“Yeah, I’ll give him that. How many women have heard the old, ‘My mother wants me to break up with you so that I can focus on my job and securing my future’?”

“I guess his mommy was right,” Gwen mused, “because I heard he got married three months later.”

“I never liked him anyway,” Wendy admitted. “He actually told me all about his prostate exam in great detail! Who does that? Even Peter guards that like some kind of secret man ritual.”

Giggling, Gwen stood and hugged her sister, more thankful than ever to have someone who never gave up on her. Maybe she should run Peter off so she and Wendy could be old spinsters together. “Thanks for listening, sis. Now, please promise me that no matter how much I beg, you won’t let me replace my phone this weekend. I don’t want to break down and call or text him and it certainly wouldn’t hurt for him to wonder what I’m doing like I have him this week.”

Throwing up her hand for a high five, Wendy sang out, “Ohhh yeahhh, baby! I’ll lock you in your room this weekend if I have to. By Monday, you will be well rested and ready to take on the world. Oh . . . no e-mail, either. I’ll hide my laptop. Let the man see that you’ve got a life with or without him. You know, I’ve always said that if you act like a doormat, then that’s exactly how people will treat you.”

Peter, obviously deciding to brave another trip into the kitchen, tossed out, “It’s true, kiddo. I hate to turn on my brothers-in-arms, but I’ve got friends who go through one woman after another. The common theme seems to be that they have no respect unless there’s some kind of mystery or a chase. If the woman is too available, they quickly lose interest and move on.”

“Pigs,” Wendy grumbled under her breath.

Peter threw an arm around his wife’s shoulders, pulling her in for a side hug. “Honey, I wore out the soles of my shoes chasing after you.” Wendy rolled her eyes, but Gwen could see the faint tinge of pink on her sister’s cheeks. “I fell in love with this woman way back in junior high,” Peter continued, “and she wouldn’t have anything to do with me. I had chased her for a solid year before she agreed to go out with me in our freshman year of high school. I embarrassed myself by spending most of my time thinking of ways to keep her while she spent her time doing things that didn’t involve me at all.” Dropping a kiss on Wendy’s nose, Peter admitted with a wry grin, “It drove me absolutely crazy. I knew I’d do whatever it took to marry her, and I jumped through hoops for years until I finally wore her down.”

In an uncharacteristic show of affection, Wendy pulled Peter’s head down to her level and kissed him. “I loved you all along, baby. I just needed to know that no matter what, you were in it for the long haul with me.”

As her sister and brother-in-law seemed determined to relive their love, Gwen thought it was a good time to slip away to her room for a much-needed nap. As she settled back on the bed in the guest room, she thought over Wendy and Peter’s advice. She had to admit, in the past, when she felt that things were beginning to deteriorate with a man, she panicked and did everything she could to keep him. Could it be that by doing that, she was actually dooming herself to yet another failure? Sadly, Wendy was right; she hadn’t truly loved any of the men she had previously dated so why had she wanted to keep them? Was it more of a fear of failure than the actual desire not to lose the person?

She didn’t want to lose Dominic, but this time she was going to try something new. She was going to do the exact opposite of what she’d always done and see what happened. She would take each day as she normally would, enjoy Dominic’s company when the opportunity presented itself, and just stop overthinking every little aspect of their relationship. Did she really want to keep someone who didn’t want to be with her? The answer to that was no, not anymore. If she was still single when she was eighty, it was a better alternative than being with someone who didn’t love her in the way that Peter loved Wendy. She was tired of being a distant second and third to everything in a man’s life. If Dominic didn’t feel the need to make her his priority, then he wasn’t worthy of her. Maybe she had made her other relationships worse by trying to hang on and make them work, but if the other person had truly valued her, then it wouldn’t have been necessary to begin with.

It was in no way their fault, but Gwen had always envied the relationship between Peter and Wendy. She thought it was a big reason that she’d felt compelled to attempt to save each of her failing romances. Her sister was always so content and happy with Peter even before they got married. Gwen wanted the same and kept searching for it in each new man that she met. And each time it ended, she kept thinking that if she could just be what the other person wanted and needed, then she would have her Prince Charming, too. She had felt like a failure as a woman for years, when in reality, maybe she had yet to meet the one man who was meant for her. She had been trying to shove a square puzzle piece into a spot meant for a circle and growing more and more frustrated when it didn’t fit.

As much as she had come to care for him in such a short amount of time, Gwen had to accept the fact that Dominic might not feel the same way as she did. All she really knew for certain was that for once, it was up to him—the man in her life—to show her that he was worthy of her. Although it felt somewhat terrifying to let go of her need to make him into Mr. Right, she knew that if the pieces were to ever fit, then he had to want to solve the puzzle himself.