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“I would have picked you up and we would have been at the cabin talking things through—alone. I wouldn’t have thrown a party at all. But I was so up my own ass that I didn’t do what I should have done, which was fly to your school to help you with whatever you were going through before bringing you home.”
The question must have been all over her face because he shook his head.
“What that was, I still don’t know. I’ve come up with a million possible explanations. Maybe you’d had an issue with one of your classes or dorm mates that got out of hand. Or maybe you lost one of your grants for business school and you didn’t want to tell me because money was a touchy issue between us.”
She snorted lightly. “I’ll bet it was.”
Emma had been fortunate to have a roof over her head while his family had multiple homes in theirhometown.
How many did he have now? Five? A dozen? They simply weren’t on the same level and never would be.
But that was her issue, wasn’t it? Neither of them could help the circumstances of their birth. And judging from Garrett’swhat’s mine is yoursattitude, he had never looked down on her because of it.
“I don’t think money alone would have upset me the way you described.”
Because now that she was in a relationship with him again, she just couldn’t imagine freezing him out for any reason.
“You still think Edward was a factor, don’t you?”
He stared at her for a long moment. “I had been in love with you for years, Em. It made sense that he would have some difficulties letting you go too.”
This time she didn’t stop herself. She climbed into his lap, intending to hug him, but the dam burst without warning, and then she was sobbing, crying against his chest.
He cradled her to him, rocking her in his warmth. “I know, baby. Me too. Me too. But we have a chance to put everything right.Stay. Let me make it up to you. Let me give you the life you deserve.”
Emma stared at him, wondering if she should be mad. Because she knew now this had been his plan all along.
Yeah, he’d said all the right things about paying it forward and balancing the scales because she’d motivated him to succeed back in high school. But in the back of his mind, this idea had always been there.His wife. With all the benefits that entailed.
Part of her still didn’t believe it. “You married me,” she whispered. “You wentthatfar.”
Garrett looked at her as if she was everything that had ever mattered to him. The terrifying part was that it might have been true.
“I was always going to ask, Emma.”
“You were going to propose?” But it wasn’t a question. Not anymore.
He cupped her face, nodding.
“It was a vague plan, but a real one. I was going to ask you when I graduated from business school, or a year later when you did, depending on how things worked out. I was going to get my mother’s ring from my aunt.”
He lifted a hand when she gave him a horrified look. “Itismine. My mom had willed it to me for my future bride. But she died when I was so young. My aunt keeps it in her safe back home. I’ve been meaning to ask her for it, but I haven’t had time. I will get it though. It’s important to me that you have it.”
That she didn’t doubt, but Emma could feel her heart sinking. Didn’t her mother have an affair with his aunt’s husband?
“I don’t suppose you have many aunts?” she asked weakly.
He shook his head, a wry light in his eyes. “Just the one, on my mom’s side. Her name is Philomena. I call her Aunt Phil. My father had a brother too. His name was Frank, but he was much older and passed already. I also have two cousins: Frank’s kids, and their grandchildren. But the brothers weren’t close, so I saw them maybe twice a decade growing up. Phil didn’t have any children.”
Emma tried to calculate the odds. The woman holding her future engagement ring was the one whose husband had cheated with her mother, Mariana.
And of course, his aunt Phil didn’t have any children of her own. She just had Garrett.
His hand closed over hers. “The ring is mine, Emma. What our parents’ generation did is their business. We’re not a part of it.”
Emma wanted to shake some sense into him. “How can you say that? From what I’ve been able to piece together, your aunt Phil is the only relative you are close to. Do you speak to her? Visit?”
His shoulders straightened and she knew she wasn’tgoing to like his answer. “Phil isn’t going to hold what happened between your mom and her husband against you because I won’t let her. You are my wife now. She will respect that.”