Page 17 of Meet Me at the Altar

“What have you been up to?” he asked.

“Working mostly. I buried myself in a career in HR until I lost it. They laid me off just over a year ago, and now I’m a personal shopper.” I turned my lips down in disappointment.

“Are you happy with what you do?”

“It’s fun, and I earn a nice living, but I’m not going to be doing it long term. Anyway, losing my job made me realize that I had to become more intentional about the relationships in my life.”

“Relationships? I thought you said you weren’t in one?”

“I meant family and friends. What made you come home?”

“You.”

“Seriously.”

“I’ve always upheld my word, Kalli.”

I choked on my wine, and he patted my back. I looked into his eyes and asked, “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

He grabbed my hand and rubbed his thumb against my palm. I squirmed in my seat at the heat that shot through my core.

“Kalli, I said it already on that field. I told you that shit wasn’t for publicity. You’re not married, and neither am I. We made a vow, and in the twenty years you’ve known me, you’ve never known me to go back on my word—not with you.”

We were next door neighbors who casually knew each other, and we spoke whenever we saw each other. It wasn’t until middle school, when I was just nine, that we developed a friendship. I had skipped a couple of grades, and I was terrified of being at that level with the other kids who were eleven and older.

Kelsey was a year older than me but a grade behind me because I skipped two grades. She wasn’t there to protect me or take up for me, and I felt all alone. Someone was picking on me one day, and Andrès took up for me, and we had been best friends ever since.

“We were kids, Drè.”

“We were adults when we made that pact. I was twenty-one, a legal adult, and you were nineteen, with full voting privileges.”

“Are you serious?”

“I am. You have always meant the world to me.”

“As your best friend.”

“Li’l bit, I wanted so much more with you.”

“Then why didn’t you say that?” I cried out.

“Because I wasn’t good enough for you at the time. If I could protect you from the world, then I was damn sure going to protect you from me. Having you the way that I wanted you, Kalliope, knowing that I was ruined, would have destroyed you. I wouldn’t—couldn’t do that to you.”

A tear fell down my face, and he reached out and wiped it away. I turned my face and pressed my cheek against the palm of his hand, and then I turned it further, and I lightly pressed a kiss to his palm. Andrès leaned forward and kissed the top of my head.

When he pulled back, the copper in his russet brown eyes shone brightly. Warm, tender fingers stroked the curves of my cheekbones as he spoke. “I want you to be Mrs. Jones. Kalli, you were always the calm in my storm. When the world didn’tmake sense to me, you made it make sense. When I was angry, you brought me peace. When I was hurting, you were the balm to my soul. You were the only one who could get through to me whenever I fell into a space that blocked the world out.

“When my dad moved to California, and I started acting out, you were the only one who got me. You would hang out in the treehouse with me when you were tired, cold, and hungry; sneak out of your window at night to lay underneath the stars; and listen to me complain for hours on end about my mom, Leon, my stepmother, Tora, and my dad. Not once did you complain or tell me to get over myself; you were just there. Sometimes, I wouldn’t even talk because I would be just that upset. You sat with me in those angry silences, and you knew what had upset me, even when my mother couldn’t figure it out. You celebrated my first job by baking a cake.”

I laughed so hard. “Still feel bad about those eggshells.”

He chuckled and leaned over and kissed the top of my head. “It was the thought that counted. You cheered me on and encouraged me to save enough to buy my car.”

“What happened to it, anyway?”

“In storage.”

“Damn.”