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His words sucked the wind out of her.
She sat there, clutching her stomach, not even remembering where the tulle had ended up falling on their way here. Runaway tears streamed down her cheeks as the things Molly and Beth had told her about a Clarks-Gage wedding vanished from her head and she realized with a fluttering heart that Garrett Gage was proposing to her.
“Kate, I’ve never felt like this before. I can’t think clearly when it comes to you. I’ve been trying to make you stay and at the same time that has driven you away. Don’t go, baby. Stay with me. Here. Be my wife. Let me love you like you deserve.”
She cried even harder, not believing this was happening. She had dreamed about this. For years. To the point that now her entire life and all her decisions revolved around forgetting it. Around trying not to want what she could never have.
And now Garrett Gage knelt, dark and beautiful at her feet, his face somber in its intensity, his gaze like liquid fire.
“If you think this has to do with the promise I made to your father, it doesn’t,” he murmured as he took her smaller hand within both of his. “I made that promise a long time ago and I’ve tried to keep it as best as I could. No, this is about me wanting to promise you, the woman I love, my future.”
She wiped her eyes, and squeezed one of his hands with hers. “What about C-Cassandra...?”
“She’s marrying Emerson. Our half brother.”
“Wh-what do you mean h-half—?”
A movement in the doorway made them both look up in surprise.
“Kate! What...?” Beth blinked. “I’m sorry...uh. This is a bad time, isn’t it?”
Garrett nodded, but Kate shook her head and wiped the rest of her tears away. “What is it, Beth?”
Beth pointed in the direction of the stairs behind her. “They’re all seated at the tables. And the maid of honor and best man need to speak before the toast.”
Garrett dropped his head and cursed under his breath.
“We’ll be right there, Beth,” Kate said, trembling from head to toe as s
he rose to her feet.
Garrett held her up and stroked his thumb along her jawline. “You can answer me later,” he said softly.
She nodded and rushed to the bathroom to pat her face dry with a tissue, making sure her mascara wasn’t dripping all over her face. Garrett waited outside in the hall for her, and every cell in her body screamed at her to fling herself into his arms when she realized he was still there. But she didn’t.
In silence, they went downstairs and into the gardens, and halfway there, after the backs of their hands bumped several times, he took her hand within his and led her across to their table.
Her throat closed, and she tried very hard not to think about the gesture and how many times she’d wanted it. It screamed “boyfriend” in her mind. Lover. Love.
Feeling as though five hundred pairs of eyes were on them as they made their way through the tables to the far end of the room, Kate held her gaze on the bride and groom.
Her fingers tingled when her hand unlatched from Garrett’s and they each headed to their places on opposite sides of the long table, where Molly and Julian sat watching them with wide smiles. Garrett went to stand at Julian’s side, and Kate stood next to Molly. Eleanor had indicated that she didn’t want to speak, and she seemed to be hiding behind a tissue right now, but Kate remembered how the groom’s mother always thought it proper that ladies go first. So Kate was the first to speak.
Regrettably.
She cleared her throat several times and shakily grabbed a small microphone, struggling to keep her voice level as she tried to quiet her racing mind. “Molly had a favorite story she liked for me to read,” she said into the microphone, keeping her eyes on Molly to keep herself focused. “There was a part she loved to hear, when Piglet asked Winnie the Pooh, ‘How do you spell love?’ And Pooh answered ‘You don’t spell it.... You feel it.’”
She blinked back her tears as she studied the delightful little bundle by the name of Molly, the only blood family Kate had known for over two decades. Seeing her sister so happy as she started a family of her own with Julian, while Kate herself had a baby in her tummy from the man she loved and a proposal she had always dreamed of, made her suddenly feel weightless with joy. Laughing to herself, she lifted her glass with her free hand.
“Molly and Julian, you guys felt that love for each other before you could spell it. And I’m just glad you didn’t listen to me, Moo, when I filled your head with warnings and my own fears. I’m glad you listened to your heart.”
People clapped and drank, and Kate sat down only to hear Garrett’s sexy voice coming through the microphone next. “For the better part of my life I’ve thought it my duty to protect Molly from your claws, little bro.”
Julian threw back his head and let out a great peal of laughter, soon joined by all the other guests, and Garrett winked at Molly. “I got to be the ogre separating you two for years, for which I hope you won’t always hate me, Molly.”
“I forgive you if you finally kiss my sister!” Molly shot back, throwing him a white rose she’d plucked from the centerpiece.
Garrett caught it and laughed, then glanced at Kate and held it in the air, as if promising to give it to her. Tucking it into his pocket, he glanced back at the groom.
