Reeling from what I have just experienced, I lay the manuscript on the blanket, staring at the rapidly darkening sky. We lay there for a few silent minutes as I absorb what I just read, a vortex of feelings. Turning my head, I look over to see Easton’s eyes on me.
“Say something,” he whispers.
“It’s pretty obvious now why we were born so close together,” I manage a watery smile. “My parents were on their honeymoon, and your mother was…reaffirming their relationship.” I shake my head. “This is all so crazy. Our stories are so different and so similar too. It’s like…I don’t know what to do with all of this,” I pull in a shaky inhale, my heart raw as my emotions get the best of me, and I let my words fly.
“My dad tried at the Super Bowl. He really did. For the most part, he was okay, but that song forced him to relive that night, and it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter how much time had passed—he felt it. Watching him relive it…it was hell on earth. I was so angry with your mother, with you, with our circumstances, with what became of us, that’s how I was able to—”
“Sign the papers,” he finishes for me. “I can’t blame him, Natalie. I just can’t anymore.” Easton blows out a harsh breath. “I was fool enough to believe that time mattered. But love is like music for so many in the fact that it’s—”
“Timeless,” I finish for him. “That’s how I felt about their emails, like it was happening as I read them.” Another tear escapes as I shake my head. “I don’t know what to say. I’m just…”
“You don’t have to explain it to me,” he assures. “But I’ve been fucking blind to how much you could see. I always was. You saw how much it was destroying your father and our families, and I was too consumed in what I felt for you to see you were right in many respects. I’m sorry for that.”
“Yeah. But I see too. I see how she truly loved him. I-I—”
“Clarity, insight, remorse,” he finishes for me. “That’s why I’m here. I wanted you to have this, so you could get some much-needed, much-deserved perspective, if you still wanted it. You paid for it dearly. We both did. Fuck knows I needed it and found it in there.” He moves to sit. “I tried to hate him, but the more I read, the more I understood who Nate is, it evaporated. Somewhere deep down, I knew if I read it, I couldn’t hold him responsible.”
“God, what we put them through,” I say. “I feel so bad for all of them.”
“There was no winner,” he says.
“I came to that conclusion months ago.”
Easton nods. “At least we know why they reacted the way they did and were initially so fucking adamant about keeping us apart.”
“It’s so weird, but I’m not angry anymore.”
“Me neither,” he croons softly, lifting his eyes to the purpling sky.
“I’m just…sad.” I press against my aching chest with both hands. “Jesus, this hurts so much.”
“There’s more,” he says, pulling an envelope from his pocket, “but I have to take this back with me.”
I open it to see it is a letter addressed to Stella. More tears emerge as I read Reid’s letter to Stella on their wedding day and finish it with an exhale bordering a sob. “God, it’s so beautiful. Thank you for sharing it with me.”
“I probably shouldn’t have, and I don’t think Mom realized she left it in there. But we’ve come this far…and there’s more.”
“Um, Easton, look at me,” I wave my hand around my stinging cheeks. “Do you really think I’m up for it?”
“Not like that,” he lifts his chin toward the paper. “Look at the bottom of the stationery.”
I lift it, and even with dusk setting in, I manage to catch the logo.
“The Edgewater,” I gasp, utterly stunned. “That’s just…wow.”
“I wonder which room it was,” he says thoughtfully. “I wonder if Dad remembers.”
“I bet he does, but please don’t tell me, because I have a feeling it will totally freak me out.”
“But it’s cool, right?”
Biting my lip to hide the tremble, I nod in agreement.
“We were asking too much, weren’t we?” I wipe my eyes with my sweater sleeve. “Doomed from the start.”
“That’s not my take away. Mine is a lot like my father’s now,” he exhales, “I have a grudge-filled respect for Nate Butler that I couldn’t have ever managed before.”