The Bound Collection

"Hello?" I answered softly. I'd been crying but hoped he didn't notice. I kept my voice quiet as I waited for him to say something.

"Bird Dog..." The sound of my nickname on his lips nearly broke me in two. No matter how hard I tried, he still lingered in the back of my mind. Our memories, those we shared together, floated to the surface.

"Hey, Gray." The sorrow was evident in my voice. I couldn't stop the hiccup or the crack of emotion as his name crossed my lips. I wasn't surprised he didn't ask me why I was crying. He should've known, but even if he didn't, at this stage in the game, he wouldn't question it. The real issue was why he was on the line with me to begin with. "Why are you calling me?"

"Do you still love me?" His question was blunt and straight to the point.

I'd asked myself that question repeatedly over the last year but wondered why he needed that answer now, of all days and times, why this instant did he want me to profess my undying love to him.

"What?" I choked on the word and then thought of him standing in a church in a tuxedo with another woman waiting to meet him at the end of an aisle. "Aren't you getting married today, Gray?"

"How did you know I was getting married today?"

"Your fiancée invited all the guys at the DC-that would include Brett. I was supposed to be his plus one." My voice was flat, exhausted like someone had kicked the emotional shit out of me and I had quit fighting. He had heard this tone before, and he knew my fatigue was his fault.

"Is Brett here?" His voice filled with sudden panic. "Shit, wait, are you here with Brett?"

Although I wanted to be in the congregation today, I couldn't find a single productive reason for my attendance and thus stayed home.

"Brett's there. I'm not. As much as I want to support you and want you to be happy, I simply couldn't watch you do it. I couldn't see you commit your life to another woman...but I'm sure it will be beautiful." The tears began to fall, and I couldn't help but cry-soft and muffled, but it was there-and there was no doubt he heard it.

"Annie, please tell me you still love me. Tell me to walk out of here right now, to come home to you. Please, Annie, tell me you want me as much now as you did then, and I'll leave, no questions asked. I'll walk out of this chapel, get in my truck, and come straight to you."

His confession shocked me, or rather his revelation, knowing his fiancée and my boyfriend were mere feet away, but it just wouldn't be Gray if he did it any differently. Here was my chance to twist fate, to change destiny.

"Annie, I'm running out of time."

The memories of the years we were together and those we've known each other flashed to the forefront of my mind as I considered what he asked. The good times, the bad, the way I loved him, and the bond we'd always shared crashed before me like images on a movie screen. I never imagined he would end up with someone else. Never in the years since we met, did I think either of us would end up anywhere but together.