"Mary Taffs - Celtic Knot" - читать интересную книгу автора (Taffs Mary)

- I love you, too!"

This was how it was supposed to feel! She'd always known love didn't feel right with Tony. It was too
calm, too everyday, not at all like this crazy euphoria.
Except he didn't seem to share her happiness. He looked - troubled? "What's wrong?"

"You're married, that's what's wrong!" He spun away and stalked off a few feet. "You can't mean that the
way I want you to." He threw himself onto a nearby bench.

She sat at the opposite end, careful to keep a few inches between their bodies. "I don't know how you
want me to mean it, but I love you so much I've been dying inside ever since you told me you were
leaving."

"So you'll miss me - big deal. I'll miss you, too - every minute of every day for the rest of my life."

"Me, too," she said quietly, knowing it was true. "But what can I say to make you believe me?"

She wasn't sure he was going to answer, but finally he turned to her and said, "Divorce your husband and
come to Chicago with me." His jaw tensed and he blew out a breath. "I know that's asking a lot, but I
take love very seriously. I'm not in the market to be a bored woman's plaything. Either you love me
enough to walk away from everything you have here, or it's not enough." He shook his head in disgust.
"I'm sorry - this is ridiculous. I should have kept my mouth shut." Before she could respond, he stood and
started back toward the car.

She sat on the bench, only a few feet from a cliff no higher than the one he was asking her to jump off.
She wondered how frightening it would be to take that final step, and how painful the fall would be. But
the answers didn't truly matter. She had no choice.
***
A week later, everything was different. Scott had spent almost every moment of the intervening days with
Carolyn, and it was clearer than ever that what he felt for her was true love. And miracle of miracles, she
loved him, too!

He knelt here today, on the ground in the same park where he'd confessed his love. Carolyn knelt facing
him, and they recited together the vows they'd written. "You are my friend, my lover, and my soul mate.
My love for you will never end. I pledge to you my heart, my soul, and my life, as long as the strands of
this knot intertwine." And then, they slipped the Celtic knot rings onto each other's right ring fingers.

The jeweler yesterday had told them that the Celtic knot pattern dated back a thousand years or more. It
was a symbol of eternal love because the knot had no beginning and no end, but instead turned in on
itself forever. These rings were made of thin strands of gold, braided together, with small open areas in
between the strands.

Carolyn had originally argued against this ceremony and these rings. She felt that their love, in itself, was
enough. And it was plenty - more than plenty - for most purposes.

But not when he had to leave on Sunday without her. She would join him in Chicago soon, but not yet.
Her husband had been away on business for the last several weeks, and she insisted on breaking the
news to him in person. As much as Scott hated the prospect of being apart from her for even a single
day, he had to admire her for not taking the easy way out.