Page 18 of Anything for You
His gaze moved from Luc’s to mine.
I nodded. “It will. She loves you.”
I’d never had much experience with love until moving here and watching every one of my friends find their person. I’d seen it happen over and over again now, and so I said it with certainty.
“And she told you she was ready. She wouldn’t have said it if she didn’t mean it,” Luc affirmed.
Kenny chuckled lightly, then let out a gustyexhale. “Yeah. I know. Logically, I know that, but then another part of my brain is like, ‘dude, she’s way too good for you and this is going to crash and burn.’”
“No. Don’t think like that.” We’d all been in enough therapy to know focusing on the negative rarely helped.
“She’ll say yes. But if you’re going to do it this weekend, you better get everyone on board.” Luc’s admonition was wise.
Kenny had big plans for an engagementandimpromptu wedding for him and Liz, and he’d need major reinforcements. Plus, he only had about seventy-two hours before his go time.
“You’re right.” His head perked up at the sound of a car out front. “Is that by any chance Dove?”
The sound of her name made a ball of warmth burst in my chest. “Likely, yes. Not many other people come out here except you guys.” Occasionally Adam and every so often Beast, but he’d been doting on Jess and more anxious to be even five minutes from her now that she was in her last few weeks before the baby came.
“I’m going to go catch her and check her off my list if that’s okay?” he asked me as though I was his keeper.
I shrugged. “Might as well.”
We worked together to clear the low coffee table where we’d set up the plates and tea service. They always insisted on helping clean up even though I assured them I didn’t mind. I looked forward to our afternoon teas, and it’d become oddly soothing not only to prepare for them, but to clean up after them.
Dr. Corrigan would say this was one of my healthy routines.
“Go on before she gets busy with something and youinterrupt her,” I said, a fingernail of irritation nudging me at the thought of him getting to talk to Dove.
Not that I couldn’t. Not that it was even a thing. I just… didn’t want him to upset her. This was all good news, but I wondered if she’d have any complex feelings.
Maybe we could talk about that.
Or just… sit next to each other.
I’d planned to bake something particularly good on Saturday, just in case she needed to decompress. That way, she’d have something sweet to cheer her up, and I’d have the pleasure of giving her something, which would do the same for me.
“Everything okay?” Luc asked, sliding the last plate into the dishwasher as I hand-washed the bone china teapot.
“Yes. All good.”
His hand on my shoulder made me freeze, then turn to find concerned gray-green eyes looking back at me.
“Really?”
My stomach clenched, bracing. I didn’t begrudge him the concern or the insistence on a real answer from me. I’d relied on him and the others to force me to be honest in the past, and sometimes, I still required a bit of a push.
“I’m just thinking about how good this is. All of it. You with Elise and Kenny getting married. Adam and Jo setting a date. Jess and Beast about to have their first kid… everyone has found their person. It’s good.”
His furrowed brow told me what was coming before he ever said it.
“But?”
I loosed a small sigh. “Not really a but. Because it is purely good.AndI…” What was the word? “Je ne sais pas?”
He huffed a laugh. “Non. Essaie encore unefois.”
Try again.
