me. I wasn’t sure I had even heard him correctly. “You were engaged to someone else?”
My dad nodded. “It’s not something I’m very proud of. Sherrie, the woman I was engaged to, was a wonderful person. Pretty, smart, funny, everything a guy could want. We were together for almost a year. I
loved her but I wasn’t in love with her. I didn’t know the difference until I met your mom.”
I was still in shock. My dad was such an honest and upstanding person. How did something like what he was describing happen to him?
“I made a huge mistake when I met your mom. I was so overcome with intense feelings for her, I
neglected to mention I was engaged to someone else. I didn’t want her to see me as unavailable even though I was. I know it’s a cliché but with your mom, it was love at first sight. I had such overwhelming feelings for her, feelings I never had for Sherrie. I knew immediately that marrying Sherrie would be a mistake.
Unfortunately, I didn’t handle things as well as I could have and in retrospect I deeply regret it. Not that it was an excuse but I was only twenty as the time. I lacked the maturity to handle the situation. I
started seeing your mom before I completely ended things with Sherrie. Of course, they both found out and I lost both of them. And I deserved every bit of heartbreak I got.”
I was confused. He said he lost both of them. “How did you get back together with mom?”
“It took a lot of hard work. I had to convince your mom that she could trust me, even if I didn’t deserve it. I had to convince her that we belonged together and that she was the love of my life. It wasn’t easy. But eventually, she let me back into her life and into her heart. I never did another thing to hurt your mom and I spent her entire life trying to make her happy.”
“You succeeded, Dad. I know you made mom happy and that she loved you with all of her heart.”
My dad nodded as he choked back a sob. He took a deep breath then said, “I think you should give Aaron a chance to at least prove he’s worthy of your love.”
I nodded. I guess if my mom was willing to give my dad a chance, I could give Aaron a chance, too.
***
I didn’t hear anything from Aaron while I was on break and I didn’t hear from him when classes started again, either. I was nervous about seeing him in class on Thursday and was shocked when he never made it. He had never missed class before and it was only two weeks until our final presentations were due. With all of the personal drama going on between us, we hadn’t had much time to finalize our projects.
When I exited the building after class, I was surprised to see Aaron standing outside presumably waiting for me. As I passed by him, he started walking with me.
“Why weren’t you in class today?” I asked.
“I told Dr. Griffin that I needed some extra time to finish something I was working on and she excused me from class.”
I eyed him suspiciously. “What were you working on?”
He gave me a half smile. “It’s a surprise.”
“Okay,” I said with some trepidation.
“I’d like to show you, if you have time.”
“This was supposed to be our study time.”
He grabbed my hand. “Come on. Follow me.”
When we arrived outside The Clubhouse I stopped in my tracks. “I’m not going in there.”
Aaron took both of my hands in his. “I know the last time you were here, it was awful. I promise I will never let anything like that even happen again. I won’t let you out of my sight. I withdrew from the Tournament and I told the guys the reason why, because I’m in love with you. They’re not very happy with me and they don’t understand but it doesn’t matter. Getting you back means more to me than they do. If I
could move out, I would but I’m still the club President and I’m required to live here.”
I considered everything Aaron had said but I still felt extremely uncomfortable with the idea of going in there. What if I came face to face with Evan again?
“What I want to show you has to do with our final presentation. I know how important it is to you, so I
did some extra