Dean said as he raised his glass. "I'll drink to that."
Cynthia's glass remained on the table. "There's something else that makes me feel guilty." Her eyes were cast downward, and her glass still in place on the table. "After I met you, I'm not sure what I'd have done if my husband walked in the door alive." Surprise was written on Dean's face. "Oh, I guess I'd have gone back to being Mrs. Byrne-I'm too accommodating to have simply left him, and I do believe in my vows. But I'd have wondered. It wouldn't have been the same." She looked across at him. "I really enjoyed your company and I shouldn't have-I didn't mourn my husband near as much as he deserved. He'd given me 20 years of marriage. But you were in love with me-admit it-almost from the first, and I knew it. And I liked it-very much." Dean smiled, but he didn't deny it. "You'd have never chased after that man Burgess so obsessively except for your feelings for me."
"Then why didn't I just forget about the whole business and hustle you? That would have made more sense," he said, lightening the conversation.
"That's why I love you and agreed to marry you. You needed to find the truth. You loved me enough to risk losing me, and almost did, just because it was the right thing to do. That's something special, Mr. Dean."
"Did you ever consider that your husband might not have drowned and just left you? Before little hints came up suggesting it?"
She nodded her head affirmatively. "I shouldn't have. Jeff wouldn't have left, especially for money. I can see that now. He was far too-comfortable. Perhaps that was the problem. I know now I wanted more from life than simple comfort." Then she said, in almost a whisper, "And now I have it."
"Thank you," he answered, matching her tone. Dean had never sought a comparison between himself and Cynthia's first husband. But it was nice to hear it-the nicest words she'd ever spoken.
He raised his manhattan and touched her glass. "To us," he said and they both drank to their future.