The Rules of Dating(109)

I knocked on the door, but it wasn’t Colby who answered.

Brayden stood there instead, and my first reaction was panic.

“Brayden, what’s going on?”

“Hey, Billie.” He smiled. “You look worried to see me. Don’t be.”

“Is everything okay?”

Before he could answer, Saylor came running toward me. “Billie!”

I knelt and extended my arms wide, so happy that she seemed more excited than yesterday. “Hey, sweetie! How are you?”

She hugged me. “Are you back now?”

“I am, honey.”

Saylor squeezed me tighter. “Good!”

“Where’s Daddy?” I asked her.

“I don’t know.” She shrugged, but seemed to be stifling a smile.

I narrowed my eyes. “You don’t know?”

She bounced on her feet. “I’m not supposed to tell you we made pizza for you, and Daddy took it with him!”

Now I was even more confused. “Pizza for me?”

“Thanks a lot, Saylor.” Brayden laughed.

I looked up at him. “Where’s Colby?”

“He’s arranged a little private something for the two of you. We already explained to Saylor that she gets to hang out with Uncle Brayden tonight while you and Colby catch up.” He pulled on one of her pigtails. “Which of course makes her a very lucky girl.”

“Oh… Colby said he and I were going to have dinner with Saylor.”

“Yeah, well. Change of plans. He thought you guys should have some alone time.” Brayden winked and handed me an envelope.

I opened it and read the piece of paper inside.



You once implied that you’d like to have dinner on the rooftop. I thought tonight would be nice for that. Take the elevator to the top floor, then turn right to access the stairwell to the roof.



“Oh my gosh,” I murmured.

“Well, you’d better not keep my boy waiting.” He winked.

“Thanks, Brayden.”

“You guys stay out as long as you need to.” He gave me a look.

I hugged Saylor goodbye and headed down the hall. Chills ran down my spine as I got back into the elevator and took it to the top floor. I followed Colby’s instructions to get to the roof, and when I opened the door, the most magnificent sight met my eyes.

Colby was waiting for me. He’d been looking out toward the skyline but turned when he heard the door open. His mouth curved into a smile. He’d set up lanterns, white lights, and heaters—since it was the middle of winter. There were burgundy and red flowers on the table and a bucket of champagne. It was wildly romantic.

“Hi, beautiful. You found me.”

Found him. It certainly felt like we’d lost each other, and this moment marked finding our way back again. He opened his arms, and I rushed to him. He wrapped himself around me, and I basked in the feeling of safety and love as he held me.

Finally.

We fell into a warm and passionate kiss. I hadn’t realized just how hungry I’d been for it until our tongues collided. “You didn’t have to do all this…” I breathed after a moment.

He rubbed my bottom lip with his thumb. “It’s been way too long since I’ve been able to be the boyfriend you deserve. I know we have a lot to discuss, a lot to repair in our relationship. But tonight, I want to show you how much you mean to me. I hope it’s the first of many more dinners on this rooftop we get to have together.”

I noticed a table of hot foods set up in the corner. “What did you do over here?”

“Just a few of your favorite things.”

I lifted one of the stainless tops to find little meatballs.

“They’re the IKEA ones you love,” he said.

The other tray contained square slices of all kinds of homemade pizza.

“Saylor and I made the pizzas together.”

“Yeah.” I smiled. “She told me.”

“Ah. She did? Little blabbermouth.”

“She tried to keep it in for all of three seconds.” I laughed.

“Do you remember what we ate the night Maya showed up and turned our world upside down?” he asked.

I wracked my brain. “No, I guess I don’t.”

“That was the night we made the pizzas with Saylor.”

“Oh, that’s right! Of course. How could I forget?”

He smiled. “I often think about how that pizza dinner with you and Saylor was the last normal memory I had before my world changed. That day, that pizza dinner, was the last night I was able to exist without living in constant fear of losing everything that ever mattered to me. I can’t tell you how many times I wished I could go back to that night and take up where we left off, before that knock on the door.” He exhaled. “So the pizza is a symbol of picking up the pieces and going back to exactly where we left off—to that simple night when we had so much hope for the future.”

I looked him in the eyes. “I actually don’t wish we could go back, Colby.”

His eyes widened. “Really?”

“Really…” I caressed his cheek. “I’ve learned a lot about myself in the past several weeks. Being apart from you showed me what I value the most in this life: family—not the one I was born into, the one I chose. What bothered me more than anything was that Maya was getting to spend time with the two people I care about the most, the two people who have become my world. It was never about her or what she got to have. My frustration and anger had to do with what I was missing.”