by Noelle Adams
“Well, pull it up, silly! See what he says.”
Anne’s fingers were shaking as she unlocked her phone and pulled up the complete text message. It was long. It took up three separate texts.
She stood in the middle of the sidewalk and read.
I’m sitting here listening to you talk to Charlie, and I can’t keep quiet anymore. I have to say this even if it’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. I never stopped loving you. Never. You’re wrong about how men can’t hold on. I’ve held on. I’ve loved no one but you all this time. I thought I was over you. I thought I didn’t care about you anymore. That’s why I was so rude to you at first. I thought I could prove I’d let you go. I was holding on to resentment to protect myself. But I can’t protect myself anymore. I want only you. I love only you. I’m never going to not love you. I know I messed things up between us, but I’m hoping there’s still a chance to fix it. If there is, I’ll quit the Navy. I’ll move here and work in the store with Mom and Vince. I’ll do anything. Give up anything. Because I love you so much.
That was the end of the text. Anne stared at it with blurry eyes, trying to process what the words meant.
Trying to figure out if they meant what she thought they meant.
“Well?” Em demanded after sufficient time had passed for her to get impatient.
“He... he still loves me.” A couple of tears streamed out of Anne’s eyes.
Em clapped her hands together. “I knew it. I knew it! I knew y’all were just being skittish. I knew you loved each other. I’m never wrong about these things.”
Despite her flurry of emotions, Anne managed to slant her friend a quick look. “Never?”
“Well, occasionally. But usually I’m right. And I was definitely right about this. Now go find Robert and tell him you love him too.”
Anne sniffed and looked around blankly. “Where is he?”
“I don’t know. Vince’s car was already here, so they’re probably up in their unit already.”
“Okay. Okay. I’ll go find him.”
“I’m coming too,” Em said. “You don’t think you’re going to do this without me, do you?”
Anne giggled. She couldn’t help it. The reality was finally catching up with her, and she was filled with a joy she couldn’t remember ever experiencing before.
This couldn’t be real. It couldn’t be happening.
Things like this happened to other people, but they never happened to her.
“Come on,” Em urged, putting a hand on her back to push her into motion. “Why are you just standing there? Robert is waiting.”
Maybe he was waiting.
Anne had been waiting for years.
There was no reason to wait any longer.
ROBERT WAS ALMOST SICK from nerves and anticipation as he followed Liz and Vince into their condo in Pemberley House.
He hadn’t heard from Anne.
He hoped—really hoped—that was because she hadn’t yet read the message.
But maybe she’d read it and didn’t have anything good to say to him.
The thought made his stomach churn even more.
He wasn’t expecting everything. Not right away. He’d messed up too much for that to happen. All he wanted was a sliver of hope. Just a chance of things working out between them.
He’d be perfectly happy with just that.
Surely she could give him at least that.
Surely.
Maybe.
Hopefully.
Oh God, please let her give him at least that.
He leaned against the edge of the marble-topped island and glanced at his silent phone.
Nothing.
Maybe she hadn’t seen the text yet.
“Give her a few minutes,” Vince said, coming over to lean against the island beside him. “It’s late, and she’s probably distracted. She probably doesn’t expect to get an important text at this time of night.”
“I know.”
“I texted Em to tell Anne to check her messages,” Liz said, smiling like she had a juicy secret.
“What?” Robert’s voice was hoarse. He was way too invested in this. “Why did you do that?”
“Because she might have gone all night without checking. Do you really want to wait all night?”
“No. No, I don’t.”
“So I texted Em. It’s fine, Robert. I really think it’s going to be okay.” Liz didn’t look worried at all. Her green eyes were clever and excited.
Robert hoped that was a good sign, but he couldn’t rest in that hope. Anne had always been so private. She might not have told her friends everything she was feeling.
“Maybe I should just go and find her,” Robert said after a long moment. His feelings were pushing him into action, and he couldn’t just wait there anymore. “Do you think that would be okay?”
“I’m sure that would be fine,” Liz said, sounding like she was hiding laughter.
Robert didn’t appreciate being laughed at, but it was the least important thing that was happening right now, so he didn’t give it a second thought.
“Go find her,” Vince said, giving him a soft punch on the shoulder.
Robert straightened up and headed to the door, but before he reached it, the door swung open.
The first person he saw was Em, grinning like she’d scored some sort of victory.
He jerked to a stop as Em stepped aside to reveal Anne, flushed and sober with wide, full eyes.
He froze and stared at her, and she stared back.
She opened her mouth to say something but then glanced around and saw that they were surrounded by their friends.
Anne wasn’t going to like that. She wasn’t going to let their private feelings become public.
Robert didn’t know what to do. He was frozen with the tumult of his feelings.
Anne made a face that looked like frustration, and then to his surprise she pulled out her phone.
She texted something.
Robert waited and heard his phone beep.
He raised it to read with shaking hands.
The text message was from Anne. I STILL LOVE YOU TOO!
