Page 102 of From My Past

I didn’t tell her, but it filled me with pride that she didn’t want me to step in. I know she could do it and I wanted her to be able to proveto herselfthat she could. She still worries and has problems understanding how worthy and amazing she is, so the fact that she is willing and pushed hard to work for her dream… I hope it means she’s starting to feel like she believes how amazing she is.

Shortly after everything went down with Luca, Talia and I reached out to her family. I got to meet her precious baby sister who Talia sacrificed so much for. I could see the first moment I met her, that Auggie would no doubt have done the same for Talia had she known. Her parents were kind and respectful to me and my dad, but there was a wall of tension between us. I didn’t take it too personally.

They had just lost their daughter for years because of a man and then she reappears married to another. And it’s not like we can tell them exactly what all went down or what my real job is.

I’ve been slowly chipping away at them though, hoping to win them over. Now that Talia has them in her life, I don’t want her to ever feel like she has to choose again.

Auggie, however, is a different story. Talia had apparently told her little sister all about how we met and her feelings about me way back when, and so Auggie was ecstatic how everything had turned out. I did get the sibling speech of ‘hurt her and I’ll hurt you’ and I did my best not to chuckle through it. Talia was short but her sister was even shorter, she embraced the blonde hair and had big blue eyes to round out the sweet image. The image, though, was just that. She was like a freaking rottweiler when fighting, but your best friend when she wanted to be.

I wanted to stay on her friend side.

“How was the drive?” I asked them, holding my hand out to shake Trent’s hand.

“Long. And this one,” Auggie jabbed her thumb towards Trent, “only listens to the worst music ever.”

“Oh shush, you were singing along too.” Trent rolled his eyes. I had to do a double take at Trent, but I swear I saw some sparks flying.

I raise an eyebrow at him and the hint of a smile on his face vanishes. I laugh, unable to keep it contained at the panic on his face.

I don’t have a problem with him liking my sister-in-law, but we will have to wait and see how Talia feels about it… and she will fight tooth-and-nail for her sister, as he well knows.

“What else did you expect me to do for four hours?” She rolls her eyes, trying just a little too hard to deny liking the drive. “Where’s my sister?” She asks me excitedly.

The girls hadn’t seen each other in two weeks and the way they craved being with each other just showed how anxious they were to make up for lost time. It was clear to me when I watch them interact that Auggie felt indebted to Talia. She might not know the extent of it just yet, as Talia had told me she didn’t want to talk to anyone about what she’d gone through with Luca, but Auggie knew Talia had saved her somehow.

“She’s just getting your room ready.” I say, standing aside so they could come in. In the six, almost seven, months since that night, we’ve added some rooms to the beach house. Added a whole floor actually. Expanded the kitchen. Made a panic room in the basement. It’s been a process, but well worth it.

“Talia!” Auggie yells, dropping her bag at the door and running up the stairs.

“Auggie!” Talia yells back and I hear them start chatting and laughing as they start teasing and joking as they do. My heart warms with how happy Talia sounds.

“Goddamn, you look like someone so far in love you don’t even know what to do with yourself.” Trent says with a laugh.

And I join in the laughter because when I think about my life just a short eight months ago, I was a shell of the man I am now. I didn’t let myself feel anything; I fucked whoever I wanted, drank my worries away and worked all hours of the day, never feeling anything but numb and angry. Then I found Talia again, it was like I could breathe and it’s stayed that way throughout.

Our relationship, while far from fairytale perfect, was exactly what we both wanted it to be. We work through our shit together, letting each other hold onto the emotional and mental load of all we’ve gone through – together and apart.

I look at her and see my future.

“I am. I so am.”