Page 55 of Falling for His Best Friend

She loved him, desperately, but she didn’t know if she could do this. ‘I’m scared, Joe.’

‘Of what?’

‘Of losing you.’ She’d lost everyone she’d ever loved and she couldn’t bear to lose him too. Her heart couldn’t stand it. She’d lost too many people already.

But you love him. I know you do.

Jess’s voice was in her head and Kitty knew what she’d be saying if she was standing beside her. She could hear the words.

You have to make a choice. You can love him now and take a chance or you can send him away and know you’re losing him for certain. Make your choice but there’s only one choice that might give you the happiness you crave. The happiness you deserve. He’s a good man and he loves you.

‘I love you.’ Joe’s voice blended with the voice in her head. Jess and Joe, the two people she loved more than anyone else, were telling her the same thing.

But only one of them was still here.

He continued speaking. ‘I’ve never wanted to make a commitment because I thought I would never find the right person. What I didn’t realise was the right person was in front of me all along. That person is you, Kitty. I want to be beside you, I want to spend the rest of my life with you,’ he told her. ‘My parents were always looking for their next partner, they were never happy with what they had, but I’m always and only looking for you. I can’t be truly happy without you and I want to spend the rest of my life showing you how I feel. Being yours. If you’ll have me.’

‘You won’t leave me?’

‘Never.’

Kitty was crying now.

‘Do you love me?’ Joe asked.

Kitty nodded. ‘Yes. I do.’

Joe dropped to one knee in the sand, their hands entwined, their fingers interlaced. ‘Kitty, I love you with every part of me. I want to share my life with you, for eternity. I promise to love you and adore you and never leave you. I want to make you happy, to make you laugh. I want to share my life with you as more than friends. I want us to be partners, lovers, parents to our children. I want us to be a family. I love you and I want to be your husband. Please, will you be my wife? Will you marry me?’

Kitty had to make a choice. She had to take a chance. If she didn’t she would lose everything.

She’d already lost too much.

She would take the chance. She would choose the man she loved.

She had loved him for years and she didn’t want to live without him. She needed him, but she wanted him too. He was her best friend, her lover and she wanted him to be her husband. She wanted him to give her a family of her own. She believed him when he promised never to leave her, for he’d always been there for her when she’d needed him. He had already proved that he could commit to her. She trusted him—and she loved him.

She tugged on his hands and pulled him to his feet. She wiped a tear from her eye but she knew he’d know the tears were happy ones. He knew her so well. And if he didn’t, then the ridiculous smile on her face would surely have shown him how she felt.

‘I love you,’ she said as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close, ‘and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.’

He bent his head until his lips brushed hers. ‘Is that a yes?’ he whispered.

Kitty nodded. ‘Yes, my love, I will marry you. I promise to love you always, to be your family, your wife and the mother of your children, now and for ever.’

Joe wiped the tear from her cheek and kissed her again and in that kiss she could taste his promises and his love and, finally, she was complete.

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