“Wait until I tell Callie about this. She’ll realize that me lying about who I really was is nothing compared to sleeping with someone else to see if you like a person!” Matt laughs.
“I didn’t sleep with her!” I insist.
“Oh I know, but in my version of the story, you will have.” He grins.
“Look I’m glad you find this amusing. Don’t make me regret telling you this Matt. Tell me what I need to say to get her back. If you even think it’s possible.”
“It’s possible,” Matt says with a certainty I wish I felt.
“How can you be so sure?” I ask.
“Because of her reaction. If she didn’t care about you at all, she wouldn’t have been upset about you being with someone else. She does know you weren’t with her, with her right?”
I nod my head.
“Good. Then this is fixable. But you’re not going to like my answer.”
“Just tell me,” I say. “I’m ready to try anything.”
“Good, because actions speak louder than words. Sierra isn’t going to believe you if you just keep bombarding her with words. Especially, because you’re so useless at choosing the right ones,” he states flatly.
I glare at him and he shrugs. We both know he’s right. I roll my eyes and gesture for him to go on. I’m getting off lightly really. I expected him to relish this moment and really rub it in, but he’s not.
“You need to get out of your own head and stop being so worried about showing her how you feel,” he says.
“You’re talking in riddles, Matt. Tell me what you mean.”
“I mean you need to make a grand romantic gesture and show Sierra how much she means to you,” he says.
I had an awful feeling he was going to say this and I’m already shaking my head before he’s even finished talking. “I can’t do that. Big romance isn’t my style.”
“So let her go then,” Matt says.
“I can’t do that either.”
“Well, you need to do one or the other,” he says.
I sigh. Why can’t this be simple? Other people make it look simple. But other people probably haven’t spent so many years closed off to even the idea of love. “Ok. Let’s say I agree to do something big. What would it be?”
“I have no idea.” Matt shrugs.
“Oh thanks, that’s really useful,” I say. “Don’t spend too long thinking about it or anything.”
Matt laughs softly. “It’s not that I’m not thinking about it. It’s that I genuinely don’t know. I know what I would do for Callie, but I don’t know Sierra that well. You need to figure out what will work on her. What will show her that you’ve thought about her and that you know her inside and out. Or at the very least show her that you’re willing to put yourself out there and try.”
I nod my head slowly as I digest the idea. It’s not me, but I said I was willing to do whatever it took to get Sierra back, and I meant it. So if I have to put myself out there and risk showing myself up, then that’s what I’ll do. My mind is whirling with ideas and one keeps coming back time and time again. I keep pushing it away, worried that it’s too big, or that I’ll do it and she’ll reject me, but I know I have to try.
I stand up and smile. “I know what I’m going to do. Holy shit, I actually know what I’m going to do,” I say, starting to laugh.
I really think this might work. And if it doesn’t, then at least I won’t have any regrets. I’ll know I did everything I could to try to prove to Sierra that I can change, that I can be the man she deserves.
I head for the door and look back over my shoulder. “Thanks bro. Can you see yourself out? I have some stuff I need to take care of.”
Matt nods, laughing. “Go get her,” he shouts after me.
Oh, I intend to. I send a quick text to Sandy telling her to cancel my day and then I head to my car and start putting my plan into action.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chance
I drive along in the direction of Sierra’s house. It feels strange because I’m not in my car. I’m driving a huge truck. I never pictured myself driving a truck, but then again, I never pictured myself falling in love and making a cheesy grand romantic gesture for the woman I love.
And here’s the thing… I get it now.
Now I know what it feels like to love someone and to allow myself to admit that, the romantic gesture doesn’t feel cheesy anymore. It feels right.
I just hope Sierra sees it that way. I’m so nervous my hands keep slipping off the steering wheel where my palms are sweating. My throat is bone dry and each breath hurts a little but I don’t care. My heart is racing.
I pull up outside of her house and jump down from the truck cab. Adrenaline is flooding through my body, leaving a coppery taste in my mouth and making my legs feel like jelly. I tell myself to get a grip as I open the back doors to the truck. I grin at the sight inside. The whole truck is filled with red roses; thousands of them.
Two men sit amongst them all, ready to start taking the flowers in.
“Ready?” I ask them.
They nod and scramble out of the truck.
“Good luck,” one of them says, clapping me on the shoulder.
“Thanks,” I say.
I go back to the cab but I don’t get back in it. Instead, I lay on the horn for a few seconds, blasting out noise. I jump back from sight, watching round the edge of the truck as the men arrive at Sierra’s door with the first of the flowers.
She comes to the door, looking puzzled when she sees the truck.
“Delivery for Sierra Lowe,”
