Page 100 of All For You

I raked a hand through my hair and screwed up my face, infuriated with myself. Of course she’d thought I was embarrassed of her family after how I’d behaved.

“Yes, I want to try. I’m sorry for my reaction to the news of Jane when we were at Pemberley. I was so angry at what had happened to her, and I was thinking immediately of what could be done. I was trying to find a solution.” I took another step toward her. “My role in life is to be the one in the room who keeps a cool head and finds answers to problems, makes things right, reminds everyone of the practicalities. People come to me all day long with issues, and my job is to make decisions and take action. But I know now I need to do better with you. Forgive me. My reaction was poorly done. I’m sorry. Embarrassment wasn’t what I felt at all.”

Relief seemed to relax her face. “I wondered at the time if your upbringing played into your reaction. I thought you were annoyed and angry over having to hear about our problems.But you came through for us. You don’t even know Jane—which makes your actions even braver and more generous.”

She still thought I’d done this all for Jane. She had no idea of my feelings for her.

I felt my whole face soften as I stared into her eyes. “But don’t you see, Lizzy?”

“See?” She drew her brow low, confused.

“I did it all for you,” I said.

I watched her expressions, hyperaware of her reaction, but her face was still screwed up, puzzled.

“I don’t think I understand,” she said.

“You must know. Surely you must know—it was all for you.”

“For me?” Her eyes went wider, bright green flecked with yellow.

As much time as we’d spent together the past week, as intimate as we’d been at the estate, we hadn’t expressed how we felt. It was time for me to open my heart, risk everything. There was no other course now.

“Since Pemberley, I’ve hoped as I’ve scarcely allowed myself to hope before. If you have no feelings for me, tell me so at once. One word from you will silence me forever. But…I…” I swallowed and took a deep breath. “I love… I love, love you, Lizzy Bennet. And I never wish to be parted from you from this day on.”

CHAPTER 45

Lizzy

Igasped as warmth and giddiness bubbled through me. My heart was bursting. Darcy looked at me expectantly.

“I think I’m going to cry,” one of the coaches behind us murmured and sniffed.

I should have felt embarrassed about this all playing out in front of the kids and the coaches and parents, but I didn’t care. I was so happy.

His brave words echoed through me as my mind flicked through all the Darcys I’d thought I’d known. The first-impression rude Darcy, then the one who’d taken a chance to go on the rope swing with me, the funny Darcy who’d teased me after I’d fallen on him in his forest, the vulnerable Darcy who’d asked me to spend the week with him, swim with him, hike with him, brainstorm my book with him, the sexy, confident man who’d worshipped my body in his bedroom, and the man who’d heard my family needed help and had done everything he could, at great pain to himself.

I searched his eyes and tender face, linked my fingers through his, craving even this small touch. The thought of being without him hollowed out my chest. Of course this was love.Love I’d never felt before. Like him, I had to take the leap. I had to have courage.

“Darcy, I love you too.”

He looked relieved, and his face broke out in a wide grin.

I stepped into him and wound my hands around his neck. He circled his arms around my waist and crushed his body to mine.

“Give her the friendship bracelet,” one of the middle school girls said.

Releasing me a little, he dug inside his pocket and pulled out a beaded bracelet. “It’s got my digits on it. The kids at the clubhouse insisted I make one for you. They taught me how.”

I took the bracelet from him and turned it around in my palm, taking in the colors and the numbers. I smiled as I thought of him at the clubhouse, sitting on a too-small seat at a craft table, the kids showing him how to thread those beads on the string.

“I love it. Can you put it on me?”

He fitted it onto my wrist and pulled the toggle tight.

“It’s never coming off,” I said. “You can’t change your digits now.”

“I won’t. I need you to always be able to hit me up.”