
“Why are you here?”
“We need to talk, darling,” Eleanor said. She pushed open the door and let herself in. For once, Eleanor wasn’t wearing silk or a dress. She had on jeans, flats and a t-shirt. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and her makeup was almost non-existent. Still, she looked beautiful.