He choked. Literally choked. He had to cough to clear his throat, and then he took four awkward steps until he could reach her. He pulled her into a tight hug.
She hugged him back, her small body trembling against his. Her face was buried in his shoulder.
The others cheered and applauded and laughed with something that sounded like relief, but Robert was completely oblivious to them.
All he knew was Anne. He was holding her in his arms. She loved him too.
He was never going to let her go.
When she finally drew back, he had to loosen his arms. She was grinning and crying at the same time. “The caps lock was an accident,” she said.
He laughed helplessly and hugged her again. “It seemed about right to me.”
IT WAS LATE, AND LIZ and Vince were getting married tomorrow, so they didn’t linger very long in the living room.
After talking and laughing for a few minutes, they all went their separate ways. Anne saw no reason her separate way shouldn’t be going to sleep in Robert’s bedroom, and he obviously felt the same way since he took her hand and wouldn’t let it go.
So about an hour later, she was cuddled up under the covers against Robert’s warm body. His arms were around her, and she was filled with his scent.
Nothing had ever felt better.
They hadn’t said much yet. After a while, Anne pulled away enough to look at Robert’s face in the dark room. Her eyes had adjusted enough to see his expression. “Did you want to have sex?”
“We can if you want to.”
“What do you want?”
“I want to be with you, no matter what that entails.”
She chuckled and pressed a kiss against his shoulder. “So you’re not in the mood for sex?”
“I could be. I could easily be. If that’s what you want.”
“The
truth is I’m so exhausted I don’t know if I can move.” Anne checked his face and was relieved to see him laughing softly.
He leaned over to kiss her lips. “I’m exhausted too. It feels like I’ve been through a war. Battle after battle. And now that we’ve finally won, all I can do is collapse.”
She giggled and snuggled up against him again. “That’s exactly how I feel too. It’s been months now of angsting over you.”
“Months? You’ve only been angsting for months? I’ve been angsting for years about you. I’ve never gotten over you. Never forgotten you. Not even for a little while.”
She smiled in the dark. “Me too. I guess that happens sometimes. When you find the person you want the most. You just can’t teach your heart to move on from it.”
“Thank God I don’t have to.”
They lay in silence, holding each other for several minutes. So long that Anne thought he might have gone to sleep.
He hadn’t. He eventually said, “I’m sorry I kept being an ass with you.”
“I know you are. I understood where it was coming from. I was just as upset and confused by the whole thing as you were.”
“But you managed to get through it without being a jerk.”
“We weren’t in the same situation. I was the one who rejected you before. I always knew that what happened between us was mostly my fault.”
“It wasn’t all your fault. I should have been better. Different. More understanding. And I keep wondering if I hadn’t been so set on one thing, if we could have worked something out. Waited before we got married or something. I don’t know. I just wish we hadn’t had to spend six years apart.”
“I don’t know. I think maybe we needed to. You needed to join the Navy. It was who you were. You felt called to it. I never would have kept you from it. You were always a good guy. And you were always good to me.”
“Not as good as I should have been, but I promise I will be now. And I was serious about what I said in that text message. I don’t have to stay in the Navy. We can stay here. I can learn to do antiques with Mom and Vince, or I can get some other kind of job. I’ll do whatever I need to do to make this work.”
She shuddered with emotion before she kissed his chest again. “Thank you. But if you want to stay in the Navy, we can make that work too. My business can be done from anywhere in the world. If I ever grow enough to do big campaigns, I might need to do some traveling for work, but it will be a long time before I’m at that point. Right now everything I do is online. So if you’re tired of the Navy and want to move here, then that would be great. Or if the injury changes your situation in the Navy so that you don’t want it anymore, then it might make sense for you to get out now. But I don’t want you to be less than who you are, Robert. If you’re still committed to the Navy, then I’ll be committed with you. I’ll still be able to have my business.”
Robert didn’t reply immediately. She propped herself up to look down on him.
He gave her a sweet, tired smile. “To tell you the truth, I don’t even know what I want. For so many years, all I’ve really wanted was you.”
“Well, you have me now. So we’ll have to start figuring out what else we want.”
He pulled her down into a soft embrace, the kind that felt just a breath away from sleep. “We have time.”
THE NEXT MORNING, ROBERT woke up late. Very late. Anne was in bed with her eyes open and her hair tumbled when he turned to look at her. She gave him the sweetest little smile—one he couldn’t possibly resist. The one that promised she was his.
They ended up staying in bed until noon.
It was the best morning Robert could remember.
They had to get up after that. Vince and Liz were getting married at four that afternoon in the gardens of Pemberley House, and the reception was taking place in the grand ballroom like Jane and Charlie’s had. There was a lot to do to get ready, so they didn’t have any real time together until the ceremony was over, all the photographs were taken, and the reception had begun.
Liz and Vince hadn’t wanted a sit-down meal the way Charlie and Jane had done. Instead, there were heavy hors d’oeuvres and a more relaxed atmosphere.
