Chapter 14
Daniel
I feel like I’ve been as vulnerable as I can be, but it hasn’t satisfied her. Did I misunderstand her question?
“I guess I was asking about your feelings,” she says softly. “Because I feel like...I’m falling in love with you.” She says it in a rush, as though she is a little embarrassed and just needs to get the words out. “I’m not so far gone that I don’t think I can pull myself back, and I know this isn’t professional at all.”
I put a hand up, and she stops.
She sets her plate aside. Her hands fall and twist together in her lap. I put my hand over one, sliding between them and linking my fingers with hers.
“I feel the same way. Like I might be falling in love with you. Like I want to fall in love with you. Like you are everything that I’ve been looking for in a potential spouse. I... I know that’s scary, because you don’t go into a relationship talking about marriage, except I do. I don’t play around. And I suppose that’s why I haven’t had very many relationships.”
The ones that I have had were mostly about money, but I suppose that’s the next subject that I need to explore. But I wait for her to respond.
“Wow. I was thinking downstairs as we were talking that we had so much in common, but that’s even more than I thought. Because I’m the same way. I don’t believe in some of the modern ideas about hooking up and breaking up just as casually as if it didn’t matter. I suppose that’s why I’ve never done it.”
Her words throw me a bit. The idea that we believe the same way, we’ve lived our lives the same way, and somehow we finally found each other.
“I value all of the attributes that you display, your easygoing manner, your attention to detail, your willingness to help, to set yourself aside, but most of all, I value your character and your honesty.”
It’s that last word that does it. I don’t have any choice. I’m going to have to tell her.
But before I can, there is a quiet knock on the door, then it opens, and Flora comes in with a tray full of desserts.