Message in a Bottle - Nicholas Sparks [101]
“You were kind of quiet tonight,” Theresa said.
They were back in her apartment, sitting on the couch with the radio playing softly in the background.
“I guess I didn’t have much to say.”
She took his hand and spoke quietly. “I’m glad you were with me when Deanna told me the news.”
“I’m happy for you, Theresa. I know it means a lot to you.”
She smiled uncertainly. Changing the subject, she asked: “Did you have a good time talking to Brian?”
“Yeah… he’s easy to get along with.” He paused. “But I’m not very good in groups, especially when I’m sort of outside the loop. I just…” He stopped, considering whether he should say anything else, and decided not to.
“What?”
He shook his head. “Nothing.”
“No—what were you going to say?”
After a moment he answered, choosing his words carefully. “I was just going to say that this whole weekend has been strange for me. The show, expensive dinners, going out with your friends…” He shrugged. “It isn’t what I expected.”
“Aren’t you having a good time?”
He ran his hands through his hair, looking uncomfortable again. “It’s not that I haven’t had fun. It’s just…” He shrugged. “It’s not me. None of this is anything I’d normally do.”
“That’s why I planned the weekend like I did. I wanted to introduce you to new things.”
“Why?”
“For the same reason you wanted me to learn how to dive—because it’s something exciting, something different.”
“I didn’t come up here to do something different. I came up here to spend some quiet time with you. I haven’t seen you for a long time, and ever since we’ve been up here, it seems like we’ve been rushing from place to place. We haven’t even had a chance to talk yet and I’m leaving tomorrow.”
“That’s not true. We were alone at dinner last night, and again at the museum today. We’ve had plenty of time to talk.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t. What did you want to do—sit around in the apartment?”
He didn’t answer. Instead he sat quietly for a moment. Then he rose from the couch, walked across the room, and turned off the radio.
“There’s something important I’ve wanted to say since I came up here,” he said without turning around.
“What is it?”
He lowered his head. It’s now or never, he whispered to himself. Finally turning around and gathering his courage, he took a deep breath.
“I guess it’s just been really hard this past month not seeing you, and right now, I’m not sure if I want to keep going on like this.”
Her breath caught for a second.
Seeing her expression, he moved toward her, feeling a strange tightness in his chest at what he was about to say. “It’s not what you’re thinking,” he said quickly. “You’ve got it completely wrong. It’s not that I don’t want to see you anymore, I want to see you all the time.” When he reached the couch, he kneeled in front of her. Theresa looked at him, surprised. He took her hand in his.
“I want you to move to Wilmington.”
Though she’d known this was coming sometime, she hadn’t expected it to come up now, and certainly not like this. Garrett went on.
“I know it’s a big step, but if you move down, we won’t have these long periods apart anymore. We could see each other every day.” He reached up, caressing her cheek. “I want to walk the beach with you, I want to go sailing with you. I want you to be there when I get home from the shop. I want it to feel like we’ve known each other all our lives…”
The words were coming quickly, and Theresa tried to make sense of them. Garrett kept talking.
“I just miss you so much when we’re not together. I realize your job is here, but I’m sure the local paper would take you on….”
The more he talked, the more her head began to spin. To her, it almost sounded as if he were trying to recreate his relationship with Catherine. “Wait a minute,” she finally said, cutting him off. “I can’t just pick up and leave. I mean… Kevin’s in school…”
“You don’t have to come right away,” he countered. “You can wait until school is out if that would be better. We’ve made it this long—another few months won’t make