Robert was happy about that. As soon as his best man’s toast was given, he was free to do what he wanted.
What he wanted was to keep his arms around Anne.
They danced together a lot, and the rest of the time they were hanging out eating or laughing with the others. Robert kept an arm around Anne the whole time, and the day passed in a blurry haze of joy.
It was evening—the sun getting low on the horizon and the gardens of Pemberley House filling with shadows—when most of the guests finally left.
Robert and Anne were standing near the french doors that opened from the ballroom onto a wide patio. The thick summer air was mingling with the air-conditioned coolness inside. The world smelled like flowers and dirt and champagne.
Anne was leaning against Robert’s side, smiling as uninhibitedly as he’d ever seen her.
She was happy. Just as happy as he was.
She loved him exactly like he loved her.
He was never going to let her go again.
As he watched her look around at her friends, he realized how at home she was here, how much she loved these people, how important they were to her.
And he suddenly knew the answer he hadn’t known last night.
He leaned down and murmured into her ear, “I’m getting out of the Navy.”
She made a little gasp and turned to stare up at him with wide brown eyes. “What? Are you sure?”
“Yes. I’m sure.” He spoke low so only she could hear. “This place, these people, they’re like your family. And my family is here too. I feel closer to them now than I ever have before, and I want to... to keep that. I think your friends can be my friends too. I want real community like you have here. I haven’t had it in a really long time. I’ve done the service I’ve always wanted to do, and now maybe I want something different. The Navy isn’t more important to me than that. I can probably get out on partial disability. I can find another job I enjoy. I want to stay here. I want to build a life here. With you.” He gulped as he realized the extent of his earnest declaration. “If that’s what you want too.”
Anne was almost crying as she threw herself into his arms. “I want that too! I’d be happy anywhere with you, but I’ll be happiest here—as long as that’s what you really want.”
“It is. I told you I’d give up anything to be with you, to make you happy. But this isn’t feeling like much of a sacrifice to me. This is what I want. I know it now.”
They hugged for a long time. He buried his face against her hair.
This was real.
This was love.
This was what it felt like.
Both of them were beaming like fools when they finally pulled apart.
Liz and Vince were standing in front of them now, holding hands and silently laughing at them. Robert didn’t even mind. Jane and Charlie were still half dancing nearby. Em walked over just then with a bottle of pink champagne in one hand and Ward’s hand in the other.
She grinned and said in her typically assertive way, “We need one more toast. Just us. With pink champagne.”
“If I drink any more, you’ll have to roll me home,” Charlie said, laughing as he and Jane came over to join the others.
“Then we’ll roll you,” Em said, expertly popping the cork. “We’re still having one more toast.”
Robert didn’t recognize the brand of champagne, but it looked expensive.
Knowing Em, it probably was.
Ward had brought some extra glasses, so he passed them out as Em filled them with bubbly pink liquid.
They all took their champagne and circled up in front of the doors that led onto the patio.
“To love,” Em said, taking charge as she always did. “And friendship.”
They raised their glasses.
“And to Pemberley House,” A
nne added softly.
They repeated the words as they drank.
He could make a home here. He and Anne could build a life.
He didn’t know yet what that life would look like, but he had no doubt it would be good.
Epilogue
FOUR MONTHS LATER, Anne was packing up her bedroom in Chuck and Mary’s condo. She didn’t have a huge amount of stuff—mostly clothes and piles of yarn for knitting—so she didn’t have a large number of boxes and containers. They were all piled neatly against one wall.
She was zipping her last suitcase when a voice came from the doorway. “I can’t believe you’re really leaving me!”
Anne turned to see Mary drooping against the doorframe. “I’m just moving a few doors down, Mary.”
A couple who lived on the ground floor were moving for a couple of years and didn’t want to sell their unit. As soon as Em had found out about the situation, she’d gotten involved and arranged it so that Anne and Robert could rent out the condo for the next two years. They’d been starting to look for a place to live together, and free units at Pemberley House were few and far between, so Anne had been thrilled with Em’s interference this one time.
“But still,” Mary whined. “You won’t be living with me anymore. How will I manage all the housework without you?”
“You could always hire someone to come in and cook and clean for you.”
Mary sniffed. “That would cost a fortune. And even if I did that, who will I talk to all the time when I get back from work?”
Anne smiled. Her sister would never change, but Anne could recognize real regret underlying the words. Mary would miss her for real—and not just for the services she’d provided over the year. It meant something to Anne. “You can still talk to me. I’ll just be down the hall.”
“I guess. I should have known that you and Robert would get back together. You two were always joined at the hip. Even six years wasn’t enough to break the bond, I guess.”
“I guess not.” Anne smiled. For the past few months, she’d been happier than she’d known she was capable of being.
She’d restarted her life, just like she’d wanted to. But she hadn’t had to give Robert up to do it.
