Loving a Man Who Forgot Me Novel Chapter 87
“Something like that. My point is, you knew even back then that it was her.”
I looked out over the stage at the back of Abbi’s head. “Sometimes that’s not enough.
Sometimes the best thing you can do for the person you love is let them go.” He snorted. “You sound just like me. A damn sorry fool.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” I glowered. “You trying to do the noble thing. It’s a bunch of self-sacrificing, cowardly, horse shit. That’s what it is.” “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, I know exactly what I’m talking about. I know better than anyone. I did what I thought was the right thing once. I did what I thought was best for the girl I loved. I let her go because I was no good for her, because I knew in the long run, I was only going to hurt her.
But by making that choice for her, I took her choice away, and you are doing the same damn thing.” “I didn’t take her choice away. She knows how I feel. She made her choice. She chose someone else.”
“Did she really? Did you really give her one? Did you put it all out there, lay it all on the line? She knows how you feel, or you manned up and told her outright to choose you?” I scowled and clamped my jaw tightly.
“Take it from someone who knows all about living with regret, you don’t want that, son.” He smacked me on the shoulder and then retreated, leaving me to mull over his words, not even really able to listen to what was being said from the stage.
Dinner wrapped, and the next thing I knew, Aiden was welcoming the first artist of the night on stage. Sophie Wright, a nineteen-year-old who’d been a runner-up on a singing competition show, slipped past me and onto the small stage.
She opened with two original songs that I expected to hear on the radio before long, and then it was my dad and uncles walking out there to the overzealous cheers of the crowd. I’d never heard so many moms losing their minds. It would have been funny if it wasn’t so gross because it was my dad and my uncles.
They performed two songs from their upcoming comeback album as we’d taken to calling it, and after they finished, my dad announced me before he and my uncles stepped off stage. With heavy strides, I walked out there, guitar in hand and stomach in my throat.
I’d planned to play acoustic renditions of two of Rebel Cry’s more popular hits, but as I settled onto the stool front and center, I made a choice. I plucked a few chords and then adjusted the mic, looking out at the audience. “How you guys doing tonight?”
Cheers and hollers reverberated through the room. I strummed a little more. “Did my brother and the students and staff at Darlington kick ass putting this event together or what?” More cheers.
“I think about all the stupid choices I’ve made in the past, I’m sure some of you heard about my arrest a few weeks back, and while I wasn’t drunk or drinking and driving like some of the media reported, I still had a drink that night.
I still had a bottle of alcohol sitting in my car, and even if I wasn’t drunk, I think about how all it takes is one moment of distraction,” I continued to strum quietly while I talked, “one moment of delayed reflexes, or a slowed reaction, and that could be it.
” I stopped strumming, pressing my hand against the strings to silence the guitar. “It could be over for you, or for someone else, in an instant. It could be over for a young mom and her baby girl like Molly and Amelia.
So I pray that you leave here tonight when this is all over and take that with you. If you’ve had a drink, call a ride.
Don’t risk your life or someone else’s. And if you see someone about to get behind the wheel that you know shouldn’t, and young people in the room I’m especially talking to you, have the guts to say something.
You have to live with your choices for the rest of your life, and so do those affected.” Applause rang out and then I straightened up a little on the stool and adjusted my guitar on my lap
. “Now I’m going to play a little something for you that you might recognize but haven’t ever heard this way before.” I plucked the intro to a song I’d written about two years back called Trouble on My Mind. It had risen quickly on the charts and was one of our most popular hits.
This group went wild for the raw version with the slowed down melody I played for them. They stood and hollered and whistled when it ended. I waved them all back into their seats with my hand and leaned into the mic again.
“Now this next one is a surprise. I didn’t even know I was going to play it for you guys until a few minutes ago. It’ll be on the new Ashes and Embers record, but you guys get to be the first to hear it.
I wrote it about a month ago, and I’m a little nervous to play it for y’all because I have to tell you a secret. The girl I wrote it about is here tonight and I think she’s going to be mad at me when she hears it, but sometimes . . . sometimes you gotta just put it all on the line, so here is The Same Mistake.”
I plucked the first chords and swallowed my nerves down, my eyes involuntarily seeking her out. She stood just off to the side of the room, next to Aiden, my mom, and Headmaster Higgins, who’d never been a big fan of mine. Maybe because all I did was cause trouble in her school.
My eyes snared Abbi’s wide ones and held them for a brief moment, before I tore mine away and let the words out that I needed her to hear. Even if they changed nothing. “I hung your love in the sky To light my way I lost faith, I lost sight And I lost my way.”