Bellie’s Reviews > The Tender Days of May > Status Update

Idk man. I think it was good. It was a good read though. The dark parts of the book when he was bobbing around the slums were pretty dark. The details are there. Ray character is very interesting.

Her hands went up and caressed his hair, and every little touch resonated in his heart, healing the scars that had been open for the longest time. 
“But you still didn’t answer, May. Will you marry me?”
She chuckled, trying to hold the tears, her heart ready to explode from overwhelming joy.
“Yes,” she didn’t say but whispered so as if not to scare away his soul that was just starting to wake up.”

And her eyes lit up like an ocean from within its depth, like a thousand lights that shot through the darkness all the way into his soul. He could see the emotions that swelled in them, ready to spill down her cheeks with tears, and he blinked slowly, trying to smile, for he never thought his words could have so much effect on anyone.

“Tell me, Ray,” she whispered. And he finally said it, barely audible as if he was afraid of his own words.
“Because I love you.”

“Tell me why?”
She looked in his eyes, and it was all there—his admittance of what he was and what he could be. Of what he was afraid more than pain and darkness.
The darkness in him was afraid of light. And the answer was gazing back at him through the bluish-gray eyes that were reaching the darkest corners of his soul.

“Will you marry me?”
He gazed at her, tense from uncertainty.
She shook her head, still not understanding.“Why?”
He closed his eyes.
Why did it have to be so complicated?
“Why, Ray?” she insisted, looking at him. “You asked me all these things about what I want. But why would you want to marry me?”
He looked at her and tried to smile but failed.“Just say yes.”
She shook her head again.

She was suddenly overly cheerful, hiding her emotions. “Would you like a drink?” she asked, pouring him one without waiting for a reply, her hands slightly shaking.
“No,” he answered, watching her, his heart heavy with reeling emotions. “I don’t want a drink, May. I want you to be my wife,” he said, and it stopped her in her tracks.

No other woman had ever loved him for what he was without wanting anything in return. How could she accept all this, all of him? Worse—why did he feel so scared, yet realized he was willing to jeopardize everything to be with the woman who gazed at him with more tenderness than his heart could handle? He looked at May in astonishment and wanted to crush the world around and bring it to her feet.

“Life is not a battle, Ray. Love is certainly not.” She walked up to him, lifted her hand, and stroked his face, searching his eyes for the understanding. “Life is what you think it is. Your words,” she said softly. “I think life is love. I thought it all along, and meeting you proved it.”
Lord Ashbee felt a lump in his throat. He wanted to scream, to cry, to take her in his arms and not ever let go.

“How can you say you’ll be fine marrying another man while you love me?”
She didn’t respond.
“If your feelings are so great,” he continued, “how can you stand here and smile while telling me you are going to marry someone else? How can you dance at the party and laugh at the jokes and act happy knowing that you are not going to be with me?”