Choosing Henley(46)

“It wasn’t until he saw her that the last shred of hope broke inside me. When he looked up and saw his beautiful daughter walking towards him in her wedding dress, he cried. The man I loved—the man who was my hero for so long, my dad—was filled with nothing but pride and love when he saw her. His other daughter.”

Jami’s arms tighten around me as he kisses the top of my hair.

“I left before they got in the limo and I’ve never looked back,” I admit.

“I’m sorry, beautiful. I wish I had been there with you.” It’s easy to hear the pain in his voice when he speaks.

“It was a long time ago and it was something I think I needed to do alone. He will never be a part of my life again. The damage is done, and I’ve just been sifting through the rubble ever since,” I say into his chest.

“You have me now, Beatle.” He lifts my head so that I’m looking him in the eyes. “We can do it together, okay?”

“Okay,” I whisper back.

It’s one of the most painful things I’ve ever done, telling someone else about everything that happened with my dad, but my heart feels lighter. I’ve needed to do that for so long, and it feels right having done it with Jami.

He kisses me on the lips. “Goodnight, beautiful. Happy Valentine’s Day.”

I smile as I place my head back onto his chest. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“I love you,” he whispers.

“Goodnight, Jami,” I say back. I’m still scared. I’m still not ready. But for the first time in my entire life, I feel really happy.

He makes me happy.

I don’t go to sleep right away, processing through everything we talked about tonight. I feel his breathing even out and just the hint of a snore, confirming that he’s fallen asleep. I kiss his chest before whispering into the dark, “I love you too.”

I’m not ready to say it to him, I’m not ready for him to know how I feel. But it doesn’t mean it’s not true.

I’m in love with Jamison Henley and there isn’t a damn thing I could do about it even if I wanted to.





IT’S BEEN A little over two weeks since we talked. Since I told Jami about my dad. It needed to happen and I have felt like I’ve been walking on cloud nine ever since. Like I said before, I’m not really the mushy-gushy type of girl. I’ve always been hard on love, but being with Jami makes me want those things.


I’ve come to enjoy all the silly, romantic things he has done over the last two months. I believe him when he tells me that he loves me, and I trust him. I know that it’s hard for him that I can’t say ‘I love you’ back, but he knows how much it takes me just to give him my trust. I’ve never given that to another man since my dad—only him. Only Jami.

I’ve just finished up at the market in town. Jami texted me a very detailed list of items he was missing earlier that day. I had to ask a few people in the market to help me. I’m not even sure I know what half the things I bought are. The man really loves his food.

It’s Friday night and we are cooking dinner for his parents. I am nervous, sure, but to be honest, having spent so much time in the Rhodes household growing up, I am pretty comfortable with happy parents. Am I nervous that they won’t like me? Obviously. Who isn’t when they meet their boyfriend’s parents? We haven’t really had the boyfriend/girlfriend conversation, but we are constantly together and I’m not even really sure if people have the ‘are we going steady?’ conversations anymore.

I hustle through the snow, putting the bags in the back seat before climbing in and cranking up the heat. It is only five o’clock. I was supposed to be off at six thirty, but my last client of the day had cancelled, so instead of waiting around to see if a walk-in would show up, I left early. Cut someone’s hair or cook dinner with Jami? Yeah. That isn’t even a competition. Don’t get me wrong. I love my job, but seriously…

After pulling into the driveway behind Jami’s Jeep, I shut of the engine and think about how many years I’ve known him. Things are so different now. We’ve come so far so quickly this year, and I’m not too stubborn to admit that it’s all because of him. If this, us, had been left up to me, we never would have ended up together. I was so worried about him getting close that I didn’t even realize that he already had. It would have been my loss though. Taking a chance in choosing Jamison Henley is, to date, one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Once I hop down from the SUV, I sling my purse over my shoulder. It’s one of Hannah’s older Michael Kors bags. She always gets a little overzealous with her purchasing of designer handbags, and thus, I get to reap the benefits when she cleans out her closet. She also has this weird obsession with naming things, although for the life of me, I can’t remember what the heck this one’s called.