Tough To Love (16 page)

“Can you stay and talk a little more?” Rally wanted to make her understand what marriage meant to him. He couldn’t commit to it unless he was sure it was going to be forever.

“No, I’ve got to go.” Sage gave him a small wave and then hurried from the room before he could find a way to stop her.

Chapter Nineteen

“Are you having a good time?” Julian asked, handing her a glass of red wine. “I think my family was shocked when I told them I was bringing a date with me to dinner.”

Taking the glass from Julian, she set it down on the table. “Without a doubt, your parents were more shocked than your brothers. Could you tell that your brothers already had ideas about me?”

“I might have mentioned you to them a few times. I couldn’t help it. They knew about the crush I had on you for years,” Julian said.

“You had a crush on me?” Sage gasped, staring at him. “I never knew that.”

“Of course not,” he said. ”How could you? You were in love with Rally. Honestly, I believe that you still are.”

Sage opened her mouth to deny it, but couldn’t. What was wrong with her? Julian was the perfect man for her. Why was she still hung up on someone who wanted to play cat and mouse games?

“Julian, I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I shouldn’t have led you on like this. But it doesn’t matter how I feel. Rally isn’t ever going to give me what I want from him. He’s scared of marrying me, so it will never happen. As much as it hurts me, I have to move on with my life.”

“Are you sure about that?”

Julian’s question came to her while she was watching his family interact around the grill. They were laughing and teasing each other about who was burning the meat. The night air was cool, but not chilly. It felt good to be in a family setting again.

His family made her want one of her own even more. She was tired of living on dreams.

“Yes, I’m positive.” she replied, finally answering Julian’s question.

“See, I think you’re wrong. I saw you and Rally out on the patio the night of the party. He looked at you like you were his entire world. Don’t you think you should give him a chance to prove he has changed?”

“Do you how many years I stood in the shadows and watched Rally date woman after woman while my heart broke?” she asked. “He never showed any interest in me until I stopped with him. So, what if all of his sudden attention is coming from a bruised ego and nothing more?”

“I believe you’re wrong. I hate telling you this because I think you should be with me, but you should think about giving Rally a chance.”

If someone told her to write down twenty things that would happen to her tonight, Julian pleading Rally’s case wouldn’t have landed on the list. Sage felt like the wind had gotten knocked out of her.

What was she going to do?

“Julian…”

“Please don’t interrupt me. Rally doesn’t show a lot of emotions, but he does anytime you’re in the room with me. You may not see it, but I do. He’s trying his best to make up for the Vanity situation. Let him do it.”

Leaning forward, she grabbed Julian’s hand. “You make me feel special and cared for. All Rally does is tell me what I can and can’t do.”

He brought the back of her hand to his mouth and ran his lips across her knuckles. “I bet most of it is how he’s the better man and you should be with him instead of me?” he asked.

She was feeling guilty for the first time since she started ‘dating’ Julian. He was too good of a man for her to treat like this. She didn’t love him, but she was fond of him.

“I should have never involved you in my battle with Rally, it wasn’t fair.”

Julian grinned at her and it lit up his entire face. “Honestly, I’ve loved seeing my cocky friend knocked down a few notches. He needed this to happen. He shouldn’t think everything will go his way because he demands it. It was good for him. However, if you aren’t ready to tell him you still love him just yet, I will be your anchor for a little while longer. Besides, it gives me the chance to show off a pretty woman to my family.”

Chapter Twenty

“What time are you coming over to the house tonight? I can fix us something to eat. How about chicken and pasta? I’ve got a lot of ideas down for the party.”

Sage stole a quick glance at Rally standing next to her, looking eye-catching in a crisp white shirt and dark blue slacks.

“Give me a minute,” she said, and then finished handing out the lunches to the kids at the table before removing her apron. “Follow me and we can talk somewhere else.”

