Page 106 of Guarding My Love

Aileen frowned. “He told me.”

“He told you he loves me?” she asked.

“Well, I said a few times that he’s in love and he’s agreed. Or he adds to what I’ve said.”

“Yep,” she said. “He agrees. Or says he feels the same way.”

“Oh,” Aileen said. “He hasn’t said the actual words back to you? Not once?”

“No,” she said. “And maybe some women would say I’m crazy because I need to hear them.”

“You are not crazy and don’t think that. Youshouldhear the words. Every woman should or they are the ones to doubt it.”

“That’s the funny part,” she said. “I don’t doubt his love.”

“Okay,” Aileen said. “Don’t take offense to this. But now I’m confused.”

“And this goes back to my communication skills. I thought I was better at them. Or I was trying to be. My whole life, I’ve always been the one to back down. The one to just go along with things rather than speak up.”

“I don’t get that impression from Foster. He wouldn’t like being with someone who doesn’t speak their mind.”

“Oh, I speak it with him. And he knows I’m different with him than I have been with other men. I think that is why I love him so much. But deep down, I know he’s holding back. I don’t know why. If he wasn’t holding back, wouldn’t he say those words to me?”

Aileen nodded. “It could be that. I’m not going to profess to say for sure. Or it could be he isn’t even thinking of it. That he figures you know how he feels and that is enough. It’s not right on his end, but it’s possible. You won’t know if you don’t talk to him.”

“I figured that out myself. But then I worry he might say it to me because I want to hear it and it’s put me in this pickle that I don’t like being in.”

“That is a sticky situation,” Aileen said. “But if you don’t talk it out, you won’t know anything. Are you willing to risk what you’ve got because you’re afraid to find out what you need to know?”

“No,” she said. “It’s just so hard to take that first step.”

Especially when it felt like she was always the one doing it.

36

ACTUAL WORDS

“Jesus,” Foster shouted and slammed on the brakes just in time not to hit Charlotte. Between her and her dog, he was going to have to replace the pads soon.

She was standing in the middle of his driveway with her arms crossed and her foot tapping.

It wasn’t even seven in the morning.

“It’s about darn time,” she said when he rolled the window down. “I’ve been waiting out here for ten minutes. You’re later than you’ve been.”

“Are you okay?” he asked. “Is something wrong? You could have called me.”

“Get out of your SUV and come in and talk to me.”

He lifted his eyebrow up at her tone but did as he was told.

“What’s going on?” he asked when he was in the kitchen. Marco came running over to him and he bent to pet the dog that he’d been missing for over a week.

For a guy who loved his space, he had never been more miserable.

But looking at his girlfriend’s face, she might have been feeling the same way.

“Do you love me?”

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