She looked up at him. “Because you looked like someone who needed to be chosen out loud.”
He had never forgotten that sentence.
Not in two years of college overseas. Not in the years of building the company. Not during the relationship that lasted nearly two years and ended because he was honest enough with himself to understand what was missing. He had carried that sentence the way certain people carry particular songs — not constantly in the front of the mind, but always somewhere in the architecture.
At the end of the night,
Uncle Ray pulled up to Charlotte’s house and sat diplomatically still while Tyler walked her to the door.
Under the porch light, she held his hand and said: “I had a really good night. Thank you.”
“I should be thanking you.”
She shook her head. “I asked because I wanted to go with you. That was real.”
