AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I …”
She saw the panic in his face and laughed once more.
“I don’t know why that terrifies you. I gather it’s something to do with your mother, your father, and their cacophony of spouses. Perhaps it’s something to do with how you were raised. You are petrified of love. And that’s okay. But believe me, you love me.”
“Love?” He shook his head angrily. “What an insipid word for how I feel. I haven’t not said it to you because I don’t feel it, Finn. I don’t believe that anyone on earth has ever experienced what I’m feeling. So let me tell you, and you can judge for yourself if you want to spend the rest of your life with me.”
Tears sparkled on her eyes as she nodded.
“I think of you all day. When I am in meetings. When I am eating. When I am sleeping. I see you. I hear your voice. I break out laughing at little things you’ve said, so that passers by must surely think I’m crazy. I sleep on my side of the bed, because even though you haven’t joined me for seventy three nights, it would be like an acceptance of the end of our relationship if I encroach onto your side. I have been collecting books for you. Rare books. Special editions. Your childhood favourites. I want to build you a bookshelf and fill it with everything you love. I want to build you a library, all of your own. No, I want to build a life with you. Here. There. Anywhere. I don’t care. I am empty without you, and with you? The opposite. I am more fulfilled than I could ever have dreamed.
“I’ve never known love. I’ve never much cared for it, to be honest. But I know that what I feel for you is real and lasting. I know that meeting you was no accident. I was lost. Sleeping, living a half-life, until you woke me, darling. You brought me to life in your arms. With your kindness and your goodness, and your patience, you brought me to life. All I’m asking is that you let me thank you. For the rest of our lives.”
“Are you … are you asking me to …”
“Marry me. Marry me today. Tomorrow. Just as soon as we can arrange it.”
“Why?”
“Because our future is all I care about, and I don’t want to delay it for another day.” He strode towards her. “Marry me because you want to. Because you love me. Because more than loving me, you need me. Because you know that we make as much sense as gravity and sunshine and the rolling waves.”
Her breathing was torn from her body. “That … could only have been more perfect with a ring,” she laughed, but she was crying too. Her eyes were sparkling and her cheeks were wet.
“I have one,” he said immediately. He strode to the other side of the room and for the first time she saw the pile of gifts she hadn’t accepted. All of the things he’d sent that had arrived at her doorstep and she hadn’t dared sign for.
The pale blue box she recognised from that first morning, weeks earlier.
“That’s …”
“Yes. I wanted to marry you then.” He walked across to her and knelt at her feet. “But this is better. You needed time to come back to me, and you needed to know I could give it to you. Because the only thing that mattered more to me than winning you back was your happiness. I needed you to come to me because you want me. For no other reason.”
“Like tonight,” she murmured.
“Like tonight.” He flicked the box and the ring was dazzling. A large emerald set in a perfect circlet of white diamonds, it was more gorgeous and more perfect than she could have imagined.
“I love it.”
“I’m sure,” he said anxiously. “But will you wear it? Will you wear it knowing what that means?”
She wanted to say something, but her mouth couldn’t form the words. And so she held a quivering hand out to him and watched as he slid it onto her ring finger. It was the right fit, just like Caradoc; as though it had been designed for her. Finally, she nodded, and whispered happily, “Of course!"
“I am going to make you happier than you knew possible,” he promised against her mouth, and Finn smiled.
And she didn’t have a single doubt that he would.
Because Caradoc Moore was always, always right in the end.
EPILOGUE
As always, Caradoc stepped into the apartment and took a deep, easy breath.
In the two years since Finn had lived with him officially, she had placed her own touches everywhere. Gone was the fashionable, sterile décor his designer had preferred. In its place was colour and life, vibrancy and joy. Flowers, bright cushions, blankets that were soft and warm, and pictures on every single wall.
Not artful, expensive pieces, but photographs of them and their friends, and the places they’d been together. The picture taken on their honeymoon in Venice, about three seconds before Finn had lost her footing and fallen into the canal. She had been radiant with happiness, and Caradoc couldn’t look at the photo without smiling.
There was the picture of Connie’s birthday. Finn had baked the cake and decorated it with fondant pineapples. The photo showed the moment Connie had blown the candles out, with a smiling Cliff watching on. Finn had set the camera up on the kitchen bench and timed it to take after ten seconds so that they could all be in the shot, even though Caradoc had offered to take the snap. He hadn’t realised what a perfect moment it had been until he’d seen the printed proof. He didn’t just feel a perfect connection with Finn, but with her friends too.
He’d never really met anyone he liked before, and now he had three such people.
