my city," he coos, offering his arm for Valentina to take. She laughs again, and both Carter and Logan's gazes soften as they watch her. Have they felt empty over the last decade as well? Do they already feel better tonight than they have since she'd left?
I could venture a guess.
Chef Ramsay, as he introduced himself, does indeed lead us to a table that looks to be one of the best in the restaurant. He pulls Valentina's chair out for her and puts her napkin in her lap with a flourish. With another wink, he whisks himself away from the table, promising to send out the best dishes we'd ever taste.
As soon as he leaves, silence descends. Valentina keeps her eyes peeled out on the view outside the glass, playing with the silverware on the table nervously.
"So what have you been up to all these years, gorgeous?" Carter finally asks, breaking the heavy silence.
Her eyes widen as she turns her attention back to us, almost as if she hadn't been prepared for the question. She opens her mouth, but nothing comes out, and she quickly closes it.
"Where did you go to school?" I prod.
Agony creeps across her face, and I wonder if there's a safe question that I can ask the lovely girl in front of me. I’m a bastard for feeling slightly mollified that the last ten years haven't exactly been roses for her.
It seems fitting that she should suffer as much as I have.
"I went to Oxford for undergrad," she says slowly. "My mother had moved there with husband number two, and after dad died, it seemed like the place to go."
"I knew you would go somewhere like that," says Carter admiringly. "You always were the smartest girl in school."
She blushes from the praise in his voice. "Do you really have room to talk Mr. Princeton?" she teases with a smile. "And yes, before you ask, of course I knew you went to Princeton."
Carter snorts in an unamused way, and the smile on Valentina's face fades.
Logan gives Carter a nasty look and then takes Valentina's hand, stilling it from its nervous movement.
"What did you major in?" he asks.
"Biology and English," she answers shyly. "I knew I wanted to go to med school, so Biology seemed like the way to go. And then...well, you know I always loved to read. I started taking English classes as electives, and then I ended up taking so many that it just made sense to double major in it."
I'd only been to England once. The NFL liked to do international games a few times a year, and we'd played the Jaguars in London a few years back. We'd taken a tour of a few cities around London as a team, and I remembered going past Oxford's campus.
I can picture her strolling through campus, the boys wanting her, the girls wanting to be friends with her. She probably always was the smartest in class, even there. Valentina has that magnetism about her that makes everyone take notice of her. We'd just been lucky as teenagers that she hadn't realized it.
"What did you do after Oxford? Have you been in England all this time?" Logan asks. Carter isn't saying anything, but I know he's hanging on every word she's saying.
Her eyes look heartbroken at his question, and I tense, preparing myself for what she’s about to say. Had she gotten married and then divorced? Did she have a child? Just the idea of another man having her makes me want to scream. I had always dreamed it would be my name at the end of hers. It would my child in her belly.
My stomach burns.
I hate not knowing everything about Val when I had once known everything about her.
"I went to medical school," she finally replies after a long breath.
"That's amazing," I exclaim, thinking that she had fulfilled her dream. She had always wanted to be a doctor after being so sick as a child.
Is it wrong that it makes me hard just thinking about her strolling the halls of a hospital with a stethoscope and a white coat on?
If so, I don't want to be right.
I adjust myself under the table, ignoring the knowing smirk Logan shoots my way. He's full of those tonight. The asshole.
"I didn't finish," she whispers. "I got my MD, and then I had to drop out during residency when I got sick.” Her gaze drops to her lap, and her hands start frantically tearing at the cloth napkin.
Carter surprises