Adam stood with his hands in his pockets, taking deep breaths. Okay, the last time he’d talked to Rylee’s Dad had been years ago. He’d always been intimidating, so Adam didn’t know where to start. He didn’t have to, though, because Mr Sinclair fired a shot right at his heart with his first statement.
“You know that you broke her heart, right?”
Adam winced. “Yes, sir.” He turned around and looked at him. This was the only way they could have this conversation, face to face. “But at this point it was the right thing to do. At least that’s what I thought at the time.”
“How can you think, breaking her heart like this would be a good idea?” Mr Sinclair crossed his arms over his chest. He’d always liked Adam up until that day, when his daughter had come home crying, not able to say a word to them for the whole day.
“She came home and hardly ate anything for days, nearly a week. She didn’t talk to us that much, but we managed to find out what had happened. She was a mess. The only person she wanted to talk to, was you, but she knew that she couldn’t do that, because you had broken up with her. You were always there for her and all of a sudden that changed. Why?”
Adam listened to everything he had to say. He hadn’t known that it had been that bad. He hadn’t been able to eat for a couple of days as well, but his coach had made him do so. He’d only done it for her.
“Because I loved her. I loved her so much that I couldn’t just take her with me.” Adam sighed and looked down for a moment. He had to gather his thoughts before he could look up again. “Her life as here, her family, her friends. I wanted her with me so bad, but I couldn’t expect her to go with me. So I had to set her free. I wanted her to live her life and do with it what she wanted. She would have had to take into account where I worked and lived, had she come with me.”
Rylee’s father still stared at him. There was no change in his face or in his posture. He still looked as grim as when he’d opened the door.
“Hell, I even wanted to marry her,” Adam added a little more quiet.
“What?” Mr Sinclair’s eyes widened.
“Yeah. I had my grandma’s ring and everything, but I figured that I couldn’t do it.” Adam’s shoulder’s sunk. He’d never told anybody about this, because it had never come to the point where he could have asked the question. “I wanted her to live her life.” He repeated that sentence to make it clear.
That day had been horrible. Seeing in her eyes how much he’d hurt her, before the tears started falling, had been the worst thing he’d ever seen in his life. But he’d had to stay strong at that point, make it clear to her that this was the best decision, even if he didn’t believe it. Well, he thought it was the best decision for her. For him? Not so much, because he hadn’t known how to live without her.
It had broken his heart as well. Seeing her like this, going home, just an empty shell without her. It had taken him more than a year to even start dating again, and even then he’d still been hung up on her. Right up until now when he’d finally seen her again.
“Adam,” Rylee’s father spoke up, getting his attention again. “All she wanted was for you to ask her to come with you.” Adam blinked. “You could never have forced her to come with you, but if you had taken one second to ask her if she wanted to come with you, you would have found out, that this was the only thing she really wanted.” There was the first smile on Mr Sinclair’s face since Adam had set foot in the house. “She wanted to go with you and spend her life with you. She would have found a way to do what she wanted. She always does.”
“I thought I did the right thing.” Adam looked down, balling his hands to fists at his sides. He’d been so sure that she would become happy. Seeing her with that guy, though, had shown him just how wrong he’d been.
“Do you love her?”
Adam looked up immediately, shocked by this question. He hadn’t expected it, but he knew the answer without even thinking about it.
“Yes. I’ve always loved her and I never stopped loving her. All these years, she’s been on my mind, but I was too afraid to call or come by. I wanted her to be happy, but at the same time I was afraid to find out just that, because I couldn’t get over her. It’s silly, I know.”
“Well, that certainly explains, why you’re here.”
“It’s because she doesn’t answer her phone, and I had to see her, tall to her. If she tells me to go away, I will do that. But she just left without a word and I can’t accept that.”
“You do know, that she’s engaged, right?”
“Yes, to a douchebag who doesn’t deserve her,” Adam spat the words out. “She’s not happy with him. Her smile doesn’t even reach her eyes, she wears clothes she’d normally never wear. He doesn’t make her happy.”
“I know.”
“You do?”
“Well, I guessed that much.” Mr Sinclair sat down on the sofa and invited Adam to sit with him. “She always said that she was happy, she insisted on it. She was only ever really, genuinely happy, when she was with you.”
“She can’t stay with that guy.”
“I agree. But you have to promise me that you won’t break her heart again.”
“I would never do that.”
At that moment they heard the front door open. Animated chatter filled the house immediately, and Adam looked expectantly towards the entrance. He could see Rylee next to her mother. She looked like her normal self, but shock was written all over her face, when she saw Adam in her parents’ living room.