Page 176 of From Best Friend to Bride
She blinked at me. “You had sex, didn’t you?”
“I am not discussing this with you.”
“That’s for the confirmation.” She snorted. “About time you two crossed the line. Granny keeps whinging about you pretending in your pretend relationship.”
“If you knew it was fake, why did you think it was real?”
“Because you two act like it!” She leant back in the chair, flinging her hands out. “And not in public when you have to. How many times have I walked in and found her curled up against you watching TV? Or you rubbing her feet? Or Deli drying your hair?”
I said nothing.
“I don’t know why you don’t go and wake her up to tell her you love her right now, to be honest.”
“Because nobody wakes up Delilah and gets away with it,” I replied flatly.
“Good point. I’ll let this one slide.” She paused. “You really do have to tell her, Fred. Now that you know…”
“I’m going to. I swear.” I sank my fingers into my hair and looked down at the papers. “I just don’t think I could survive it if she told me she still wanted to leave.”
After a moment, Mel sighed, then walked around the desk. She perched on the arm of my chair and wrapped her arms around my shoulders, gently leaning on me. “She won’t. Youknowshe won’t. If you know why she wanted to leave, and you’ve done something to fix it, then you just need to talk it out.”
“What if she doesn’t want to? You know Deli tends to run when—”
“She loves you, Fred. She always has. It’s just a different kind of love now. She’s probably just as scared as you are.” She let out a breath with a little huff. “But I know you two. There’s never been anything you haven’t been able to figure out. You trust her more than anyone else. You’re just going to have to trust her a little more right now.”
“But, Mel…” I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes. “If she still wants to sign these, then that’s it. I’ve lost her in every possible way.”
She squeezed me and gave a light laugh. “Never. That will never happen. I know her just as well as you do, and I can see the way she looks at you. You’d have to be blind not to see that something major has changed in your relationship.”
“I really never thought I’d fall in love with her,” I said, my voice barely above a murmur. “I’ve never felt that way about her, but now I can’t stop. If I lost her, I really don’t know what I’d do.”
“Has it occurred to you, brother dearest, that sitting here feeling sorry for yourself and overthinking achieves absolutely nothing?” Mel said, sitting up straight. “You could just go and talk to yourwifeand get all the answers to your questions.”
“I know. I just need some time to process all of this. I don’t want to fuck it up.”
“You’ll fuck up far more by staying silent than being honest.” She picked something off the back of my dressing gown. “Silence can be misconstrued. Honesty can’t be.”
“You’re right. I know you are.” I reached over and gently patted her knee. “Thanks, Mel. When did my baby sister get so grown up?”
“When my big brother regressed into a melancholy teenage boy,” she retorted, flicking the side of my head as she got up. “You don’t need to do anything fancy, Fred. Just tell her how you feel.”
I smiled at her.
“Remember that time you two fought because you thought she ruined your chances with that girl you liked when you were fifteen?”
I tilted my head to the side. “She gave her a black eye, right? And I thought it was her being jealous.”
“Which was ridiculous, because she had a boyfriend,” Mel replied. “You fought for days about that because she just wouldn’t tell you the truth because she was afraid of hurting you. When she did, you sorted the whole thing out in about five minutes.”
A small laugh escaped me. How could I forget that? Deli had heard that girl talking about how I’d definitely buy her expensive gifts if we were dating and socked her one for it.
“She broke up with him after that, right?”
I nodded. “He accused her of having feelings for me, and she told him to fuck off because he wasn’t anywhere near as important as I was.”
“And he kissed like a squid.”
“How do you remember that? Were you even there?”
