Intimate Friends (7 page)

And the pressure in his heart was still there, like a wound now, almost like a companion in his lonely existence.

He was bent over his desk, removing his office key from his keychain, when he heard a soft knock at his door. He looked up. Froze.

Emma.

But she was in London—how could she be here? He stared for a long moment, utterly slack-jawed. When she gave him a little wave, her eyes a bit teary, he started to grin, and then his grin got wider, until he was pretty sure that he’d be grinning like a fool for the rest of his life. He moved quickly, wrapped her in his arms, and hugged her so tight she had to cough for air. “You’re here.”

“I’m here. I was an idiot for thinking I could be anywhere else,” she said against his neck. And then there was no more talking, because he was kissing her greedily, planning a marathon of lip-on-lip action to make up for all the kisses he’d missed over the last two weeks. He stroked her hair, followed the curve of her cheek with his knuckles, knowing that he’d always ache to touch her, to make sure that she was here, to make sure that she wasn’t going anywhere.

“I love you, Noah,” she whispered.

A locker slammed down the hall; the squeaking brakes of a school bus sang outside his window. How could all this be happening when the world just stopped?

“Emma,” he breathed, as he watched a tear roll down her cheek. “You once asked me what makes a man fall so deeply in love that he proposes marriage.” He looked into her eyes, knowing his were glowing with equal parts of love and fear. “I can only speak for myself, but I think when I left you at the airport it hit me like a steamroller. How beautiful you are, inside and out, how you make me want to be a better person…how sure I am that I’ll never find anyone like you again.”

He felt her body shaking under his touch, and he stroked her side, soothing her, even though his head felt like it might explode at any second. “
You
made me fall in love. Completely. Irrevocably. Unquestioningly. And I want to marry you and spend the rest of my life falling in love with you, over and over again.” Her chin dipped then, out of shyness or happiness or fear, he wasn’t sure.

“So…will you marry me?” he whispered.

She opened her mouth, but it took two tries before “yes” came out, although her head was nodding forcefully, jubilantly. “Yes. Yes. Yes!”

Many, many kisses later, he leaned back, stroked her hair off of her forehead, and touched his lips to her brow. How many times had he dreamed of this?
His Emma.
Really his now, not just in his daydreams, but in living, breathing, trembling reality. She sniffled, then swallowed a sob, burying her face once again in the crook of his neck. She was a mess.

“Hey, are you okay?” he asked, kissing her cheek, stroking her back, willing her to relax.

“Yeah…yeah. I’m just…I’m
just.
I just am. I’m trying to have a Zen moment here, Noah. Go with me on this.” So he grinned and hugged her tightly, and went with her.

The End

Evernight Publishing

www.evernightpublishing.com