Placing the apron on the hook by the door, she went out with Rally at her heels. She kept walking until she got into the small office at the end of the hallway. Going inside, she turned on the lights and waited while Rally closed the door behind them.

“Why are we meeting in here?”

“I was hoping we could have some privacy while we talked. It can get so loud out there sometimes when all of the kids are here. I wanted to run a few things past you about the party.”

Rally took a step towards her. Reaching out, he ran his fingers down the side of her face. “Do you know how pretty you look today?” he asked.

“Thank you, but I didn’t come in here to get compliments.”

“Sage, I know you didn’t, but I haven’t given you enough. So, I think it’s about time I started,” Rally said. “I’ve something for you.” Reaching inside of his pocket, he pulled out a small black box.

Her eyes darted down to the box then back up to his eyes. “What is this for?” she asked.

“I never gave you a proper graduation present, so I’m doing it now. I hope you like it.” Rally placed the gift in her hand and took a step back. “Open it.”

She could barely contain her excitement as she flipped open the box. Sage gasped as her eyes landed on a diamond Hello Kitty necklace on the inside with a matching bracelet. She had mentioned how much she loved this to Rally weeks before her graduation, but she never expected him to give it to her.

“Sweetheart, I’m so sorry it took me so long to give it to you. I should have given it to you the night of that horrible party. However, instead I insulted you and pushed you further away from me. Do you like it? If you don’t, we can take it back to the jewelry store and you can get something else.”

“No, I love it. This is exactly what I wanted,” she admitted.

Coming back to her, Rally snapped the box shut. He gently pulled her into his arms. “Will you come to dinner at my house tonight? I’m asking you instead of demanding that you come.”

Sage heard Julian’s voice in the back of her head telling her to give Rally a chance to prove himself to her.

“Okay, I think I can make it,” she agreed.

“I promise you that you won’t be sorry,” Rally whispered. He gave her a quick kiss and then took a step back. “I need to get back to work. I’m meeting with a client for lunch, but I wanted to bring your present by. Thank for agreeing to have dinner with me.”

“You’re welcome.” Sage held her gift against her chest, watching as Rally opened the door and left the room.

****

Walking down the corridor, Rally was headed back to his car when he spotted Julian walking into his office. He hadn’t talked to Julian since he started going out with Sage. For a second, he thought about just heading to his car and leaving, but he couldn’t do it. He needed to know where things stood with Sage and Julian.

Spinning on his heel, he headed down the hallway to his office. He stopped at the door, watching Julian for a few minutes while he searched through some paperwork on his desk. He hated to admit it, but his buddy was a good guy. He would be thrilled if he was involved with any other woman, just not Sage. She wasn’t supposed to be with any other man but him. It was past time that he made his intentions clear about her to Julian.

He knocked on the door and Julian looked up at him. “Can I talk to you?”

Julian waved him inside. “I’m surprised it’s taken you this long to come and see me.”

Rally walked inside and sat down in front of the desk while his friend took a seat behind it. “Why are you doing this to me? You know how much I care about Sage. I can’t believe you would stab me in the back like this.”

“What a damn minute! I haven’t done anything to you,” Julian snapped back at him. “Sage was single and I asked her out on a date and she accepted. You have no right to be upset when you were throwing Vanity in her face each and every day. How could you do that to her? She loved you so much. Vanity was a piece of work no man should be saddled with.”

“I was running from her.” Rally sighed. “Why can’t anyone understand? I was scared Sage could give me everything I wanted on one hand, but she was missing the most important quality I had been searching for.”

“So what if she wasn’t Shawnee?” Julian asked. “How did Vanity being a Shawnee woman help you? Was she devoted to you? Did she smile at you like you were the only man in the entire room? When did she ever ask about your day before bragging about hers? It seems to me that she was the exact opposite of what you needed to have in a wife and mother of your children.”

“I know,” Rally whispered. “I just don’t understand why it took me so damn long to see it. I love Sage so much. I think I’ve been in love with her since she turned twenty, but I never wanted to let her know. She was so young and had her entire life ahead of her. Could I really make her my wife? I wanted her to experience the world and see what she might be missing.”

