Edward met me halfway, reaching his hands out to take mine.
“How are you?” he asked, his thumbs gliding back and forth over the top of my hands.
“Much better now. I’ve been dying to see you for days.”
A boyish smile tipped his lips. “Dying to see me? I never expected to hear you say such a thing.”
“We have come a long way.”
“No,” he said, his grin growing. “Youhave come a long way. I have always wanted to be near you. Even in Town, I found myself wishing for your company more often than not.”
“So you could vex me?”
Edward laughed. “Partially so, but also because I missed your smile, your laugh.” He tweaked my nose. “The way this would scrunch when I teased you. I fell in love with you then, Annette. I was simply too much of a fool to realize it.”
“And you realize it now?” I whispered. “Or did I, in sending you away, ruin any affection you might have for me?”
Rus scoffed from where he sat on the sofa. “Ruin? The man has been absolutely and obnoxiously beside himself for days.”
Edward shot him a look, then cleared his throat. “Yes, well, I was worried—about your health and…and about whether you could ever forgive me. I deserved your ire, Annette. Instead, you handed me disappointment. I never imagined that could be worse than your fury, but it was. I hated myself for what I did, for not realizing sooner how I felt. Perhaps if I had, I would not have required your father’s offer to motivate me to pursue you in earnest. Can you forgive me and allow me to prove my loyalty? Prove that when I say I love you, I mean it.”
He loved me. It was the confirmation I had thought I needed this morning, but also one I now realized I had been given long before learning of Father’s offer. Long before Edward had rejected the money and long before he said those words.
Because with Edward, I felt his love. In the moments when he held me—kissed me—I felt it. But it was there, too, when he shared his deepest desires and goals. When he listened to my struggles and fears. It was always there, and I knew—Iknew—that life with him would never feel like a prison. I would never be constrained or forced to abandon my hopes and dreams. Instead, I would share them with Edward. He would encourage me, and I him.
We would face the future together.
“Annette.” His hand glided over my skin to cup my cheek. The warmth in his eyes pierced me in such a way that tears pricked at my own. They fell before I could compose myself.
His expression shifted with worry as he swiped them away. “If you cannot forgive—”
“I forgive you. How could I not?”
He shook his head. “If this is because of the ruins, because I found you, then you must know I expect nothing. You owe menothing.”
“Well, I disagree with you. I owe yousomething, but my brother will have a fit of apoplexy if I act on that impulse.”
Rus grumbled incoherently across the room.
“Regardless,” I continued, “my love is certainly not a result of your heroic rescue.”
Edward stilled, his gaze unblinking. “Your love?”
“Heaven give me patience,” Rus mumbled. “Can the two of you proclaim your love a bit faster? I have ledgers to review, letters to write. Let us move on. He loves you, and you love him. There. Was that not simple enough?”
This time, Edward and I both glared at him.
“You can leave at any time,” I said.
Rus raised his hands placatingly and stood. “Fine, but only because I cannot stand another moment of this. It is sickening. I’ll wait outside. You have ten minutes.” He crossed the room and, pulling the door, gave us one last, knowing look through the crack. “Ten minutes. Best hurry up.”
“It is fortunate that a number of kisses can be exchanged in ten minutes,” said Edward before Rus could close the door.
Rus narrowed his eyes. “Maybe less. Maybe much, much less. If I open this door and find you kissing her, I will drag you out of this house.”
“Go,” I said through gritted teeth. I appreciated my brother’s protectiveness, but now was not the time for it.
“Fine.” He paused. “Five minutes.”
