was hesitant when she came to the door. She also didn’t fully open it to invite me in. “Hey. I didn’t think you were back until later.”
“I jumped on an earlier train.” I looked up at her and caught her eyes. “I’m sorry for the shit I said over text, Val.”
She stepped back and opened the door wide. “It’s me who should be apologizing. Come in.”
For the entire two-hour train ride out here, I’d thought about what Eve had said—how I needed to give Val some space to find her own way. That had been my plan…until I walked into the living room and hauled her against me.
Yeah. Great plan for space.
I buried my face in her hair and inhaled deep. “I fucking missed you.”
“I’m sorry I pretended you were only here to fix the pipes when Ryan showed up, and I’m sorry I let him refer to you as the boy next door.”
“I get it.” I pulled back and brushed her hair behind her ear. “I hate it. But I get it. He was your husband for twenty years, and…you’re still telling yourself this is just a summer fling.”
“Ford…”
I pulled her against me and quieted her against my chest. “Let me finish my apology and then you can talk if you want. Okay?”
She nodded.
“People bring history into new relationships—past experiences, good or bad. You’re bringing blown trust, cheating, and disappointment with you. So you’re hesitant to get attached too fast. The biggest relationship influence I had in my life wasn’t even my own. I grew up watching my parents—who were very much in love and had their time cut too short. So I’m anxious to move forward, afraid to let something good slip through my fingers because we never know how much time we have.”
Val leaned back. She looked bewildered. “Are we sure I’m the one who’s twelve years older? Because honestly, you sound a lot more mature than I’ve acted lately.”
I pressed my lips to her forehead.
When she looked up at me, she smiled sadly. “I’m sorry about making you feel I wanted to hide what’s going on between us.”
I studied her eyes. “What is going on between us, Val?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. But is it possible to have the right feelings at the wrong time? I feel like I’m not ready for anything serious, even though I’m sort of crazy about you. There are so many things I should do for me first.”
It fucking hurt to hear she thought it was the wrong time, but she’d come out of a twenty-year marriage and had only been with one man. I guess it was better she knew now that things with us couldn’t be forever, rather than figuring it out a year down the road.
What were my choices? Take what she was capable of giving me or walking away. The way I felt, I had no choice.
I swallowed. “Let’s just enjoy each other for the rest of the summer.”
Chapter 21
* * *
Valentina
“I passed!” I covered my mouth in disbelief and stared at my name on the screen.
Valentina Di Giovanni Davis
New York State Teacher Certification Exam- passed
Content Specialty Test - Italian – passed
It was right there in black and white, yet it still felt surreal. My phone started to buzz with incoming texts. Results were posted right at eight a.m., so I knew my friends were getting theirs, too.
Ford came out from the shower in my bedroom with a towel wrapped around his waist.
“I passed!”
“Holy shit. It’s eight o’clock already?”
I nodded, unable to stop smiling. He walked over to the bed and scooped me up, swinging me around in a circle.
“Congratulations. I’m fucking a teacher. That’s kind of hot.”
I read the flurry of texts from my friends. Mark passed. Desiree passed. Allison passed. “We all did it!”
“That’s great. We need to celebrate.”
I sat down on the bed and texted back to my friends. Ford sat next to me with a proud smile on his face.
“It feels surreal,” I said. “Ten years ago when we had trouble getting pregnant, I decided to enroll in one Italian class. My son had just started second grade, and I needed something. Ryan told me it was a waste of money. I don’t know why, but I didn’t tell him I was thinking of becoming a teacher. I actually took one class a semester for a few years before telling him my plan.” I shrugged. “I knew he would say I didn’t need a full-time job. He saw my wanting to