by Natalie Ann
She’d seen that they were still so great together. Maybe better than before.
To know she’d never have it now was harder than she could have ever imagined.
She should have never given him a chance. He was right—if she couldn’t trust him, then there would be no hope for them.
She’d been sitting in the parking lot hoping the tears would stop when she heard knocking on her car window. She looked over to see Amber standing there.
“What’s wrong?”
There was no hiding at this point so she got out and followed Amber to their office and told her what happened last night and this morning.
“Just like that. You’re done? You didn’t give him a chance to explain?”
“You’re taking his side of it?” she asked, shocked.
“I’m not taking anyone’s side. You read a text and jumped to conclusions. You probably spent all night thinking of ripping all those sensitive hairs on his body out one by one slowly.”
She had. “Why does it hurt this much?”
“It wouldn’t if you had talked to him when you saw the text. You’re saying he didn’t even know it was coming. That it wasn’t even an offer, right?”
“That’s what he said this morning. He said he wouldn’t take it if he was even given the offer.”
“And you don’t believe him?” Amber asked.
“It’s what he’s always wanted. Why wouldn’t he take it?”
“Maybe because, like you said, once trust is damaged it’s hard to take it back. It seems to me he doesn’t think very highly of his stepbrother anymore. Sure, the guy still signs his paycheck, but that’s temporary, I’m guessing. Why would he stay somewhere when he doesn’t trust what’s going on? When the one person he thought had his back and was there for him for years really was only leading him on for his own gain?”
“I didn’t think of it that way.” Why hadn’t she thought of it that way? Now she looked like a bigger fool.
“Because you were quick to judge. I’ve been there, so I know.”
“I just didn’t want to be hurt again,” she said.
“And yet you’re standing here right now hurting more than before, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.”
A Promise
It’d been a few days and Matt was trying to figure out what to do. Dave Lawson just called him and asked if they were ready to draw up the papers.
He’d wanted to say no. That he’d changed his mind, but then remembered he’d made a promise to himself.
That promise was he wasn’t leaving here without Dena, or he was staying until he could have her.
Why he thought it was going to be so easy and simple to win her over was beyond idiotic on his part.
She was right—they’d never fought before. If they fell back into those ways again, they were just setting themselves up for more heartache.
She was hurt and upset and she didn’t give him a chance to explain. He could be pissed about that...he was pissed about that!
So he gave himself a few days to calm down hoping Dena would reach out to him. She hadn’t.
But he wasn’t giving up. He wasn’t going to be the person that left her from years ago and he wasn’t going to let her be the person that left him.
If he thought there was a chance they could make this work, he needed to prove it to her.
He needed to fight for her.
He was sitting in his car in her driveway when she pulled in from work. She got out and so did he.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I came to talk to you. I’ve had a few days to cool off and I’m hoping you did too.”
“I didn’t need to cool off,” she said. “I wasn’t mad. I was hurt. There’s a difference.”
“So noted,” he said, trying to not get annoyed again.
“I want to tell you we have nothing to say to each other, but that wouldn’t be right.”
“No, it wouldn’t. You said we never fought. Now we have. We at least owe it to ourselves to clear the air.”
“Fine,” she said, moving past him to her apartment.
When they were inside, he wanted to grab her and pull her in. Just hold her and say he was sorry. But he didn’t. He didn’t feel he was in the wrong this time.
“First off, I’m not going back to New York. I know you think I would if I got the offer, but I’m not. I wouldn’t put myself through that again. I can’t work for Randall much longer. Working long distance like this is tolerable, but being in the same office…I can’t do it.”
“You don’t trust him, do you?”
“Nope. I don’t.”
“Amber pointed that out to me. I was crying when I got to the office a few days ago. She made me see that I probably overreacted.”
“No probably about it. When you saw that text you should have said something right then and there. You shouldn’t have just left and kept it bottled up.”
“You bottled up all your feelings before and then left without talking to me,” she argued and it sounded childish in his eyes. She’d never been childish a day in her life that he could remember.
“I did. And it was wrong. I was wrong. I said I was sorry so many times I can’t even count that high. So you think doing it to me is getting even? Because I’m telling you right now, I’m not wrong. This falls on you.”
She started to cry again. “I wasn’t doing that.”
“It seems it to me,” he said back firmly.
“You’re right. It does. And I’m sorry now. I just keep waiting for you to leave on me. I just keep waiting for everything to fall back apart.”
“Then you should talk to me about it like a mature woman you’ve been boasting you’ve been all along.”
“And what could you do or say to make it go away? I’ve got to deal with this on my own,” she said, sobbing. He wasn’t going to be deterred by her tears.
“I could tell you again that I’m not going. I told you months ago I’m not leaving without you or I’m staying until we’re a couple again. I heard you. You aren’t leaving here and I wouldn’t ask you to. I’ve grown to like it here now. Well, not the cold, but I can deal with it.”