“You’re such a damn fool. Sage always saw her life with you and no one else. She only started dating me because she felt betrayed by you. She was never in love with me and we both knew it. We were two lonely people that wanted to find a way to cope with our pain.”

The more he listened to Julian, Rally was beginning to see how much time he had wasted by being with Vanity instead of Sage. He would be married right now to the woman he loved instead of working so hard to win back her heart.

“Do you think I still have a chance with her?”

“I told her last night to stop living in the past and see how much you are working trying to prove you love to her.”

Rally sat up straighter in his seat at his friend’s confession. “Why would you do that for me? I thought you were in love with Sage? It doesn’t make sense for you to help me.”

“What I may or may not feel won’t ever compete with this thing the two of you share. Sage is yours. She has always been and always will be. Now, all you have to do is prove to her that you know it as well.”

Standing up, he stared down at Julian. He thought he was going to come in here and tell Julian something, but his friend turned the tables of him. He told him why he had to keep fighting for Sage.

“You’re a good guy,” he said.

“I’ve been told that more than once.” Julian sighed. “I just hope one day it brings me a woman like Sage into my life.”

“I know it will. Just be patient. You never know what is waiting for you around the corner.”

Getting up from his seat, Rally turned away and walked right back out the door with thoughts of Sage filling his head. He wouldn’t be able to let her leave dinner tonight without her knowing what she truly meant to him.

Chapter Twenty-One

“Dinner was amazing,” Sage said, taking a seat next to him on the couch. “I’d forgotten what an excellent cook you are.”

“Thank you,” Rally said. “I don’t get to do much of it now since you and Shawn moved out. I liked fixing your favorite meal for you tonight.” Honestly, he would have eaten ramen noodles if that meant Sage would be here with him right now.

All the while he was at work, he couldn’t get his conversation with Julian out of his head. He had already wasted too much time with Sage and he didn’t want to spend any more trying to think of ways to win her back. She told him more than once to tell her the truth, and tonight he was going to do it.

“I want to tell you something.” Reaching for her glass, he took it out of her hand and placed it on a table behind the couch along with his. “I should have told you this a very long time ago, but I was scared. I didn’t think you were mature enough yet to handle it.”

Sage frowned. “I’m not following you.”

“I never got involved with Vanity because I thought she would be the perfect woman for me. A wedding wasn’t ever going to be in our future, but I had to have someone there to keep me away from you. You were the main reason I stayed with her for so long.”

“I don’t think I want to hear this. I thought I was coming over here to have a romantic dinner with you, not drag up things from the past, especially Vanity.” She started to stand up, but he pulled her back down.

“No, you need to hear this. I talked to Julian today after I saw you and he opened up my eyes. I couldn’t believe how foolish I had been behaving until he pointed it out to me. Sage, I’ve been in love with you since the day I kissed you on my birthday.

“However, my emotions scared the hell out of me. How could I ask you at such a young age to give up all of your dreams to be with me? Your time in the world was just beginning and to snatch that way from you would have been wrong.

“So, mistakenly I got involved with Vanity hoping she could a replacement for you. Yet, I was wrong. All she made me do was see how much I truly loved you, but when I was ready to tell you the truth you quit and moved on to a new job, then Julian.

“I swear that day I saw you kissing him, I felt like my entire world was over. I couldn’t breathe. I lost count of how many sleepless nights I had. Even Shawn noticed the change in me and I think that’s why he came to see you. He was concerned I was only going to get worse instead of better.”

“Rally, I─”

“Shhh…please let me finish,” he said, cutting Sage off. “I have been holding this in for way too long and you deserve to hear every single word.”

Sage nodded at him, but she didn’t say another word. Closing his eyes, Rally got himself together before he opened them again. Every single word had to come from his heart or they would mean nothing.