Kade reached over and wound their fingers together. His hands were strong and sure, as befitted a musician. Charlie longed for the wonderful feel of them roving over her body again, as they had this afternoon.
“Sweet lass,” he murmured, his voice low and tinged with a brogue. “Ye can be forward with me anytime. In fact, I look forward to it.”
Again, she felt a blush rise to her cheeks. For all that, she couldn’t help smiling. “Thank you.”
“Are we now finished with the apologies?”
She nodded, but forced herself to extract her hands from his gentle clasp. As much as she longed for his touch, there were things to discuss and questions that must be answered.
He sat back, probably sensing her need for some distance. While Charlie desperately wanted him, she needed to think—and she needed to face facts, whatever those facts might be. Whenever Kade touched her, her brain tended to go fuzzy around the edges.
“What else is bothering you?” he quietly asked. “You can tell me anything, Charlie. You must know you’re safe with me.”
She had to swallow past the sudden lump in her throat. “I do know. And at the risk of repeating myself, I can’t help wondering about . . . us. What are we doing here, Kade?”
Whatever it was between them still felt so unreal, and too new and fragile to survive beyond the confines of her small world.
“You mean besides annoying your parents and looking for your brooch?” he wryly asked.
“Are you being deliberately obtuse, Kade Kendrick?”
“No, I’m just teasing you, love.”
“Well, I wish you wouldn’t.”
And, yes, she sounded grumpy. It was because she was just about vibrating with suppressed anxiety.
“I’m courting you, sweetheart, or so I thought,” he replied. “But I’m beginning to suspect that I’ve not made a very good job of it. Then again, it’s hard to compete with so accomplished a swain as Richard Campbell.”
His observation was so ridiculous that she had to first laugh and then give him a jab in the knee. “Oaf.”
He waggled his eyebrows. “Aye, that.”
“Really, sir, you are having too much fun when I’m trying to be serious.”
“I can’t seem to help it. It’s because I’m happy.Youmake me happy, Charlie, and that’s the most splendid thing that’s ever happened to me.”
She worked mightily to let those words—those impossible words—settle into her mind and heart. “Are . . . are you saying that you love me?”
His handsome features took on a serious, almost earnest, cast. It was an echo of the solemn, quiet boy who’d offered her friendship and so much more those many years ago.
“Yes,” he replied.
It was such a simple word, but a fiat that would change her life forever.
“And you’re sure?” she whispered.
He smiled. “I am.”
Her entire world seemed to stop for a moment before slowly starting to rotate in the opposite direction, as if a child had slapped a hand down on a spinning globe and then sent it going the other way.
Kade leaned forward again. “Now let me ask you a question, Charlie. What do you want?”
She hardly knew how to answer, since she wanted so much. But was she actually up to the change and the challenge? “You mean from you.”
“Yes, but also from your life. What do you want your life to be?”
Charlie took a deep breath, trying to slow the spinning enough to think. “You, obviously. Beyond that, though, it’s hard for me to imagine. And that’sincrediblyannoying. For someone who claims to be neck-or-nothing, it’s like I’m afraid to take the jump. I’m beginning to feel rather cowardly, to tell you the truth.”
