21. Graham #2
He shakes his head. “It’s like only being able to take half a breath. Sure, half a breath will keep you alive, but you’re never really full. When they’re gone, you’re always missing something in that extra space until they come back and fill it.”
His words strike me, forcing me to take inventory of my own chest. Empty isn’t a word I would’ve thought to describe my life before this.
I had a phenomenal job, more money than I ever needed, a beautiful house and car, a w oman I thought I was going to spend my life with, but he’s right. At most I was appeased, but never full.
Bethany’s cheating and tanking my reputation had a lasting impact on my life, but I never felt empty or like I couldn’t recover without her—not in the way I feel that losing Rosay would feel like. I let out a harsh exhale as the realization settles.
“A good woman will fill you up,” he says, rising from the table and patting his stomach. “In more ways than one, if you get what I mean.” I chuckle as he comes up beside me. “Let’s get going before they need us to hang something.”
I slip on shoes and follow him out the door, up to the main house where the golf cart sits. Waverly blows out the door, cursing up a storm.
“Everything okay, Wavy?” Reign asks.
She throws her hands in the air, stomping to her car and yelling back, “Dr. Asshole needs me to come in because he can’t manage a halfway full ER without me holding his hand.”
Gravel kicks up beneath her tires as she leaves us in the dust. I slide into the seat, waiting for Reign who runs into the house for something. I check my messages to see if Tanya has sent an update on Dad and breathe a sigh of relief when everything is all clear.
“Ready?” Reign asks, striding down the stairs with a black box pinched between his torso and arm.
The golf cart purrs to life, and we drive to the back of the house to catch the paved pathway to the pond.
Cows moo in the distance as we snake around what Reign tells me is the distillery and main tasting cottages, a picturesque scene unfolding in front of us.
Hulking live oak trees with wooden swings, a rustic red bridge with a bubbling river beneath it, the lush vineyards.
It’s all so beautiful and serene, and I can picture Rosay as a kid playing in the fields with her mother.
I listen intently as he talks about how he met Esme at her family’s winery on a vacation in Spain, and how he chose to study business abroad to be closer to her. His smile is wistful as we approach the pond, his daughter’s favorite spot as a kid.
Colorful snapdragons and pansies mix with the tall grass outlining the pond, and my gaze snags on a broken swing, its weathered wood cracked and hanging from the metal links holding it to the tree.
Reign rubs the back of his neck with a sheepish look thrown my way. “It’s been a while since anyone has come down here.”
“It’s a beautiful spot. Peaceful.”
“Rosalina would sit against that tree for hours pretending to be a teacher to her stuffed animals while her mother sunbathed.”
I chuckle. “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me in the least. She’s a phenomenal teacher.”
“She was toughest on the elephant,” he says, watching a family of ducks tottle up to the edge of the water.
I can’t help the smile that crests my face. “Her standards for herself and others are high, but that’s only because she sees what others are capable of and wants them to believe in themselves. I know she’s made me better since the moment I met her.”
The comment slips out without thought, and when warmth heats my cheek, I find Reign staring at me with a look I can’t decipher on his face. “I’m glad my daughter found a husband who will love and celebrate every facet of her. She’s a strong woman, her mother made sure of that.”
His words strike like a gong, the words love and husband reverberating inside my chest and filling me with something like hope.
All too clearly, an image of me standing at the end of an aisle waiting for my pink-haired bride appears at the forefront of my mind.
A switch flips in my head, turning on a driving force to make those thoughts reality.
Marrying Rosay might sound crazy, but I’ve wanted her for longer than I care to admit.
The moment we met, I knew that what Bethany and I had wasn’t right.
Not that I didn’t have love for her, but there wasn’t any passion between us, not like I feel on a daily basis for the woman who kicks her bare feet up on her desk or sends snarky emails at random hours of the night.
Though I thought it was all fueled by our back-and-forth banter, the way she constantly got under my skin when she’d call me on my crap, what she was really doing was burrowing deep into my heart where she belongs.
"I appreciate how you stepped in dinner with her siblings," he says, drumming his fingers on his leg. "I've always tried to stay out of their relationship, to let them find their way. I guess I hoped they'd grow closer as they got older."
"I'm sure they'll find their way eventually."
"Maybe now that she's settling down, she'll come home more," he says, voice filled with optimism.
I respond with a smile instead of giving him false hope.
“I didn’t want to give you this in front of her,” Reign says, interrupting my thoughts.
He takes out the box he brought from the house and hands it to me.
“I know you already bought her a ring, but I wondered if you could give this to her to wear on the wedding day? It was her mother’s, and it’ll go perfectly with her dress. ”
My brain snags on the comment, wondering if he means it’ll go perfect with whatever dress she buys or if she’s already chosen one.
I start to ask but then I open the box and my words leave me.
Lying on the black felt is a rose gold necklace with sparkling white and chocolate diamonds surrounding a heart-shaped pink pendant, complete with a matching bracelet and two round diamond studs.
My chest tightens as I inspect the decadent jewelry, picturing how beautiful it would look on Rosay as I spin her around on the dance floor.
“Graham?” Reign leans forward, waving his hand in front of my face.
A dry mouth prevents me from answering immediately.
This gift he’s giving me, this expectation he has that I’m going to be the one to marry his daughter, leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
If Rosay wanted to get married, I’d marry her in a heartbeat.
But the fact of the matter is I don’t know what she wants or how she truly feels.
What if this is purely something to get out of her system, and after this weekend she wants to go back to being co-workers?
And what the hell am I going to do about the board?
“Thank you,” I say, unable to formulate a response that conveys, ‘I have to convince your daughter to actually marry me first.’ “I’m sure she’ll love it.”
With that seemingly out of the way, Reign starts the golf cart and continues on our tour of the outer fields and rented farmland at the back of the property, stopping to show me the vineyard dedicated to Esme.
He tells me about Wendy and the kids struggling in her class, how some of them don’t have parents at home to help them with their homework so she stays late sometimes to help them.
An idea sparks inside my head, a way to help Rosay see her dreams of teaching come to fruition.