Page 21 of Wounded Fox
"So we wasted all these years because of miscommunication?" The sadness that was in her eyes slowly disappeared and was quickly replaced with anger. Before I could fully comprehend what was happening, Valerie ripped her hands out of mine and jumped up from the couch. "Stupid miscommunication! Years lost and for what?" She threw her arms up in the air. "No marriage! No babies! Just a business that only half fulfills me because I'm too sad about the rest!"
One word stuck in my head and played on repeat until I could finally croak it out.
"Babies?"
"Yes,babies,Aaron. You know, children. I wanted to have them with you and I lost out on that because the post office lost my letter confessing my undying love and then the letter I got back from you broke my heart so much that I spent the next three decades being mad at you!"
So many things now made sense. The lack of letters after I stayed in. The cold shoulder any time I came home to visit. This whole time I thought she got sick of waiting and just didn't know how to tell me.
"How come you never said you wanted children?"
I was stuck on that one detail because in all the letters we shared, the topic of children never came up.
Valerie flopped back onto the couch and dropped her head against the couch cushion, gazing up at the ceiling, she said, "Because we were young, Aaron. You were in the Marines and I was deciding what I wanted to do with my future. I loved fashion but there weren’t the same opportunities back then that there are today. I was afraid if I told you everything I wanted in life, you would get scared off."
I gathered her hands in mine once again. "There wasn't anything you could've said to me back then that would've scared me off. I was in love with you."
She looked back at me and tried to hide the tears in her eyes by blinking them away but I could easily see the pools trying to break free. "Was?"
"I still am. I always have been. So much so that I've kept this in my pocket every day of my life just waiting for the right time."
I dug in my pocket and pulled out the ring that I bought Valerie the last time I was home, before she stopped talking to me. Getting down on one knee, I asked the most important question of my life.
"Will you marry me?"
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Valerie
What the hell . . .
I couldn't even finish the thought, that was how badly my head was pounding. And it wasn't just my head that felt like something was wrong. My entire body was heavy like there was a boulder holding me down.
What the hell had I done last night?
"It's too early to be thinking that loud."
Aaron's statement hit me like a ton of bricks and suddenly what I thought just moments ago was a boulder, I realized was actually a person.
"Whyyy are . . . you . . . in myyy bed?"
Aaron chuckled against my neck as he nuzzled his face in closer. "Don't you mean my bed?"
Oh, no. No no no no no no no.
It was then that I finally forced my eyes open despite how heavy they felt and noticed the sheets I was lying on weren't the same ones that I had woken up to before. These were softerand a deep chocolate brown unlike the cream ones of the guest bedroom.
"Okay, why am I in your bed?" The more I woke up, the more things I started to notice. Like the fact that Aaron was playing with something on my left hand. I looked down to where our hands were joined and my heart practically stopped beating."What the hell is that?"I screeched so loud it made my head pound even more.
Aaron flipped us over so that he was leaning over me and, damn! Did he have to look so good in the morning? I didn't need a mirror to know my hair was a rat's nest from going to bed with it wet, and my breath stunk from the wine I drank.
Yes, some of my memories were slowly coming back to me, including the glasses of red wine I stupidly allowed myself to drink, despite knowing I couldn't hold my alcohol to save my life.
"You don't remember?"
"Clearly not if I'm asking." Some of my memories might be coming back, but the one about a certain ring on a certain finger definitely wasn't.
"Of course not." Aaron flopped back onto the bed and threw his arm over his eyes. "A proposal thirty years in the making and you don't remember it."
