Page 104 of Best Man Speaking

“I’d planned to give it to you, more than once.”

There’s a small pause, and my eyes shoot to him. I’m speechless as he kneels in front of me, his eyes quicksilver, and I fall into them, my heart thudding in my chest.

“Really?” I whisper.

A small, self-conscious smile touches his lips, and he clears his throat. “I flew to Edinburgh to give it to you, but you werewith someone else, and even if you weren’t together, you looked happy. Carefree. I didn’t want to be the one to interrupt that.”

He gives a small shrug. “I chickened out.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

Marcus

The evening I’d seen Hallie in Edinburgh plays through my mind again. The happiness on her face, the flush of her cheeks I’d seen even from a distance in the early evening light.

She’d had a long scarf wrapped around her, and the man who’d walked alongside her had been enraptured by her, animated in their conversation.

I’d remembered in an instant what it’d felt like to look at Hallie like she was my world and have her look back at me the exact same way. I’d recognized her joy and known that, if not for my own actions, I still could’ve been that person. There’d been no reason for me to sabotage her happiness, not a second time.

A small tremor passes through her at the revelation I’d gone to Edinburgh to find her. Most likely, she’d assumed she was an out-of-sight, out-of-mind issue for me.

I’m unable to look away from her glistening eyes.

“And now?”

Still on my knees, I enclose her smaller hands within my own, the two of us holding the small velvet box.

“Of course it’s yours, Hallie. It’s always been yours.” I’m relieved when my voice holds steady, even if it does sound a little deeper than normal, but it’d be a lie to pretend I’m completely unaffected. I can only hope she realizes I’m not only referring to the ring between our palms.

There’s a breath where my words settle around us, where I find the space to gather the rest of what needs to be spoken aloud.

“I’d taken it out of storage to give it back to you if you decided to leave again. It wasn’t mine to keep to begin with. It should’ve been given to you, to do with as you please. I’m sorry for not returning it to you sooner.”

Gently, I release her hands and stand slowly, knowing my time with her is limited. The countdown is on.

Before I can step away, she curls her fingers aroundmy wrist.

“What if I hadn’t decided to leave?” she says, eyes back on mine. “Would you still have told me about it?”

I don’t mention that her accepting my offer on the house makes this question redundant. By betraying her trust, I’ve officially taken away the final reason for her to stick around on a long-term basis.

“You mean, what if I hadn’t screwed up?” I clarify for the both of us because it’s not just about a change in location. If I thought there was still a chance, distance wouldn’t matter. It never had before.

She nods, lips pulled in tight.

I look down to where her cool fingers are still wrapped around my wrist. “If I hadn’t screwed up, I would’ve told you I had the ring. But I would’ve asked if you’d prefer for me to hold on to it so one day I could offer it back to you in a different, more romantic way.” I swallow thickly, the heat in my skin rising from the raw vulnerability in my words.

Hallie nods her understanding but doesn’t release her hold. “Why did you buy the house?”

She’s pushing for answers to questions we were too volatile to work through the last time we spoke. I don’t like that she’s looking up at me when I answer, but if I move to sit next to her, her touch will disappear. So, I put a knee to the ground again, bringing my eyes back in line with hers.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve offered on the house, Hallie. When you left, I didn’t know where you were. I’d known you’d gone to college and then figured out where you studied when I met Erica and found out the two of you had roomed together. Were friends.”

Jules had refused to give me her number, and she’d had every privacy setting possible activated when it came to social media. Putting an offer on the house was the only way I could think of to draw her out, to find her.

“But after you’d finished studying, you were gone again, and I thought it’d get you back, if only for a little while. Jules wouldn’t say where you were, and for a long time, I was too proud to ask Erica. I reached out to your property manager with offers from my business in the hope they’d contact you. I knew there was a chance you might sell the house without ever returning in person, but I risked it,” I say with a shrug.

“When I got back from Europe, I promised myself I was done, that I wouldn’t hassle the agents in charge of the house again, but I couldn’t let it go. It was me that offered last year—I’d told myself it was the last time. And then you put the place on the market. I really had no intention of buying it.

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