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“Did the ladies’ comment about keeping this one strike a nerve?”
Felina lifted one shoulder and let it drop.“It doesn’t matter.I don’t know why I let comments like that bother me.For that matter, I don’t know why I felt driven to hire a fake boyfriend.When you leave me, it’ll only reinforce what they think.”She sighed.“That I can’t maintain a relationship.”
“Your ex-boyfriend was the one who couldn’t maintain a relationship,” Lucas pointed out.“You didn’t cheat on him.”
“He wouldn’t have felt the need to seek out love somewhere else if I’d shown him a little more affection.”
“You said it yourself that you weren’t in love with him.”He stopped and turned her to face him.“Were you in love with Marty?”
She shook her head.“No.But then, what is love?”She stared up into his eyes.“Passion?”
He shook his head.“Passion is great and all, but it wanes.Love is something that endures.”
“Why?”
“Because the people who fall in true love aren’t just lovers.They’re friends and like spending time together, even if it’s working together.They respect each other and care about each other.”
“What if only one person in the relationship has that kind of love?”she asked.“Is it doomed?”
Lucas didn’t have the answer to that question.“Maybe.Although, the one who isn’t in love could learn to love that person over time.”He wasn’t sure where the conversation was going, but his gut told him it was important to Felina.
“How much time?”she asked.
Lucas shrugged.“Think about arranged marriages.Over time, many of the participants grow to love and respect each other.”
“It doesn’t matter.It’s not like I’m going to fall in love any time soon or anyone is going to fall in love with me.I barely have time to date.Relationships take time.I didn’t give my last one time to make it work.”
Lucas tipped her chin up.“Had you really loved him, you would’ve found the time.”
“That’s just it.How do you know when it’s love?”she asked.
He stared down into her eyes.“When you can’t imagine life without that person in it.When you ache inside when you’re apart.When you want that person to be the first face you see in the morning and the last one you see before you close your eyes at night.When the sound of her voice makes you feel like you’ve come home.”He cupped her cheek and brushed his thumb across her lips.
“Have you ever felt that way?”she whispered.
He nodded.“Yes.”
“She must have been special,” Felina said.
“Yes.”He bent and brushed his lips across hers.“When you know...you know.”
He kissed her again, wanting to tell her he knew he loved her and had loved her from the first time he saw her standing in the doorway of her shop holding a bouquet of flowers for an elderly man.She’d followed him out to his truck and helped secure the vase in the front seat to get it home to his wife.
He wasn’t sure she was ready to know he loved her.Her confidence had been shaken when Marty had walked out on her and proposed to her best friend.Lucas needed to take his time with her and let her come to see that he was the one for her.
For now, he’d have to be content with a kiss.And if he kissed her often enough, and she liked it, she’d eventually realize she could kiss him until death did they part.
She opened to his kiss, meeting his tongue with hers.Her empty hand reached up and encircled the back of his neck, urging him closer.
A cell phone chirped.
Lucas ignored it, lost in the magic of their kiss.
It chirped again.
Felina stiffened.
On the third chirp, she looked up into his eyes.“It’s mine.”She stepped back and dug into her purse with her free hand.
