by Eden Proctor
It utterly deflated her.
“I think it’s time for me to go,” she said weakly.
“Why?” he asked. His voice was strained, sounded as close to panicked as she’d ever heard it.
She’d looked down, but at the sound of his voice, she looked up, surprised to see the hurt expression on his face. She shook her head, more to remind herself not to let her feelings derail her. “After tonight…”
Even thinking about it made her ill, and she trailed off.
Nate’s own expression darkened. “I handled that. I’m sorry she talked to you that way, about you that way. But it won’t happen again,” he said. And from the hardness in his voice, she didn’t doubt him, not for a single moment.
“I know,” she said, feeling the need to reassure him.
He looked surprised. “Then why are you leaving?”
She shook her head, unable to speak.
“Mindy…”
She met his eyes, saw the confusion there, and it was enough to send her erupting.
“You don’t get it at all, do you?”
“Get what?” he said, looking baffled.
“There’s my answer, I guess,” she said.
His expression, which had softened a little and then went stern again.
“Mindy, tell me what’s going on,” he said.
She sighed, that anger that had momentarily animated her gone in an instant, again leaving her deflated.
“I couldn’t care less what that moron Dahlia has to say,” Mindy said.
“Good,” he said. “But if it’s not that…” He trailed off, not finishing the question. But he didn’t have to.
“You have no idea how that felt. Listening to you defend me, tell everyone how much you care for me,” she said.
“I hope it felt good,” he replied.
She wanted to scream. “No, Nate. It didn’t feel good,” she said, her voice hard enough to cut diamonds.
He frowned. “Why not?”
She shook her head, threw herself against the back of the couch, wishing she could sink inside and disappear.
“You really are that clueless?” she finally said.
She couldn’t bring herself to look at him, and knew she was probably making a mistake even sharing this. But she had started now and couldn’t stop.
“Apparently I am,” he said. “Fill me in.”
She stayed still for a moment, her eyes shut, her head resting against the back of the couch. Then, on a deep sigh she opened them, sat up and looked directly at Nate.
“You can’t know how much it hurt to hear you talk about me that way. Like you really cared. Even I believed you,” she said.
Her eyes had started to go cloudy with tears, but she pushed them back, refusing to give the moment any more weight than it already had.
“And that’s why I have to go. Because hearing that tonight, knowing that it could never be true, I can’t take it, Nate. I’ll talk to you later, figure out what you want to tell your grandfather, but this is over.”
By the time she finished she worried that she wouldn’t be able to hold back the tears, but after a moment she managed to, then finally, on a deep breath, looked at him.
She couldn’t read his expression, so she waited, breath frozen in her chest. One second ticked by, then another.
Then, finally, Nate narrowed his eyes. “What makes you think I don’t mean it?”
She looked at him dumbfounded. “What? Have you forgotten how this started?”
“I haven’t forgotten how it started, but I thought we’d gotten past that,” he said.
“Past it? How?” she said.
Nate frowned, that pained expression again crossing his face, but he wiped it away quickly. “I just… I thought that all the time we spent together meant something.”
It had meant something, had meant more to her than she would ever be able to say.
“It meant something to me. It meant everything to me,” she said.
She should have held her tongue, but as much as it might hurt her, the idea of Nate thinking this time had meant nothing, thinking that she wouldn’t treasure it forever was something she couldn’t accept.
The look on his face shifted slowly, the hurt fading, replaced with a depth that she hadn’t seen before.
“Me too, Mindy,” he said. He reached for her hand, held it tight before he looked at her again.
His dark eyes were shining with emotion that she’d never seen before, that she’d never allowed herself to dream of.
And when he spoke, she almost couldn’t hear him over the blood rushing to her head. But she did.
“I love you, Mindy. With all my heart,” he said.
His voice was deep, trembled with emotion. Mindy was too frozen to speak, but then suddenly the dam broke. She launched herself at him, wrapped her arms tight around him, holding him.
She didn’t know how long she held him, but he held her back the entire time. Then, when she could speak again, Mindy broke away, met his eyes.
“I love you, too, Nate,” she said.
Epilogue
“We don’t have to do this,” Nate said.
Mindy shook her head.
“No. We need to tell him the truth,” she said.
Nate knew she was right, and more importantly he knew he was incapable of denying her anything. So, his fingers entwined with hers, he led Mindy into Gordon’s office.
They both walked in, took the seats across from the old man’s desk like they had so often before, though everything had changed. Nate had found something, someone, he didn’t know had been missing, and he was happier than he had ever been in his life.
“So what’s this about? Has Nathaniel gone and made a mess of things already, Mindy?” his grandfather asked.
She shook her head. “I’m surprised, too, Gordon, but not yet.”
They both laughed, and Nate joined in, but soon they sobered.
“Grandfather, I’m here because I need to tell you the truth,” Nate said.
“I’m waiting,” his grandfather replied.
“You were right. About me and Mindy,” Nate said.
“How so?” the old man asked.
“It was a sham. We got married just to placate you.”
The old man lifted a brow. “So let me guess? You were going to play it out, throw me off the scent and then forget about the whole thing once you’d gotten me back on your side?”
Nate wasn’t surprised that his grandfather had so quickly interpreted what Nate had intended, and he smiled. “Yeah,” Nate said. “And if you want to disinherit me, you can. Probably should.”
“No, that won’t be necessary,” his grandfather said.
“Why not?”
“Well, from the looks of it, you and Mindy are happily settled. So I got what I wanted, at least most of it,” his grandfather said.
“So that’s it?” Mindy asked, her surprise reflecting his. She’d tried to reassure Nate that his grandfather would understand, but now he could hear that she might not have been as certain as she’d seemed.
“Yes. I couldn’t have dreamed of a more perfect choice for my grandson, and I don’t care how you got there. I’m just happy I’m around to see it,” his grandfather said.
Mindy looked at Nate and he looked at her, returned her smile. A moment later she looked at his grandfather again.
“So you said you got a part of what you wanted?” Mindy asked.
“Yes,” Gordon responded.
“What else did you want?” she asked.
His grandfather’s face lifted up in a huge smile. “Ah, yes. I want great-grandkids. You two should get on that,” he said.
Mindy laughed, and so did Nate, but when he looked at his wife, the woman he loved with all his heart, he again felt the surge of love that he knew would never fade.
“Grandfather, for once we’re in complete agreement,” Nate said.
* * *
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