“You don’t even know what you’re going to do for work. It’s not like you to stay here when you had all these big plans in your life.”
“Why can’t my plans change? Why do I have to stick to what I said I wanted when I was eighteen? How many people know exactly what they want and don’t change once in all of their life?”
She shook her head, looking confused. “I didn’t think much of that. I mean you’ve always been so sure of yourself.”
“Yet I broke your heart once and never thought I would. I’m not going to do it again.”
“I don’t know how to get past this,” she said, knuckling tears away.
“What if I told you I know what I’m going to do with my career? That I’ve been planning it out for a few months now but didn’t want to say anything until it was finalized. That maybe it would fall through and you’d be upset and think I’d have no options and would leave.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m buying Dave Lawson’s practice. I went to use his library months ago. We talked. We’ve talked a lot since. He wants to retire, but he isn’t sure if he wants to walk away completely. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to own my own practice. We’ve had time to hash it out.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.
“Because if he changed his mind, I’d be back to square one. I didn’t want to burden you with that. I just wanted us to be able to enjoy our time together. To get to know each other again as a couple. This was my path to figure out, not yours.”
“We could have done it together,” she argued. “If you told me. If I knew, I could help you. And if it fell through we could have worked out another way to make it so you could stay.”
“So you’re telling me you want me to stay? That you believe I won’t leave?”
“Yes,” she said, crying. “I want you to stay. I want you to stay here with me. If you want it. If you think you want to be here, then yes, I want you here too. You have no idea how hard it is for me to admit this knowing how fearful I am you’ll leave.”
“I want you, Dena. I don’t care where it is. If it’s here, I’ll make it work. If it’s in a third world country providing medical support, I’ll figure out a career there. This isn’t about you. It isn’t about me. It’s about us together.”
“Like a couple should always be,” she said, wiping her hand under her nose.
“Like we should have been before.” So many things they’d done wrong in the past, he was realizing that now. But they were young and stupid. Now they were older and wiser…and ready.
“I love you, Matt. I’m sorry for doubting you. I was just so scared and afraid of being hurt again.”
“I love you too, Dena. And you aren’t the only one that was scared of being hurt again. We need to talk more. We need to be more open and we need to stop trying to plan it out and instead work it through.”
“I think it’s time we put all the negativity of the past behind us and focus on the positivity of the future.”
“I think that’s the best suggestion you’ve ever had,” he said, picking her up and swinging her around, then kissing her hard on the lips.
***
A week later, Matt walked into Randall’s office and knocked on the doorframe.
“Matt, I didn’t know you were back in town. I hope you’re back for good now,” Randall said, coming forward with his hand out.
Matt didn’t take it but instead dropped an envelope in his stepbrother’s hand. “Nope, just stopping in.”
“What’s this?” Randall asked, turning it over and opening it, but not taking the paper out.
“My resignation.”
“You’re joking, right?” Randall said, laughing. That laugh that said he was talking down to you like you were some kind of idiot that couldn’t think for yourself. Matt was over it.
“I’m dead serious. I’m not going to be an ass and say I didn’t learn a lot here because I did. A lot about the law for sure. A lot about you and a shitload about myself.”
Randall dropped the envelope on his desk and motioned for Matt to come in and shut the door. “And what did you learn? This is what you’ve always wanted. You know it as well as me. I trained you for this.”
“You trained me to be your little lackey.”
“Lackey,” Randall said, coughing. “Please. Don’t insult us both that way. I kept you on while you healed and you know damn well I didn’t have to do that.”
“You don’t do anything without an ulterior motive.”
“And what motive would that be?” Randall asked, crossing his arms in front of his thousand-dollar suit. Pretentious dick that he was.
“Only you know that,” Matt said, not willing to back down. He was finished with not standing up and being heard. He wasn’t that teen that needed acceptance and love from other people anymore. At least not the wrong people.
“I looked up to you as a kid and I think you fed off of that. Your words and actions caused me to make decisions I’ve regretted for years. I’m done with it now. You knew all along I wanted to be a partner. I wanted to be your equal.”
“You were never going to be my equal, Matt,” Randall said, snorting.
“Yep, I realized that too. You know why? Because I’m better than you and you know it deep down.”
“So you think you’re going to go out on your own and be some type of competition for us here? You’re delusional. I think you’ve spent way too much time in the woods up there.”
“I’ve been where I need to be. Like I said, I looked up to you at one point. When I was younger I wanted to be just like you. But you know what I discovered? I don’t respect you.”
“Because you wanted something that I’m not going to just hand over to you?” Randall asked, his face sharper than Matt had ever seen toward him before. Looked like more of Randall’s true colors were coming out.
