Page 64 of The Wedding Planner's Secret
The emotions nearly overwhelmed him. He didn’t, couldn’t, say anything.
“You’ve got it bad.” Faith tsked. “Why aren’t you doing something about it?”
He hesitated. “Sara.”
Faith pursed her lips. “Don’t sacrifice a second chance at love for a memory.”
“Sara’s more than a memory.” He looked away. “She was the love of my life. She was my life.”
“I know how much you loved Sara. I loved her, too,” Faith admitted. “But none of us know what would have happened had she lived.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your marriage.”
“My marriage was…fine.” He couldn’t quite bring himself to say perfect.
“Of course, it was. But with all your traveling, Sara being in graduate school, who knows what might have happened when you were finally together in the same place for more than a few weeks at a time?”
“Have you been talking to Mom about this?”
“No.”
“I loved Sara. I’ll always love her.”
“But she’s gone, Will.” Faith squeezed his shoulder. “Sara wouldn’t want you to spend the rest of your life alone.”
“I’m not alone.”
“You are alone,” Faith said sternly. “It’s time you took off the blinders and realized it yourself. Go ahead and say goodbye to Kelsey, but at least acknowledge what you’re losing.”
With that, Faith left the room. Always the drama princess, her flair had paved her way to stardom. But in this instance, she couldn’t be more wrong.
Will pulled on his jacket and gloves. He needed to get out of here. Away from everyone and everything for a few minutes. He stepped outside.
The cold stung his lungs, but he wasn’t about to turn back. He needed to get his head on straight. He hiked up a path to a scenic view overlooking the lake. A squirrel chattered overhead on a nearby tree branch.
Sara used to love it here. Memories of her and their time together filled his mind. Life with her had been so perfect. And their marriage, a never-ending honeymoon.
A honeymoon.
His mother’s letter came back to him.An extended honeymoon.That was what she’d called it; that was exactly what it had been. Not only for their two years of marriage but also the four years before when they’d attended different colleges.
His mother was right. Faith, too.
Will raked his hand through his hair. He and Sara loved each other, lived for each other, but their marriage hadn’t been real yet. They never had the opportunity to make any of the day-in and day-out compromises necessary for a marriage to succeed.
What he and Kelsey shared planning Faith’s wedding was more like a marriage with compromise and give-and-take than anything he and Sara had ever shared.
It had been so easy to cling to the fantasy. To cling to the image of one love of a lifetime. To cling to the notion of what his and Sara’s future would have been.
Because it was safe and kept his heart from having to love and lose again.
Loving meant losing. Hurting. Being left behind.
Losing Sara had tilted his world on its axis and spun it around in the opposite direction. He wasn’t sure he could survive it again. And that scared him. But something else scared him more.
Will hadn’t kept his heart safe. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to lose his heart again. And it would be his fault. He headed back to the house.
