But what did a bad marriage do to a person? Or even more apt, what happened if one person was happy in the marriage, but the other person felt trapped?
The unspoken questions hung in the air. Aidan knew he could be happy making a life with Kate. He would move mountains to make her happy and make the marriage a good one. But he certainly could not make it work if Kate didn’t try too.
“You have to concentrate on the good, not the problems,” Daniel continued. “If that’s spin, then I don’t know why it is such a bad word. It is worth it. You love Kate, don’t you?”
Aidan took a moment and let the words of wisdom sink in. He thought about his brother’s question. Did he love Kate? Since Veronica had walked out, he hadn’t let himself love anyone except his daughter.
He’d been open to seeing women and the possibility of relationships. But love?
“What does love even mean?” Aidan deflected. “It is just a word. Veronica promised she would love me until death parted us and look how that ended up. Kate promised the same thing in Vegas and then she didn’t even remember what she’d said. The next day, she wanted to pretend like it didn’t even happen. Love is a disposable word. I think it’s nothing more than a fleeting feeling.”
“But you love Chloe, right?” Daniel said.
“Of course, but a father’s love for his daughter is different than the kind of love we’re talking about.”
“Or is it? I can see that you believe in love. You just don’t like the word.”
Aidan shifted in his seat, bracing his forearms on the desk. “I believe in walking the walk, not talking the talk. Love is just a word. Actions mean a lot more than words. And when did you become a shrink?”
Daniel wasn’t just talking the talk, either. He was probably tapping into something that Aidan had buried deep in his psyche. Even if that wasn’t the case, Daniel and Elle were an example—living proof—that a couple could overcome seemingly insurmountable odds and come out the right side of love after Daniel caused Elle’s former fiancé to leave her at the altar.
Aside from romantic love, in the familial arena, Daniel had been the one to brood over the losses they had sustained when they were younger. Aidan had always taken the view that the random hand that fate had dealt him would never define him. Though he had mourned the loss of their parents who had been killed in an automobile accident, leaving them alone, he had been able to believe in love until Veronica had abandoned Chloe and him.
She had left him with a newborn baby and hadn’t looked back. Aidan had been too busy to brood over the loss. He had been too in awe and a little afraid of the beautiful little life that had been left in his inexperienced hands. Maybe subconsciously he had been determined to be unfazed by Veronica’s walking out because he didn’t want Chloe to feel any less loved or like it was her fault. He had channeled all his time, energy and love into his baby girl.
“It doesn’t take a PhD to see that you’re more affected by the past than you’re admitting,” Daniel said. “If you don’t love Kate, how do you expect this marriage to work? Is it even fair to her? It is like you’re saying, Be my wife, but by the way, I don’t love you.”
The words hit Aidan in a vulnerable place. In his mind he heard her voice and the question she had asked him that day they had been packing up her house.
“I didn’t say I don’t love her. I just don’t like saying... I just don’t—” Aidan made a growling sound and scrubbed the heels of his hands over his eyes. “Just because I don’t live in the past doesn’t mean I haven’t come to terms with it. Maybe I’m better at the spin than I gave me credit for. Because rather than moping, I’ve moved on, but I just refuse to repeat the same mistakes—”
Like tying the knot with a woman who doesn’t want to be married to me?
A litany of words that Aidan had conditioned himself never to say in front of Chloe exploded in his head like a long string of fireworks.
Okay. Fine. That was exactly what he had done by marrying Kate in Vegas. He had repeated the exact same frigging mistake.
At least Daniel, who sat there with a knowing look on his face, had the good sense not to point out the obvious.
This conversation was going nowhere. Or at least nowhere he wanted to go.
“You know, you’re right,” Aidan said.
Daniel’s brows arched, and he could virtually read the Glory, hallelujah sounding in his brother’s mind at Aidan conceding the fight.
“If my marriage is going to work—and I’ll be dammed if it won’t—I need to come at this from a more positive place. Kate’s aloofness is not a problem. It is a challenge. Love is a ridiculous word and it has nothing to do with this. I need to make a big gesture to show her that I’m in this for the long haul. I’m going to get her an engagement ring and propose the right way. I know she will love that, and we will start planning that wedding she wants to have with her family and friends. Before we told the family about the marriage, she told me she was worried about losing herself if she got married. She’s independent and that’s one of the things I love about her. I think it might help if she had something that was just hers. Something in addition to the salon. And I know exactly what that thing is.”
“Do tell,” Daniel said.
“At Gigi and Charles’s party, Zelda pulled me aside and said they were ready to move forward with the spa at the Forsyth Galloway Inn. She asked me to draw up
