My breath catches in my throat when he says the word ‘love’.
“I love you, Willow.” He leans closer so we’re eye to eye. The intensity in the dark depths of his gaze sends my heart beating double time. “You were right about me being afraid. I was terrified of allowing you into my heart and my life, even though that’s what I’d been doing since the day we met. You accepted me and never judged me, but I worried you’d eventually decide our differences made us ill-suited or you’d get bored with my fuddy-duddy ways. I allowed myself to get in my own way because I was afraid of hurting you. Then I went and hurt you anyway.”
His grip on my hand tightens. “I’m sorry for pushing you away and I’m sorry I hurt you—hurt both of us. I don’t expect you to forgive me, but I had to tell you how I feel and why I did what I did. I recreated Evan and Gwen’s wedding night as a do-over of sorts, wanting to say everything I should have said that night, and hoping to replace some of the bad memories with good ones.”
His face falls when I slip my hand from his. I turn my back to him and step to the edge of the ring of light, needing a moment to think without his imploring eyes on me. Despite the highlights of the last five weeks—my friends and my mom rallying around me, taking Cravings to new heights, tapping into previously-unknown levels of creativity—there have been some truly dark moments too.
Jasper and I have now spent almost as much time apart as we spent together before the wedding. We may have only known each other for a matter of weeks before things ended, but he wasn’t the only one who changed in that time. And he wasn’t the only one who fell in love.
“You still live in Toronto,” I say without turning around.
The rustling behind me tells me he’s stepped closer, although he doesn’t make a move to touch me. “I left my job at the bank, and Hugh has offered me a job here at the Village.”
I spin around, nearly knocking into him. He grips my upper arms to steady me, and doesn’t let go. My mind whirls with questions—is he moving to Bellevue? What about Hadley? Is he okay with being that far from his other siblings and baby Elizabeth?
I don’t get a chance to voice any of my queries before he says, “I want you back in my life, Willow. I may not deserve that after the way I hurt you, but life isn’t the same without you. I understand it may take time for you to forgive me or even want to see me again after tonight, but I’ll take your presence in any capacity. Even if it means nothing more than friendship.”
“And if I’m not interested in being friends?”
He blinks several times, either from surprise or because he’s fighting tears. Maybe both. His quiet tone holds a note of defeat when he says, “Then I’ll respect that.”
I nod slowly. Hewouldrespect that. He’d go back to being my friend if that’s what I wanted. But it’s not. There’s the not-so-small matter that we fell in love with each other during our short time together, and I can’t ignore that. I won’t. Not when I’m being handed a second chance with the man I love.
“I don’t want to be just your friend, Jasper.” I take one of his hands from where it still rests on my arm and clasp it in both of mine. “I want to be yourbestfriend. I want to be your partner, your confidant, your lover. The person you turn to and depend on. The person you laugh and cry with. The person you build a life with. I want it all, Jasper.”
His smile starts slow and spreads, lighting his whole face. I’m completely dazzled by the sight.
Before he can say anything, I hold up a finger for him to wait. “If we do this, if we decide to be together as a couple, you can’t shut me out again. You can’t shut down because you think you know better than I do what I need or deserve. I understand the instinct, but you have to talk to me and keep letting me in.”
“I will, I will, I promise,” he says quickly. He switches the position of our hands so he’s gripping mine. He brings our joined hands to his mouth and kisses my knuckles over and over, his eyes closed tightly. When he opens them again and our gazes meet, we both break into breathy, giddy laughter.
“Did you really arrange for all this?” I ask, glancing around the room properly for the first time. It looks almost exactly how it did the night of the wedding.
“I did,” he says, kissing my knuckles once more. “Regardless of how things turned out tonight, I hoped at the very least you’d leave here with some positive new memories. I even arranged for a special post-faux-wedding brunch do-over tomorrow morning.” He makes a face and adds, “That was a mouthful.”
I laugh. “Were you that confident things would work out between us?”
He grows somber. “I wish I could say yes. I honestly didn’t know how things would go, despite being hopeful. Gwen and Evan wouldn’t divulge much about how you were doing these past few weeks, although they were entirely on board when I came to them with my idea for tonight.”
“Can we come out now?”
The disembodied voice belongs to Gwen. I wonder how long they’ve been waiting in the shadows, and if the whole crew is here already or just her and Evan.
“Wait one more minute,” I call in the direction her voice came from. As I turn back to Jasper, I gently pry my hands from his so I can cup his face. His eyes crinkle in the corners as he realizes my intention, and his hands move to grip my waist as I lift up on my toes and press my lips to his. It’s a much-too-short kiss for my liking—and his too, if his tight grip is any indication—but we apparently have an audience, and we have some celebrating to do.
When I call that it’s okay to come out, Gwen and Evan appear from the shadows. I can’t help grinning when I see they’re both actually wearing their wedding outfits again.
“You missed your calling as an actress, Gwendolyn Dunwitch-Perry,” I say in my sternest voice. “You really had me going with that sob story about the ruined wedding pictures.”
Gwen does an exaggerated full-body wince. “Part of me feels guilty for tricking you and the other part of me wants to take a bow for my spectacular and convincing performance.”
Unable to keep from laughing, I pull her in for a hug. “By all means, take a bow. I’ll be sending you my therapy bill over all the extra anxiety you caused, but I’ll be sure to send a thank-you gift basket with it.”
She chuckles in my ear, tightening her grip on me and rocking us from side to side. “Looks like I’m going to get my wish of us being sisters after all,” she says quietly.
“Don’t get too far ahead of yourself,” I tell her. “Let’s start with getting through all the Perry holiday celebrations next month.”
“I just sent out the proverbial Bat-Signal and everyone else is on their way,” Evan says, waving his phone. He steps forward to kiss my cheek when his wife releases me. “Welcome to the family,” he whispers.
