Redemption(27)

“Be careful.”

“You too.” He never said goodbye when we hung up. The first time he’d done it, I stared at my phone in disbelief, but after the third or fourth time, I called him back to ask why. “Goodbyes are final, and you’re my future.” He could hang up on me any day he wanted to after that. If I never heard that word come from his mouth, then we’d never be over.



*

I knew I’d beat him to his house and wasn’t sure how comfortable I was going in alone. I wasn’t going to snoop, but it was his personal space, and I didn’t want to intrude. I warred with that silly notion for far longer than I should before I got out, found the key, and let myself in.

Closing the door behind me, I took a single step before I noticed the vast number of flowers—all the color of my hair. Beautiful orange Marigolds, California Poppies, Lily of the Incas, and far more I didn’t recognize. Petals littered the floor in a path between the vases. Everywhere I turned there were more I hadn’t seen. Each vase took me a step closer to the living room where Dan sat on the couch with something in his hand.

My heart threatened to beat out of my chest until I realized what he was holding was paper.

“Where’s your truck?” My brow furrowed in confusion.

“That’s the question you’re choosing to lead with?” He roared with laughter.

I stopped and gave him a look, the one that told him I was confused and hoped he’d provide answers sooner rather than later.

“It’s in the garage, babe.”

He patted the seat next to him indicating his desire for me to join him. Unsure of what I was joining him for, my steps were slow, still taking in the dozens of flowers, and trying to remain focused on Dan.

“I’m not going to bite you, Penny. Come here.”

I reached his side and sat next to him. I’d never seen anything this grandiose, not for me, and not in real life. There were hundreds of dollars in flowers lining his hallway, and Dan wasn’t really a floral kind of guy. Nor was he overly romantic.

I eyed him waiting for him to speak. Instead, he handed me an envelope…small, like the kind cash came in from a bank.

“Go ahead, open it.” There was a smile on his face so broad if it got any larger it would slide right off the side of his cheeks. He was excited about the contents of the envelope. I remembered being like that when I’d found the perfect gift for Matt, or my parents. The anticipation of a loved one’s happiness being an even greater gift to yourself than the one you’d given them.

My finger slid under the flap and carefully pulled it open. I squeezed the edges to make the opening wide and reached inside. My hand trapped the gasp that threatened to escape my mouth, my eyes flooded with tears of joy, and I stared at the tickets in front of me.

Orchestra seats to Ya-sang Min.

It had been sold out since Rob had asked me to go.

“How?” My sight drifted from the tickets to his mellow eyes. The tears clung to my eyelashes in a melodramatic display of emotion just before they released their grip in favor of streaking my cheeks.

“I called in a favor.”

“Dan, this is more than a favor. You shouldn’t have done it. These had to have cost you a fortune.” I didn’t want to sound ungrateful, but at face value, they were over two hundred dollars apiece.

“I’d do anything to make you happy, Lissa.” First Cosmo, now Ya-sang Min. “I love you. I’ll spend every day you give me trying to prove that.”

The tickets fell in my lap. My hand cupped the side of his face, and my thumb stroked his cheek. “Dan.” His name was barely a whisper. I leaned in to kiss him, just a peck, enough to connect. I tilted my forehead to his and his eyes when I uttered the words I never thought I’d say to another human again. “I love you, too.”

His hands came to my face, and what I’d tried to keep respectable, Dan took to intimate. He left me breathless, panting for more.

“You know you have to wear a suit?” The look on his face when he registered my question was priceless.

“Does that mean you’ll be in a slinky dress?”

The one and only time I didn’t abhor fancy clothes was performances—in them or attending—they made them regal as they should be. My life transformed when classical music and black tie combined in one event.

I nodded. “I’ll even let you pick.”

Dan let me go on and on about how excited I was. I would have expected him to grow tired of my ramblings, but the longer I talked, the more content he appeared. It was all too good to be true. Matt had never accompanied me to the symphony and had only begrudgingly come to my own performances. I assumed that was how people outside the music world felt. I heard people gripe about how boring listening to an orchestra would be, and how much they hated penguin attire. It was a part of my life Matt had never involved himself in, and I accepted that in the way he didn’t force me into a gun range for target practice.

“Have you ever been to see someone like this play?”

“Believe it or not, Brett is a huge fan of all things artsy and so is Annie. I think that’s why he and Bastian clicked in high school. He’s athletic, but his mother instilled a love of all performing arts in him. His father hated going, so by default, Brett went from a very early age. To this day, he still goes with her, of course, now Annie goes too. In high school, he dragged me to several he thought I’d enjoy.”