Chapter 7 - Carter Asked Me to Start Over Without a Ring, Without a Wedding, and Without Ever Asking Me to Forget What He DidA year passed.
No wedding.
No engagement.
No public reconciliation.
Carter and I dated.
Slowly.
Awkwardly.
Honestly.
He learned to tell me when he was afraid.
I learned to tell him when I was angry.
He stopped managing my emotions.
I stopped pretending I was unaffected.
We became something new.
Not what we had been.
Better.
Then one evening, he asked me to meet him at the old hotel where he and Lexi had supposedly begun their secret relationship.
I almost refused.
Instead, I went.
The hotel ballroom was empty.
He stood beneath the lights.
“I owe you one more truth.”
I crossed my arms.
“Go ahead.”
“I never loved Lexi.”
“I know.”
“I loved you.”
“I know.”
“I loved you badly.”
That made me look at him.
He continued.
“I thought love meant protecting you from everything.”
“And?”
“I learned that sometimes the person you're trying to protect needs you to trust her.”
I nodded.
He pulled nothing from his pocket.
No ring.
No box.
No grand gesture.
“I don't want to ask you to marry me.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Good.”
He smiled.
“I want to ask you to choose me again.”
I was silent.
“Not because we have history.”
He stepped closer.
“Not because our families expect it.”
“Not because you're afraid of losing me.”
“No.”
He looked directly into my eyes.
“Because if you look at the man I am now, you still want the future.”
My eyes filled.
“I don't know.”
He nodded.
“That's okay.”
I smiled.
“You're getting better at that answer.”
Then I reached for his hand.
“One day at a time.”
May you like
He squeezed it.
“One day at a time.”
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