Kandi shrugs. “Oh fine. I’ll stay with Jared then.”
CHAPTER 38
The Part Where the Guy Gets the Girl…He Hopes
Leo
“Mummy, I want you to dance with Leo!” Isabelle jumps up and down, holding both of our hands. “Everything I Do, I Do it For You” has just started—a wedding reception must.
Bree grins up at me in that cute, uncertain way she has about her. “Only if you want to. We could wait for a fast song or something from this millennium if you’d prefer.”
“Not a chance. I’m a huge Bryan Adams fan. Besides, I’ve been waiting for a proper chance to talk to you since I woke up this morning.” I take her hand in mine, and together we find a spot among the twenty or so other couples slow dancing.
Placing my right hand on her back, I lift my left hand into the waltz position and try not to let it affect me when she moves closer. She slides her hand into mine, then places her other one on my shoulder. Something about this feels exactly right, and I’m suddenly filled with the desire to confess my feelings and my hopes for the future all at once. But this is one of those moments you have to take slow. You have to make it count. “Have I mentioned how stunning you are yet?” I ask, smiling down at her.
She blushes and looks away for a second. “I think you used the word beautiful earlier.”
“That too.” I pull her a little closer and direct us toward a door that’s been propped open in the corner of the dance floor. I dance us outside into the dark, warm evening so we can be alone. “I have a confession to make.”
She looks up with fear in her eyes, although she nods bravely. “Okay.”
“I lied to you when I said everything I said was a lie. Everything before that was the truth.” My heart pounds in my chest, and I struggle to get a full breath. “The thing is, I’m absolutely, madly in love with you and have been since I laid eyes on you. But the problem is, for every ounce of love, there exists an equal measure of fear that I’m going to fuck it all up entirely for you and Isabelle. I’m not used to having anyone trust me the way you do. Well, did. The truth is, nothing in my life has mattered the way you do, which is just awful because I’m no longer able to continue as a devil-may-care guy. Because I do care. And now that I feel this way, the only future I can imagine has you and Izzy in it.”
I stop rambling and just stare into her beautiful eyes, momentarily stunned into silence. My heart squeezes, and I know I have to go on, or I’ll lose her forever. “I got scared, Bree. Scared that if I stuck around, I’d end up hurting you both, and I just couldn’t have that. So instead of telling you the truth, I told you a bunch of horrible lies so you’d give up on me. Then I ran like an idiot. And I’m so sorry, Brianna. I am. If you never trust me again, I’ll completely understand. In fact, it would make good sense if you told me to sod off and leave you alone forever.”
She does this sceptical little nod that says she agrees with that last point. “Yes, I’d be smart to say we’re through, wouldn’t I? I mean, how do I know you’re not saying exactly what I want to hear so you can get something from me?”
Nodding quickly, I say, “You’re right. That’s exactly what I’m doing.”
Unmistakable disappointment crosses her face, so I continue before she can pull away. “I’m saying what I think you want to hear so you’ll spend the rest of your life with me.”
Tears spring to her eyes, and she smiles up at me. “Manipulative bastard.”
“Right? It’s like an illness. I can’t seem to stop myself,” I say, lowering my face to hers, wanting very badly to brush my lips against hers.
Instead, I give her a spin, then pull her back into my arms. “If you do decide to do the foolish thing and agree to spend your life with me, there are a few things you need to know upfront. First, I’m very poor, and I live in a terrible flat I share with three other disgusting guys. Second, I’m currently employed as a busboy at the Turtle’s Head, but I won’t be forever, because for the first time in my life, I have a plan. I’ve applied to Santa Valentina University’s Faculty of Education. I want to be an elementary teacher.”
Brianna gives me a huge grin. “That’s brilliant, Leo. You’ll be an amazing teacher.”
“I know,” I say, which earns me a laugh. “And just the thought of it makes me feel like a better man. Like I do when I’m with you. You’ve given me a purpose, and you were absolutely right because without a purpose, this whole stupid life is utterly pointless.”
Swallowing hard, I go on, adrenaline coursing through me. “So what do you say? Could you wait for me while I become the man you need me to be?”
Her face falls, and she bites her lip. “No.”
My entire body goes numb, and my mind scrambles for a response.
Brianna sighs heavily. “The thing is, I don’t want to wait anymore. I’ve done enough waiting for my life to get started. And I feel pretty certain that the man who looked after Izzy so I could study, and cleaned up when she was sick, and gave up his fortune up to save me, is already the man I need him to be. More even.”
She lifts herself up onto her tiptoes, closing the distance between our mouths, and whispers, “I want to be with you now.”
She kisses me hard on the mouth, and my entire body reacts with an elation I’ve never felt before, because kissing the right woman isso much betterthan kissing just any woman. Her lips on mine are perfection. We stop dancing, and I pull her closer, hugging her tightly, and lifting my hands into her hair while our mouths move together, saying everything that’s left to say.
***
“Oh, they’re both out cold,” Brianna whispers, looking in the backseat at Dolores and Izzy. It’s after two in the morning, and we’ve just pulled up in front of the house after a night of dancing and me having the pleasure of seeing Bree let go and have a good time for once.
I turn to see Izzy and Dolores both sound asleep with their mouths open wide.
