Page 182 of Under an Endless Moon

Sienna grinned. “Well, then we’d better not delay. I’m actually serving today, so I’ll put you in my section.”

“That would be great.”

She led us to a cute table on the far side of the restaurant, the place a cross of posh and cozy. Charleigh took a seat on the long couch that ran along the back wall, and I pulled out a wooden chair across from her.

Pride filled me when I saw the dainty bouquet of flowers that sat in a vase in the middle. I loved that my floral shop made a splash here.

“Today’s special is a Mediterranean salad with grilled chicken, or if you want something with a little more substance, we have a grilled ham and cheese with gouda and cheddar. It is delish. I just scarfed one down half an hour ago.”

“Sign me up,” I said, slapping the menu down onto the table. “I am definitely in need of some sustenance. I am starving.”

From over the table, I sent Charleigh a scandalous look.

She pursed her lips, clearly dying to get the scoop.

“I’ll take one, too, and an iced tea,” she agreed.

“Same here,” I added.

“On it,” Sienna said before she walked away and disappeared through a swinging door to the back.

The second she did, Charleigh leaned forward, the eager words hushed. “Tell me everything.”

A thrill left me on a shimmy of my shoulders and an ecstatic stamp of my feet under the table.

“Okay, wiggle worm,” she teased. “You’re more wound up than Nolan was that one time he snuck that energy drink out of Kane’s cooler.”

“I can’t even sit still.”

“I can see that. You are flying.”

“Oh, believe me when I tell you I’ve been soaring.”

“So how did all of this go down?”

“I did what you suggested yesterday. I just laid it out and told him exactly how I felt.”

I took in a breath as the scene from last night played through my mind. “I told him that I was in love with him, and I’d been for a long, long time, and I demanded that he not be a coward and tell me exactly howhefelt.”

“I bet you put it to him,” she mused. “My bestie is all fire when she sets her mind to something.”

I hummed. “I basically told him that was it. There was no more pretending. We were either together or I was walking away.”

Her brows shot for the sky. “You were pulling no punches.”

“Nope. I was over it. No more tiptoeing. No more pretending.”

“And I take it he manned up and confessed what’s been so blatantly clear to me since the first time I saw you two together?”

Emotion crested, waves that battered against my swelling heart. “He told me he’s been in love with me for just as long, but that he’d never believed himself good enough for me, so he tried to ignore it, but he couldn’t do it any longer,either.”

We paused when Sienna showed at our table and set two iced teas in front of us. “Here we go. It shouldn’t be long for the sandwiches.”

“Thank you,” we both said, stalling out the conversation as she walked away before Charleigh returned her attention to me.

“I’m so incredibly happy for you. I knew he would see through his fears to what really mattered, and that’s you.”

Tears burned my eyes, and I swallowed it back and shot her a grin. “I am proud to announce that your girl here no longer has her V-card.”

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