Page 28 of His Promised Bride

"Aidan, it's thirty minutes away. I can drive myself."

"I know you can. I want to drive you."

I look at him. This quiet, steady, infuriating man who waited years for me, and who is now asking to drive me to my first day of college like it's the most important thing he'll do today.

"Fine," I say.

He smiles. A real one. The kind he saves for moments when no one else is watching and it's just the two of us, and every time I see it, I think about how many years he kept it locked away. Waiting on a promise he made to himself the morning he woke up without me.

We walk out together. The morning light catches the stone walls and turns them gold, and the hedgerows are in bloom now, honeysuckle thick and sweet along the path. The main house is visible through the trees, and I can see the kitchen light on, and I know Saoirse is in there making tea and listening to the radio. Later today, when I come home, she'll want to hear about every single thing that happened.

Aidan opens the car door for me and I get in.

He climbs in beside me and starts the engine, and as we pull down the oak-lined drive and onto the main road, I watch the estate disappear in the side mirror. Not the way I watched my father's house disappear on my wedding day, with relief and finality and exhaustion.

This time, I watch it disappear knowing I'll come back. Knowing there's a table with a chair that's mine, and a kitchen that smells like someone else's love, and a bed where a man who sees me will be waiting when the day is done.

I turn to face the road ahead.