I knew before he said it.
“We were engaged.”
Alice whispered:
“Dad?”
I stared at my husband.
“You were engaged to Aaron’s mother?”
“Yes.”
Something shifted inside me.
Not because Patrick had loved someone before me.
Of course he’d had a life before we met.
But because he’d told me something very different.
“You said you’d never seriously considered marriage before me.”
“I was twenty-two, Jess.”
“I didn’t ask how old you were.”
Across the table, Aaron finally spoke.
“I didn’t know this either.”
Alice turned toward him.
“You didn’t?”
“No.”
Relief flashed across her face.
Aaron looked at Patrick.
“My mother mentioned someone named Patrick once. Years ago. But that’s all.”
Patrick’s attention returned to the tattoo.
“What did she say?”
Aaron hesitated.
“That she’d loved somebody when she was young.”
“And?”
“That he wasn’t ready to choose the same life she was.”
Patrick went silent.
I stood and reached for two plates.
“Jess,” Patrick said.
“I need something to do.”
“You always do that when conversations get uncomfortable.”
I stopped.
He was right.
I put the plates back down.
“Fine.”
I sat.
“Then let’s be uncomfortable.”
Patrick sighed.
“Why did you and Lana break up?”
“Her family moved to London.”
I waited.
He knew I wasn’t accepting half an answer anymore.
“She wanted me to go with her.”
Alice frowned.
“You were going to move to London?”
“That was the plan.”
I looked at Patrick.
“Whose plan?”
“Ours.”
There it was.
Not some youthful romance he’d simply outgrown.
There had been a plan.
A future.
A promise.
“What happened?”
“I stayed.”
“Obviously.”
“Jess.”
“Did Lana know you weren’t coming?”
