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“Guess what,” I said.
“What?”
“I still have every one of your Valentine’s Day letters. They’re in a box on the top shelf of my bedroom closet. Here,” I said, pointing at the floor. “Along with your letters, I also have our ticket stubs from all the movies we went to, our trips to Six Flags, Schlitterbahn, and Sea World, plus the George Strait and Jason Aldean concerts.”
“Rhys…”
“There’s more. I still have every lucky feather that you gave me before each football game, the Mardi Gras beads from the first parade we went to together in town, copies of our junior and senior prom pictures, dozens of others of you and us that I printed from my cellphone, a box of Lemonheads that you didn’t finish, and strands of your hair that I found in Black Betty after you broke up with me. I even have your pregnancy test. You asked me to throw it away because you didn’t want to risk your parents or sister finding it, but I had to keep it for myself.”
Riley’s eyes were brimming with tears.
“Should I not have told you about all of that?” I asked her.
Her answer was throwing her arms around my neck and kissing me.
CH 19 - #oldschool
Riley
DRIVING DOWN THE tree-lined backroads from Rhys’s house to my momma and daddy’s near downtown Cypress Hills, my mind stayed on everything Rhys had told me he kept of mine and ours. He was surprised I still had his T-shirt from last year, while I was completely blown away by all he still had—especially my pregnancy test.
I didn’t have to wonder what Rhys’s life and mine would be like right now if I hadn’t miscarried. I could picture us so happy, likely with another baby on the way, but God sent Rhys and me down a different pathway for some reason. There’d been a lot of pain in our journey. Growth and healing, as well.
I made it to my momma and daddy’s house in time to catch them before they left for work. When I walked into the kitchen, I saw them sitting at the table, smiled, and said good morning to them. They said the same to me, and then I began telling them why I hadn’t come home last night.
“Riley, you don’t owe us an explanation about all that,” my daddy said.
“But—”
“I only want to know if you’re happy.”
“Yes, Daddy, I’m very happy. Rhys is, too.”
“Good.”
I looked over at my momma, and she winked at me. Rachel and I had the best parents ever.
Once they were on their way to the high school, I grabbed an apple-cinnamon Nutri-Grain bar out of the pantry, poured myself a glass of milk, and went upstairs to my bedroom to eat breakfast and call Rhys.
“You’re on speaker,” I told him when he answered.
“Do I have an audience?”
“Of one. My momma and daddy are at work.”
“What’d they say about you spending the night with me?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
I chuckled. “I was explaining why I didn’t come home when my daddy stopped me. The only thing he wanted to know was if I was happy.”
“What’d you tell him?”
“That you and I both are.”
I could hear Rhys smiling.
