“Sometimes you grabbed my hand and begged me not to go.”
“What did you say?”
“I told you I wasn’t going anywhere.”
I couldn’t speak.
“I know it was unprofessional,” she said. “You were my patient. But I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”
“Then Rachel came.”
“So we talked?”
“Yes. She said she was your girlfriend. She asked me to help pack your things.”
“My jacket. My phone.”
“Yes.”
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She swallowed.
“When I picked up your jacket, something fell out of the pocket.”
I knew before she said it.
“Then Rachel came.”
“A small box.”
“The ring.”
“I said, ‘Is this yours?’ And she opened it.”
“What did she say?”
“She asked if you’d mentioned it to anyone. I said no.”
“And?”
I knew before she said it.
“She closed the box and said, ‘Nothing.’ That’s when I realized you were going to propose.”
“What did you do?”
“I felt ashamed. I was falling for a man who already had someone.”
“So you left.”
“I asked for a transfer. I never said goodbye.”
She was crying again.
“The ring.”
“For three years I thought you two got married.”
“Rachel and me?”
“When I saw you at the café, I realized Rachel had left you.”
“Because she found out about the ring?”
“Yes. I thought it would bring you closer. But it did the opposite.”
“Rachel left me days after the accident.”
“What did you do?”
“Oh God, Matt. I thought it was my fault.”
“Hannah.”
“If I hadn’t dropped that box, she might have stayed!”
“Stop.”
“She might have…”
“Hannah. Look at me.”
“Rachel and me?”
She did.
“Rachel made her own choice. You didn’t make it for her.”
I thought about that “everything” again.
She’d already seen the ring when she said it.
Maybe the thought of marrying a man who couldn’t walk scared her more than the crash had.
“I used to think she was my future,” I said. “But she left when it counted. A ring wouldn’t have changed that.”
“If I hadn’t dropped that box, she might have stayed!”
She wiped her cheeks.
“All this time I thought you were married.”
“Nope.”
“And happy.”
“I wasn’t. Not for a long while.”
“Until?”
“Oh God, Matt. I thought it was my fault.”
“Until some woman nearly burned her kitchen down with my cake.”
She laughed through her tears.
“Why did you run from the café?” I asked.
“I saw your face, and I panicked. I’d been thinking about that young guy in the hospital bed for years. And suddenly he was sitting in front of me.”
“And you thought you’d wrecked my life.”
“All this time I thought you were married.”
“Yes.”
“And I thought you ran because of the chair.”
“Matt.” She shook her head. “I fell for you while you were lying in that hospital bed.”
I couldn’t say a word.
“And then I fell for you all over again without even knowing it was you.”
Something clicked in my head.
“Why did you run from the café?”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“When I first woke up after the accident, was Rachel there?”
“No. Not yet.”
“Then who was holding my hand?”
She looked at me.
Something clicked in my head.
“I was.”
“You were crying.”
“A little.”
“Why?”
“Because you kept begging me not to leave.”
She squeezed my hand the same way she had that night.
“Then who was holding my hand?”
“And I promised I wouldn’t.”
For three years I’d thought it was Rachel.
It was Hannah, all along.
I smiled.
“Well, you did leave once.”
She laughed.
“Because you kept begging me not to leave.”
“Only because I thought you belonged to someone else.”
“And now?”
“Now I know better.”
I pulled her close and kissed her.
