Page 26 of One Weekend in Perth

Her breath hitched, he wasn’t about to propose, was he? It was way too soon for that, even though it was what she wanted. “What exactly are you saying here?”

Ben chuckled. “Not what’s going through your mind. Well, not yet anyway. I know that you’re it for me, Clarabelle, but I also don’t want to rush into anything. For so long we’ve been Clara and Ben, best friends. We need to know who we are as Ben and Clara, the couple.”

Everything he said made sense. There was a big leap going from being friends to being lovers and more. “We do. But I also have no doubt that the transition will be easy. I don’t want anyone other than you Ben. I’ve been comparing every man I date to you. That's why nothing lasted.”

“I was so close to making the biggest mistake of my life because I thought that we didn’t have a chance. That you didn’t feel the same way about me as I felt about you. So I buried it deep, hoping that I could find what I felt for you with someone else. I told you the other day that I didn’t love Fern the way I should’ve, but I believed that what I felt for her was enough. Itwasn’t and at least she had the sense to realize that, even if she did go about it in a roundabout way.”

“As much as I’m grateful for Fern, I’m not going to tell her that,” she said with a laugh. “I know I was never Fern’s favorite person and maybe that was because she could see what we, ourselves, didn’t see.”

Ben lifted one shoulder. “Maybe, and if she did, she should’ve had the guts to act before we were only a couple hours from saying I do.”

“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how we got here, just that we finally did.” Clara clutched Ben’s hand close to her heart. “I love you to the depths of my soul. I don’t ever want to let you go.”

Ben squeezed her hand. “I don’t want you to. And I’m never going to let you go either.”

“God, we sound so cheesy.”

Against her hand Ben’s chest rumbled with laughter. “We do.”

Desire flared to life, and she didn’t want to talk anymore. There would be plenty of time for them to work out their future and the next steps they’d take. But they had another night together before they had to face the real world and she planned to make the most of this haven they’d created. “How about we celebrate this new shift in our relationship with a bubble bath and some champagne?”

Ben’s eyes darkened with need and his cock hardened against her leg. “I’ll order the champagne and strawberries while you run the bath. I love you, Clara.”

“I love you too, Ben. So much.”

Their lips met, and the bath and champagne was forgotten as they cemented their love for each other.

Epilogue

Ben Bolton adjustedhis black bow tie, excitement and anticipation strumming through his veins. He was aware of Reed standing behind him and a sense of deja vu swept over him.

“I feel like I’ve done this before,” he joked with Reed.

“Yeah, me too. And I’m not talking about my wedding, that was over a year ago.” Reed clapped him on the shoulder.

This time around it was just the two of them getting ready. The wedding party was a lot smaller than when he’d been about to marry Fern. Today there were no nerves. No doubts. No need to rush out of the room to get air. He wanted time to pass quickly so that he could go down into the small room and prepare himself for the sight of Clara walking down the aisle toward him.

“I have to say, if it wasn’t for the disaster of your last attempt to get married, you wouldn’t be where you are today, marrying the person you were always supposed to marry.” Reed adjusted the cuffs of his jacket.

“A hundred percent correct, big brother.”

“Have you heard from Fern recently?”

It should’ve been weird to talk about his former fiancée on his wedding day, but over the past six months he had a couple ofinteractions with Fern and her new husband, the guy she’d been cheating on him with. They were blissfully happy, and because he was too, there was no need to hold any anger toward her. In the grand scheme of the thing called life, it didn’t matter. The outcome worked in both their favors.

“Yeah, she and Rick are still traveling through Europe. Picking up odd jobs and having a great time.”

“It all worked out in the end, didn’t it?”

“It did.” Ben checked his watch—at last. “It’s time, let’s go.”

“Let’s get you married.”

“You ready, sweetie?”

Clara looked over at her dad, his smile big and welcoming, but she didn’t miss the glisten of tears in his blue eyes—eyes so like hers. “Never been more ready for anything in my life.”

Dad laughed but then turned serious. “I’ve never seen you so happy. I know you’re going to have the same type of loving marriage that your mother and I were blessed with. Be happy always, Tinkerbell.”

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