My heart pounded so hard I could hear it in my ears.<\/p>\n
The front door swung open.<\/p>\n
Standing there was a woman in her sixties with silver hair and kind eyes.<\/p>\n
For a second, I didn’t recognize her.<\/p>\n
Then she smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmily?\u201d<\/p>\n
I nearly dropped my wine glass.<\/p>\n
\u201cMrs. Parker?\u201d<\/p>\n
Aaron’s former foster mother.<\/p>\n
I hadn’t seen her in almost sixteen years.<\/p>\n
The room went silent.<\/p>\n
I looked from her to Aaron, completely confused.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is this?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
Aaron let out a long breath.<\/p>\n
\u201cSit down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease.\u201d<\/p>\n
His voice sounded nervous now. Nothing like the cold confidence I’d heard through the bedroom door.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Parker stepped inside and closed the door behind her.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmily,\u201d she said gently, \u201cyou’re about to hear a story Aaron should have told you a long time ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
I folded my arms.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou’d better start talking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aaron nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I said I’d been fooling you since high school, I wasn’t talking about loving you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen what were you talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked down.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout who I was.\u201d<\/p>\n
The confusion only grew.<\/p>\n
Aaron pulled an envelope from behind his back and placed it on the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up telling people I didn’t need anyone,\u201d he said. \u201cEspecially after bouncing through foster homes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs. Parker rested a hand on his shoulder.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the truth is, I was terrified.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does this have to do with me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything.\u201d<\/p>\n
He swallowed hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we were seventeen, I found out something about your family.\u201d<\/p>\n
My stomach tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy grandmother?\u201d<\/p>\n
He nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe came to see me.\u201d<\/p>\n
I blinked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe asked me to promise something.\u201d<\/p>\n
The room suddenly felt smaller.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy grandmother died ten years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aaron’s eyes filled with emotion.<\/p>\n
\u201cA few months before she passed, she told me she was sick. She said she probably wouldn’t see us get married. She made me promise that no matter what happened, I’d take care of you.\u201d<\/p>\n
I sat down without meaning to.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe… talked to you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe loved you more than anything,\u201d Mrs. Parker said softly.<\/p>\n
Aaron nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe knew how much you wanted a family. Stability. Someone who would stay.\u201d<\/p>\n
I felt tears beginning to form.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy didn’t you ever tell me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause she made me promise not to.\u201d<\/p>\n
He pushed the envelope toward me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith one condition.\u201d<\/p>\n
My hands trembled as I opened it.<\/p>\n
Inside was a handwritten letter.<\/p>\n
I immediately recognized my grandmother’s handwriting.<\/p>\n
My vision blurred.<\/p>\n
\u201cDear Emily,\u201d it began.<\/p>\n
I couldn’t breathe.<\/p>\n
Aaron watched quietly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve carried that letter for ten years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe wanted you to receive it on your first wedding anniversary.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked up at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was your plan?\u201d<\/p>\n
He laughed through a nervous exhale.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
I remembered the phone call.<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard you say you’d been fooling me since high school.\u201d<\/p>\n
His face turned red.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I have.\u201d<\/p>\n
I frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor fifteen years I’ve been pretending I wasn’t crazy about you.\u201d<\/p>\n
A tear rolled down his cheek.<\/p>\n
\u201cI acted patient when I was scared you’d leave. I acted confident when I had no idea what I was doing. I acted like waiting to propose was easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why wait so long?\u201d<\/p>\n
The question escaped before I could stop it.<\/p>\n
Aaron looked ashamed.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I grew up with nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The answer came immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted a house. Savings. Security. I wanted to know that if we had kids, they’d never experience what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs. Parker nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe worked two jobs for years.\u201d<\/p>\n
I thought about the nights he’d come home exhausted.<\/p>\n
The vacations we’d postponed.<\/p>\n
The old truck he’d driven long after it should have died.<\/p>\n
Things I had never fully understood.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought if I could give you everything first, then I’d deserve to ask you to marry me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The anger I’d been carrying all evening began to dissolve.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou idiot,\u201d I whispered.<\/p>\n
A nervous smile appeared on his face.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked down at the letter again.<\/p>\n
My grandmother had written about love. About patience. About choosing someone every day, even when life wasn’t perfect.<\/p>\n
At the bottom was one final sentence.<\/p>\n
If Aaron is still beside you when you read this, then he’s kept his promise better than I ever could have asked.<\/p>\n
I broke down crying.<\/p>\n
Aaron crossed the room and knelt beside me.<\/p>\n
For a moment neither of us spoke.<\/p>\n
Then I wrapped my arms around him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou scared me to death.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought you never loved me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He pulled back just enough to look at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmily, I’ve loved you since the day you stole the last slice of pizza at a school fundraiser and blamed it on me.\u201d<\/p>\n
I laughed through my tears.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was one time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs. Parker laughed from across the room.<\/p>\n
The tension finally disappeared.<\/p>\n
Aaron reached into his jacket pocket.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is one more thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
I groaned.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf another mystery person walks through that door, I’m leaving.\u201d<\/p>\n
He laughed and handed me a small velvet box.<\/p>\n
Inside was a new ring.<\/p>\n
Not bigger. Not more expensive.<\/p>\n
Engraved inside were the words:<\/p>\n
Still choosing you.<\/p>\n
Every day.<\/p>\n
I looked at him, tears filling my eyes once more.<\/p>\n
After fifteen years of waiting, one year of marriage, and one terrifying misunderstanding, I finally understood something.<\/p>\n
Aaron hadn’t stayed because of a promise.<\/p>\n
He hadn’t stayed because of guilt.<\/p>\n
He hadn’t stayed because he had nowhere else to go.<\/p>\n
He stayed because he loved me.<\/p>\n
And after all those years, that simple truth was worth more than anything else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My heart pounded so hard I could hear it in my ears. The front door swung open. Standing there was a woman in her sixties with silver hair and kind eyes. For a second, I didn’t recognize her. Then she smiled. \u201cEmily?\u201d I nearly dropped my wine glass. \u201cMrs. Parker?\u201d Aaron’s former foster mother. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6558,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6557\/revisions\/6558"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}