He Gave Her My Home So I Took Back My Life Chapter 16
Mateo looked at Nora and didn’t tell her the rest of the story.
That year, he had just arrived in the city from a small town. His only close relative had recently died, and then there had been a problem with his financial aid. Standing there with his belongings at his feet, he had thought, however briefly, that maybe he didn’t belong here at all.
Then Nora had stopped in front of him, wearing a white dress, fresh from giving her speech.
She didn’t ask why he was in such a mess. She just held out her hand.
“Let’s get the books first. We can solve the rest after that.”
Later, she would use “group projects” as an excuse to slide expensive reference books onto his desk. In the cafeteria, she would casually mention she’d bought too much lunch again.
She thought she was being subtle.
He remembered every single time.
After graduation, Mateo scraped by on scholarships, then earned his first fortune with his company. When he launched his first preservation project, Nora was the first person he thought of.
He returned to Savannah with an invitation for her, only to see the news of her engagement to Graham Ashford in a newspaper stand on a street corner.
In the photo, she was smiling gently.
Mateo stood there for a long time. In the end, he slipped the invitation back into his briefcase and walked away.
In the years that followed, business associates were always trying to introduce him to women.
He never accepted.
Because no one could replace the girl in the white dress, and no one could replace the hand she had once held out to him.
“Nora.”
Mateo gathered himself and took the plans from her hand.
“I’ll handle the second floor. You go take a look at the backyard.”
He didn’t mention those difficult years.
He didn’t tell her that even if she still thought of him only as a colleague, he didn’t mind.
At last, he had a chance to stand beside her. There was a lifetime ahead. He would take his time and show her that someone could respect every choice she made and honor every boundary she set.
And he didn’t tell her he had waited for her for eight years.