“No. Because you’re only out for what you want. That isn’t me. And I have no intention of giving you any competition at all. I have no intention of staying in a place that has made me miserable for years. I’m going back to Lake Placid where I’ve bought my own practice.”
“You were miserable in Lake Placid. You don’t even know what you want,” Randall said. “You’d be nothing or nowhere without everything I’ve done for you.”
“I know what I want and I got it. I’m going to keep it. I don’t need someone to tell me what I like or need anymore. I never did. Just another thing I’ve discovered about myself.”
“So it’s all about Dena again?”
“You actually got her name right this time.”
“I’ve always known her name. Give me a break.”
“Then that was your way of trying to show she wasn’t memorable or worth it?” Matt asked, not surprised in the least. Randall always had a plan and an end game even if he never shared it with anyone else.
“Guess you learned enough that you know me so well.”
“What I learned the most,” Matt said, turning to leave and stopping when he opened the door, “is that when you love someone enough, when you care for someone enough, you make sacrifices for them.”
“That’s right,” Randall said. “You’re making them all. She isn’t making one.”
“The truth is—this isn’t a sacrifice at all. Guess you’ll never understand that because you don’t love anyone as much as you love yourself.” He walked out the door without looking back and, damn it all, that felt wonderful.
Epilogue
Mid-August, Matt pulled onto the school playground that he and Dena had met at and where they’d hung out so much when they were teens.
Where they would sit on the swings and talk about their lives, their future, and their plans.
Where he made the biggest mistake of his life and was damn well going to rectify it.
“What are we doing here?” Dena asked, her eyes a bit wary.
The past several months were the best of his life. Though he didn’t own Dave’s law practice yet, he would shortly. He was learning the ins and outs of the management of it and his staff, and he was picking and choosing his own clients just like he always wanted.
People were actually calling and consulting with him, even Randall was. That part had been shocking, that Randall wanted to continue, but he acknowledged that Matt knew his way around malpractice suits and there were going to be times they’d need his expertise.
Then in a bigger turn of events, Randall apologized and said he wished him well. That he’d only been looking out for him like an older brother would.
Matt wasn’t sure he believed how sincere Randall was in his apology, but work was work and he could keep it professional for everyone’s sake while knowing Randall always had some motive.
Word had gotten out about his involvement on Dr. Levin’s case and other doctors had reached out to talk with him. He said he’d gladly consult, even fly in for a trial now and again if needed.
Never in a million years did he think he’d get the best of both worlds.
That he’d have a career he loved and be living here with the woman he was hoping to make his wife.
“Thirteen years ago on this very day, I said the stupidest words of my life to you. The most careless and hurtful. I will forever be trying to make it up to you. The first thing I can do is bring you to this place and hope to wipe out that horrible day and replace it with something wonderful.”
“What are you doing, Matt?” she asked, her voice and her hands shaking.
“I’m making it up to you. I’m doing what I should have done years ago. But I’m going to do it right. I’m going to do it better. And it’s going to mean a hell of a lot more.”
“Oh God,” she said.
“I thought of getting on my knee, but I figured this would be better.” He pulled her to those swing
s they’d always sat on, nudged her into one and then sat in the one next to her.
“We planned our proms here and so many other parts of our life. You wanted to give me a going away dinner before college and I ruined that for you. But I’m going to ask you to be my wife right here. Then one day we’ll be pushing our kids on these swings while talking about our lives.”
“I never in a million years thought you could be this romantic.”
“I never thought it either.” He pulled the ring out of his pocket and showed it to her, saw her eyes started to well up when she saw the heart-shaped diamond, then slid it on her finger. “A heart of gold. That’s what you’ve got. Will you marry me?”
“You know I will,” she said, standing up and pulling him up next to her. “Now let’s go plan our wedding!”
The End!
See other series by Natalie Ann
The Road Series-See where it all started!!
Lucas and Brooke’s Story- Road to Recovery
Jack and Cori’s Story – Road to Redemption
Mac and Beth’s Story- Road to Reality
Ryan and Kaitlin’s Story- Road to Reason
The All Series
William and Isabel’s Story — All for Love
Ben and Presley’s Story – All or Nothing
Phil and Sophia’s Story – All of Me
Alec and Brynn’s Story – All the Way
Sean and Carly’s Story — All I Want
Drew and Jordyn’s Story— All My Love
Finn and Olivia’s Story—All About You
The Lake Placid Series
Nick Buchanan and Mallory Denning – Second Chance
Max Hamilton and Quinn Baker – Give Me A Chance
Caleb Ryder and Celeste McGuire – Our Chance
Cole McGuire and Rene Buchanan – Take A Chance
Zach Monroe and Amber Deacon- Deserve A Chance
Trevor Miles and Riley Hamilton – Last Chance
Matt Winters and Dena Hall- Another Chance
