Page 119 of The Backup Bride Proposal

“I am not,” Mae said. “As you can see, we’re in a meeting.”

“Oh, I think we can spare you, Mae,” Erin said.

Mae shot Erin a glare. “I have important agenda items.”

“They’ll hold,” Brenna said.

“Yes, we’ll table them until tomorrow,” Honor said.

With a disgusted sigh, Mae got up. “Fine. But I’ll be back before the meeting ends. This won’t take long.”

Relieved she hadn’t shut him out completely, he followed her to the front door. She grabbed her jacket and they stepped outside.

“Want to walk or sit on the bench here?” he asked.

“I don’t intend for this conversation to last long, so here is fine.”

Okay, so this was going to be a hard sell. He accepted that.

“I didn’t tell you about Everly’s relationship with Ethan because it wasn’t my story to tell. I had promised her I wouldn’t tell anyone about it.”

“I appreciate that. I also appreciate what a good friend you are for keeping Everly’s confidence. But when faced with the situation where I thought it was you kissing Everly, did it ever occur to you to set the record straight instead of letting me believe that you cheated on me? You could have just said it was some other guy, and not you.”

“I could have, yeah, but then it would have made Everly vulnerable. It was a hard place to be, Mae. I was asked not to tell anyone about her relationship with Ethan. When someone asks me to keep a secret, that’s what I do. And I know that hurt you, but I was hoping when I told you that I didn’t kiss Everly, you’d believe me.”

“I can appreciate that, but it hurt that you didn’t trust me enough to think I wouldn’t immediately go tell everyone about Everly. I can keep secrets, too, Kane.”

He shifted to face her. “I don’t have a lot of close relationships. Everly is one of them. When someone tells you something in confidence, you don’t betray that confidence. Not to anyone. If you told me something in confidence, even if not betraying that confidence would hurt someone else, I wouldn’t betray you. Not for anything. And I know it hurt you and, God, I’m sorry about that. But I just felt it wasn’t my story to tell. Was I wrong? Probably. I mean, yeah, I was. And I’m so sorry that I hurt you. You are the last person I’d want to hurt. I’m in love with you, Mae. I’ve bungled everything and I don’t exactly know what to do to fix things between us.”

Mae’s heart pounded so hard against her chest she could barely hear herself think. Listening to Kane’s words as he poured his heart out was the most honest truth she had ever heard. She knew he’d been in a tough position between her and his close friend. It wasn’t just a bunch of flowery talk, but real, honest, brutal talk. Had he screwed up? Absolutely. Was there a perfect fix? No. But wasn’t that what love and relationships were all about?

Love. He’d told her he loved her. Had she even heard that right or was that what she wanted to hear?

She finally took a seat on the bench, and Kane sat next to her.

“Trust has been a big issue for me,” she said. “And when you don’t have faith in me enough to trust me with your secrets, it hurts me.”

He took in a deep breath. “You’re right. No one and nothing should come between us. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

She believed him. She didn’t know why. Wait, she did know why. Because she loved him, because when he said something to her he meant it. Because he was loyal and true to his friends, and that would translate to her. She had to have faith and make that leap with him. It would be hard, but she had to do it. If she wanted to love again, she had to do it. And maybe that was the big thing she’d been looking for all this time, the one thing that would make her put the past away for good.

“You love me?” she asked.

“Hell yeah. Heart and soul.”

She should have been elated, so why did her heart squeeze so painfully? “Love hurts. How come it hurts so much?”

He took her hand. “Because real love can be painful sometimes. I know this because my heart hurts being without you. Because I love you so much it feels like someone has reached inside my chest and squeezed my heart, trying to break it. Because the thought of losing you is an unbearable thought that I refuse to even contemplate. I need you, Mae. I need you to be the sun in my mornings, the balm to my pain, the reasonable to my unreasonableness and the answer to all my questions. I don’t feel whole anymore unless you’re with me.”

She laid her hand on top of his. “I love you, too, Kane. When I said love hurts, I meant that it hurts to be without you. I don’t ever have the expectation that you have to be perfect. In fact, it would bother me greatly if you chased anidea of perfect, because I surely am not. So don’t try. Just be you. And just love me.”

“I do love you.” He pulled her against him and kissed her, a searing kiss that made her feel whole again. She didn’t know how long the kiss lasted, but enough that she felt warmed through and through.

When he pulled back, he swept his thumb over her bottom lip. “We’re breaking for the holidays in a couple of days. Can you take some time off?”

“I think I can arrange that. What did you have in mind?”

“I was thinking the Maldives. Just you and me and a lot of sun and sand and sex and making plans for the future.”

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