A Convenient Proposal(69)
“Your family didn’t tell you?”
Griff shook his head. “Maybe they thought I knew. Maybe I should have—I wasn’t paying too much attention back then.”
Zelda nodded. “I didn’t tell people around here for a long time.”
“But why would you and Al want to live here? Why not get a house I had nothing to do with?”
She hugged the paper in her arms a little tighter. “We missed you, Griff. Both of us, all the time. We betrayed you, and yet we still loved you and wanted you in our lives.”
Hard stuff to hear. Griff gripped his hands together between his knees, staring at the floor.
“Al found the house first, saw it was for sale and told me about it. I came by myself and I just about died, seeing all the work you’d done for me. So Al and I decided we owed it to you to live here.”
Griff looked up. “You do know that’s weird, right? I mean, you came here to tell me you wouldn’t marry me, and now you’ll be living here with the guy you dumped me for. It doesn’t really make a lot of sense.”
“Probably not.” Zelda’s smile was sad. “I always loved you, Griff. I always loved Al, too. You asked me out first, he stepped aside, and everything just kind of flowed from there. I flowed with it.”
“So what went wrong?”
She sighed. “Being with you, Griff, takes so much energy. Mental, emotional, physical—I always felt like I was falling behind. Always running to catch up. It’s nothing you do or say—just the way you are. Al and I move at the same pace. We’re not so brilliant, not as dynamic or exciting as you are. But we fit.” Her smile was a little bit wicked. “Boy, do we fit.”
“I’m glad,” Griff said, from his heart. “I want you to be happy.”
“I know you do.” She let the paper fall to the floor and came to stand in front of him, holding out her hands. “I am sorry we hurt you so badly. I should have known my own mind a long time before I did. But weddings take on a life of their own—you get so wrapped up in the process you don’t look ahead to the final result. I didn’t, anyway, until almost too late.”
Grasping her hands, Griff stood up. “What happened?”
“Your dad came to see me one afternoon.”
“My dad?” Griff released her and started to pace. “My dad is the reason you broke up with me?”
“No. Well…” Zelda flushed when he stopped to stare at her. “He just talked, Griff, about marriage being a big challenge, needing all that two people can give to each other. And when I thought about it, I knew I wasn’t enough for you.”
“That’s not what I thought.”
“But I did, and so it would have mattered one way or the other. Then Al caught me speeding one day, out on Old Orchard Road. He actually gave me a ticket!” She laughed, still obviously delighted. “On the ticket form, he wrote, ‘It’s not too late. Marry me, instead.’”
Griff laughed, too. “Good for Al. He knew what he wanted and he went for it.” Then Griff looked down at her. “You have my best wishes for a happy life, Zelda. God bless you both.”
“Thank you.” She pulled his head down. “Here’s your kiss from the bride.”
Her lips touched his briefly, with absolutely no sparks. He hugged her, recognizing the rebirth of friendship from the ashes of a romance.
The front door slammed open. “Get your hands off my wife,” Al declared. “You can’t have her.”
Griff did as ordered. “I don’t want her.” He glanced at Zelda. “With apologies, you understand.”
She stood with her hands on her hips, facing her fiancé. “I understand someone’s being a jerk. Stop it, Al.”
Al wasn’t listening. He headed for Griff, hands up and ready to grapple.
“Not this time, buddy.” Griff sidestepped. “The back of my head still hurts.”
A couple of quick moves he’d learned in the islands swept Al’s feet out from under him and dropped him hard onto his back, knocking the breath out of him.
“I owed you that,” Griff said. “Be grateful for the carpet. You can apologize in the receiving line at the reception.” He stepped over Al on his way to the door. “Congratulations, by the way. You’ve got a beautiful bride.” He pulled the door closed behind him on the way out.
“I wish I could say the same,” he muttered to himself. And then sighed.