A pathetic level of butterflies developed in my stomach upon hearing that news. I smiled. “My lips are sealed, but thank you for letting me know.”
“He told me he took your niece to that dance.”
“He did. Kiki has really taken a liking to him. She is a handful but a blessing in my life.”
“Troy feels like he can relate to her situation, I think. It wasn’t easy for him, growing up without a mother and all. We were so busy all the time. We did the best we could, but we certainly made our mistakes. He didn’t have the happiest childhood.”
I patted his arm. “Well, if there’s one thing I know, it’s that you can try your hardest and still have an unhappy kid at times.”
Mr. Serrano turned down the volume of Judge Judy. “I had no idea when I met you that you had so much on your plate. And you still manage to have a nice smile on your face all the time.”
“Well, it doesn’t help anything to be miserable. I try to look on the bright side, even if I’m having a bad day.”
He cleared his throat. “I’m just going to say one more quick thing, because I know what’s going on with you and Troy isn’t my business…”
“It’s okay.” I smiled. “I value your opinion.”
“I hope it works out for you two. Because he deserves a girl as nice as you.”
That warmed my heart. I didn’t always feel like a nice girl, but the fact that he saw me that way made me happy.
“Thank you for saying that,” I told him. “We’re taking it one day at a time. A lot is still up in the air. But he does make me happy, Mr. Serrano. Between you and me, I haven’t been this happy in a very long time.”
“Well, that makes me happy.” He smiled.
I hadn’t even admitted that to Troy. For some reason, it was easier to open up to the old man instead.
“I realize how ironic all of this is, given the way things started between us.”
He nodded. “Life can be funny. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that life has an amazing sense of humor.”
• • •
That evening, I was sorting through the mail when I noticed a small envelope addressed to me. The return address was Troy’s. Oddly, my first reaction was panic. Was this a Dear John letter? Why the hell did he mail me something when he could have just given it to me the next time we were together?
I opened it as fast as I could. Inside was a simple piece of off-white, lined paper with a handwritten note in blue ink.
Dear Aspyn,
I’ve been trying to figure something out for a while, and I think I finally have.
Lately, my coffee tastes better. At first, I thought maybe I’d bought a different brand by mistake, but no. It’s the same brand I’ve always used.
Then I noticed that the leaves on the trees seem so much more colorful than I remember. I don’t think I’d ever stopped to appreciate fall in Meadowbrook. Why am I noticing it all of a sudden?
The answer is, it’s not the coffee or the leaves. It’s you, Aspyn. You make me happy. And everything is better, more vibrant, when you’re happy. You’re the first woman to ever make me feel this way.
I hope you realize how special you are.
XO Troy
I couldn’t believe he’d sent me this. My heart beat rapidly as I held my hand to my chest. At first, I wondered whether he’d written this because of what I’d told his grandfather. I thought maybe Mr. Serrano had told him about my confession. But that conversation was only earlier today. And this had been mailed before then.
I picked up the phone and dialed Troy.
He answered on the third ring. “Hey…”
I breathed into the phone. “You know, if there were such a thing as death by swoon, I would be lying on the floor with no pulse in a pile of mush right now.”
“You got my note?”
“Yeah. It was very sweet and profound and amazing—and damn, you’re good, Serrano. I don’t even know what to say.”
“You don’t need to say anything. The purpose wasn’t to garner a response. It was just to tell you how I’m feeling. Every word of that is the truth. I’m not the most romantic when it comes to words. But that was the only way I could describe what I’ve felt like lately.”
“What possessed you to mail it instead of giving it to me?”
“I wanted to let you know I was thinking of you while we couldn’t be together during the week. Also, my romance guru told me that would be a nice gesture.”
My cheeks practically hurt from smiling. “Romance guru? What’s gotten into you? And who is your romance guru, anyway?”
“My grandfather.”
“Really? He told you to send me that?”
“This was the first of his tips that actually worked.”
Something clicked. “Wait a minute…does this have anything to do with the foot-rub attempt?”
He chuckled. “Maybe.”
“Oh my God. The dip! When I hit my head.”
“Maybe.” He laughed. “But it’s important to note that even though he gave me the suggestion to write you a letter and mail it, everything in it was all me.”
“Well, thank you again. You made my night.”
“Thank you for giving me a reason to write it, beautiful.”
I let out a long sigh into the phone.
“Tell me what that was about—that sigh,” he said.
“I guess I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop with you. Is it horrible to admit that?”
He didn’t respond for a few seconds. “No, because I always want you to be honest with me.”
“You’ve given me no reason to feel this way,” I said.
“I think the way I’ve acted in the past is ingrained in your mind.”
“Maybe on a subconscious level, but it’s not just you. It’s me as well, Troy. I have major trust issues. I know I haven’t opened up much about my last relationship. I was devastated when it ended, even if I was the one who technically broke up with him. Once he told me he’d considered cheating on me, I knew it was over. He might as well have done it. It was a huge blow because I had trusted him before that.”
“Did you end things immediately?”
“It took me a month or so before I ripped the Band-Aid off. I kept thinking about Kiki. And how much she loved him. He begged me not to end it. He said he felt so guilty he had to confess what he’d almost done, but he tried to get me to believe that the fact that he hadn’t cheated meant he loved me. I knew that wasn’t true.” I sighed. “I feel lucky that he admitted it to me. I can’t imagine if I’d just continued to assume I was safe with him.”
Troy sighed. “As someone who’s cheated on a girlfriend in the past, maybe I have no right to offer my opinion here… But anyone who loves you is not going to consider cheating for even a second. You made the right call.”
“I know that. Believing someone loved me one minute and then realizing I wasn’t enough for him all along was a real wake-up call. It certainly didn’t help my trust issues.”
Troy was quiet for a moment. “I wasn’t going to tell you this, but I feel like I need to in order to explain something.”