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Back First Comes Love Save as PDF
Chapters (92)
  1. First
  2. Love Connection
  3. Zero
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. One Month Later
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Six Months Later
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-one
  27. Twenty-two
  28. Twenty-three
  29. Twenty-four
  30. Six Months Later
  31. Twenty-five
  32. Twenty-six
  33. Twenty-seven
  34. Twenty-eight
  35. Twenty-nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-one
  38. Thirty-two
  39. Thirty-three
  40. I Have Never
  41. One
  42. Two
  43. Three
  44. Four
  45. Five
  46. Six
  47. Seven
  48. Eight
  49. Nine
  50. Ten
  51. Eleven
  52. Twelve
  53. Thirteen
  54. Fourteen
  55. Fifteen
  56. Sixteen
  57. Seventeen
  58. Eighteen
  59. Nineteen
  60. Twenty
  61. Twenty-one
  62. Twenty-two
  63. A Christmas Date
  64. One
  65. Two
  66. Three
  67. Four
  68. Five
  69. Six
  70. Seven
  71. Eight
  72. Nine
  73. Ten
  74. Eleven
  75. Twelve
  76. Thirteen
  77. Fourteen
  78. Fifteen
  79. Sixteen
  80. Seventeen
  81. Eighteen
  82. Nineteen
  83. Twenty
  84. Twenty-one
  85. Twenty-two
  86. Note from the Author
  87. Sneak Peek – To the Stars and Back
  88. Two
  89. Three
  90. Four
  91. Also by Camilla Isley
  92. About the Author

“Gem, I’m not sure I want to get married again; I’m not even divorced yet. And before you say anything,” she raises a silencing finger at me, “it’s not about Dylan. I don’t want to do the whole wedding thing again, like ever.”

“Is it just the wedding you have a problem with, or is it marriage per se?”

She shrugs. “As I said—this may sound stupid—but I feel last time, getting married ruined everything with William.”

“But it wasn’t because you got engaged that everything crumbled between you two. You weren’t right for each other.”

“Mmm, I’ve been racking my brain, trying to decide when it all started to go wrong. I told you the year before the wedding is a bit of a fuzz. But before that, I’ve tried to remember when it was that I started loving him less and less and when he drifted away from me… but I can’t pinpoint a moment.”

“There wouldn’t be a specific moment to choose from. Not when it happened so slowly.”

“But was it a coincidence that Will began his affair around the time he proposed?”

“No, but it didn’t start because he proposed.”

“Why then?”

“Okay, I’m not an oracle here, so I don’t presume to have a universal knowledge of why Will did what he did. But when he proposed, you guys were probably already having problems…”

“But that’s the thing,” Amelia interrupts me. “From what I remember, we were doing just fine.”

“On the surface maybe, but deep down you probably both sensed something was amiss. And you ignored the thought because it was a scary one. You guys had been together for so long, neither of you could face the idea of leaving the other. So maybe—mmm, subconsciously—getting engaged was a way for you to throw your hearts over the fence. You were drifting apart, and instead of letting go, you found a way to cling to each other even more.”

“So your theory is we got engaged out of fear? I remember being happy when Will proposed; I remember him being happy.”

“As I said, I don’t assume I have all the right answers, but think about it—were you happy-happy or more… mmm… relieved-happy?”

Amelia blinks at me. “Oh. I see what you’re saying. When Will proposed, I felt suddenly lighthearted and took it for happiness. But according to you, I was just relieved I didn’t have to break up with Will, or even begin to think about breaking up with him, because if he was proposing, surely he was the right man for me. And he probably got the same reassurance when I said, ‘Yes.’ So if this is what happened, why start an affair a minute later?”