And I take a massive exhale. Well that was one way to make me panic and get the heart rate up. “Okay.” I say and wait for her to share more with me.
“He went to war, just out of nowhere. He left.” Ivory is sharing details with me, the same details her brothers had told me. “My brothers might have told you that.”
I nod my head.
“But he came back.”
I frown. “What last night?”
She shook her head. “Two months in he was dishonorably discharged.”
Well her brothers left that out.
“He came back to propose.” She adds.
And my expression dropped. Why the fuck didn’t Gabe and Links mention this!
“He was looking at four years, because of his crimes in the army.” She placed the cup down. “He asked me to wait for him.”
But she didn’t, did she? Or is that exactly what she did and I was just filling in time while she waited for her man to do his time. Fuck me.
“Calm down.” Her hands are warm and cupping my face. But my rage is boiling. “Kace calm down.” She whispers against my lips, and then pecks them. But I’m getting more and more worked up, as I grip her hand, I can’t have her touching me right now.
“So what did you say to him?” I look at her with this pained expression on my face. “Did you say yes.”
She stares at me and I see the answer as she slowly nods her head. She had said yes.
“Kace!”
But I’m already walking out of the room. She’s fucking engaged!
“Kace!” She rushes past me, standing in the doorway. “Let me finish.” She is begging me but I don’t need to hear another word from her.
“You’re engaged Ivory. I don’t need to hear anymore.”
“No I’m not. That just it.” Her voice goes up. “I told him yes, but two years into his sentence. I went and visited him and told him I needed to move on.”
“Because he’s a criminal?” I tilt my head staring at her, and she shakes her head.
“To tell you the reason I changed my mind, would make me explain my whole relationship with Taylor.”
“It took you two years to change your mind Ivory.” That fucking meant something.
“I don’t love him.”
I scoff. “Yeah you keep telling yourself that.”
She pinches her eyes shut. “The ninth of September, two years ago, does that date mean anything to you?”
My expression drops.
“You were on chargers for assault. You were looking at five years.” She recaps my shitty situation at the time. “I was the witness to that crime. I was the one that pulled my statement.” Tears are brimming in her eyes, and her words are coming out rushed. “You think I don’t know the dark side to you but I do. I’ve seen it.”
I’m speechless. For her to have seen that crime, and for her to even be in the same room as me, is a big deal.
“You nearly killed that man, that night.” She only tells the truth, and leaves out a lot of details. “But you saved me that night.”
I just continue to stare at her.