Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
“Before you do, I’m going to get some photographs with Dad. And Mum.”
“Maybe do one at the Churchill desk.”
“Yeah,” he says. “I think that would be . . .”
“The full-circle moment you’ve been working your entire life for?”
He chuckles and I can picture his dimple coming to life. “Something like that.”
Ben’s father is on a new drug trial for his early-onset dementia. Ben found the best doctors in the world, and for now, his father’s symptoms have stabilized. It means that Ben got to experience telling his dad he’d bought The Fairfield Hotel. He got to bring his parents back, not as employees, but as VIPs. Ben never said anything, but I knew it felt good to him, like he’d waited a lifetime to do it. Suggesting we hold the wedding at The Fairfield was like giving voice to a foregone conclusion. I imagine the staff were slightly less enthusiastic about hosting the wedding of their new boss. The hotel is beautiful and the perfect location for the start of our lives together.
Along with Ginny, I invited some of my friends from New York. Obviously, Melanie’s here. Ginger and Callie as well. But the others couldn’t make it, and I don’t think we’ll stay in touch. There’s no animosity, just the gentle dissolution of relationships that stopped being meaningful. My mom used to say people are in our lives for a reason, a season or a lifetime. I didn’t know it at the time, but a lot of my New York friends have turned out to be seasonal. Jed was definitely in my life for a reason, and although it wasn’t nice being cheated on, splitting up was definitely the right thing for us both. And not just because I met the love of my life just after.
Ben, on the other hand, will be in my life for the entirety of it. My best friend, my lover, my husband.
“You’re done,” Meera says. “Are you happy?” She nods toward the mirror.
“Couldn’t be happier,” I reply and slip off the chair. It’s true, but it’s got nothing to do with what I look like.
My eyes snag on Dad, who’s sitting in the corner, reading a newspaper amid the chaos. I can’t explain why, but I want a few moments with him before I’m married. “I gotta go,” I tell Ben. We swap I love yous, then I hang up and head over to Dad. He stands.
“You look beautiful,” he says, and his eyes go glassy.
“Thanks, Dad.”
“It makes me so happy that you’re . . . happy. Not just happy, but with someone like Ben,” he says. “He’s a good man. I always worried with . . . the other one.” Dad won’t say Jed’s name since he heard about Fifi. “I worried it was too much of a compromise. I blame myself for that.”
“Blame yourself? Why would my boyfriend be your fault?”
He pulls in a breath and puts his hands in his pockets. “After your mother died, I was . . . a wreck.”
I close my eyes at the memories of him in those early days after Mom died.
“And you did everything not to make yourself a burden,” he continues. “To keep me happy. I knew it at the time, but I had no energy to stop you. I wasn’t the parent you deserved during those times.”
I slip my hand through his arm. “Don’t say that. You did the best you could.”
“It wasn’t good enough. You deserved more and I’m sorry.”
“I love you so much.” What else can I say? I don’t blame him for those days. Not at all. But the reason I stayed with Jed so long was probably because I was good at not being a burden. I was good at keeping someone happy at the expense of what I needed.
“Ben’s a good man,” he says again.
“The best,” I agree.
“I have something for you.” He reaches into his breast pocket. “It’s nothing fancy, but I thought you might like it today.” He pulls out a small leather jewelry box that I recognize from my mother’s dressing table.
I glance up at him, searching his face for an explanation, but he’s focused on the box.
Inside are a pair of diamond earrings. I never saw my mom wear anything like this. We never had enough money for something so extravagant.
“They don’t quite match,” Dad says. “You can see that this one has a slightly different setting, just to keep it more secure.”
He glances up at me as if to check that I’m following.
“They’re beautiful,” I say. They look exactly the same at first glance, but the one on the left has an extra claw.
“The right one is new,” he says. “The left one is . . . the stone from your mother’s engagement ring.” His voice falters on the last word. I tip my head back and blink to stop the tears from falling.