Dreaming of the Billionaire 3 by Alice Bright Page A

perfect to me, but I know I’m just getting a glimpse of what her world is like.
    The decision to move back to Pinebluff after years away must have been difficult.
    It must have been horrifying.
    She offers me a cup of tea and I nod, gratefully accepting the warm drink. I sip it slowly as she continues.
    “I can’t tell you what to do, but I can tell you that when Sean hurt me, I was very scared. I can also tell you that he changed that night. He started going to counseling regularly. He joined a support group. He even went to church for awhile. Talking with people and surrounding himself with others who have been there really helped Sean. He really managed to get everything under control. That’s when his dad gave him the job at Strongdelt.”
    So Sean hadn’t just been a shoe-in for the position. Interesting.
    “I left Sean,” Tiffany tells me, “but we didn’t stop being friends. While I was away, we kept in touch through phone calls and emails. We still talk now, though not as frequently, and we work much better as friends than we did as lovers. I wasn’t ready for a serious relationship. I wasn’t ready for the work it took.” She shrugs. “I met Tom about two years after Sean and I broke up and it was very different. It was almost perfect from the start. We only dated a few months before we decided to get married.”
    Now she smiles and sips her drink, basking in the warmth of her sweet memories. I wonder, for just a second, if I could ever have with Sean what Tiffany has with Tom. When I left his house the other night, I couldn’t even think straight. I know I probably should have stayed and talked more, but I couldn’t. I needed to be alone. I needed time to process what he had just told me.
    Finding Tiffany’s contact information hadn’t been hard, but I had been terrified when I emailed her and asked if she would meet with me. You always hear stories about bitchy ex-wives and ex-girlfriends who have it out for the new girl. To my surprise – and good luck – she hadn’t been that way at all. If anything, Tiffany had been more than happy to help me and to talk with me about what to expect.
    “I don’t want to lose Sean,” I say timidly. “I’m crazy about him.”
    “He feels the same way about you, Sweetie.”
    I raise an eyebrow. He told her? Of course he did. She said they keep in touch. He must have told her he found someone.
    “I just…part of me is scared. I know he has things mostly under control, but he still has bad days.”
    Tiffany shrugs.
    “Everyone has bad days. Whether or not you have PTSD, we all have issues. You just have to decide whether or not Sean is worth the difficulty, the struggle, the work. I can’t tell you what to do, Violet. You have to decide that for yourself.”
    I know that she’s right, but she’s not making this any easier. How do you decide whether to keep trying when you’re faced with something like this? What if Sean and I get married and he has another bad dream and he hurts me? What if he slumps into a deep depression and he can’t crawl out of it? What if I can’t drag him out of it?
    “Violet,” Tiffany’s voice breaks my thoughts, forcing me to return to the present. “I know that it’s scary.”
    I nod. She’s right. It’s scary.
    It’s terrifying.
    “But,” she continues. “War trauma is not the end of the world. Life goes on. Sean has moved on, but he’s still going to have bouts of depression, Sweetie. That’s part of who he is now. He’s still going to have days where it’s a struggle just to get out of bed, where he can’t bear the thought of going to work, where his nightmares are eating him alive. That’s his life. You can be a part of it or not, but he’s told you exactly what you’re getting into.”
    “Yeah,” I know what she’s saying. I can give up and quit, losing something that could be truly spectacular, or I can stay and fight for what I want. “You’re right. It’s not like we’ve been going out