Forever In Love by Bella Andre, Lucy Kevin Read Free Book Online Page A

Michael was right next to her and she couldn’t find a way to close the lid he’d decided it was time to finally pry off?
    “How could you?” she said in just as low a voice, while the photographers bustled about adjusting lights and her siblings talked with the men they adored. “How could you have said those things to me on the hill?”
    He held her gaze, his as steady as hers was distraught. “Is it really such a surprise?”
    “Okay,” the photographer said, “can we have everyone looking this way?”
    Emily turned and sat, facing forward, doing her best to whisper to Michael out of the side of her mouth.
    “Today of all days, with Dad upset the way he always is at these things…”
    “You know how much I respect him,” Michael whispered back. “How much I owe him. But this is about us. Just us.”
    “Come on, everybody,” the photographer said, and again, Emily knew he was talking specifically to her. “Let’s see some big smiles.”
    Right then, Emily was the only one in the wedding party whose smile was faltering around the edges. Never in her life had she had to work at something as simple as smiling and having her photo taken with her family.
    “Just a few more to go,” the photographer said encouragingly. “Hold that pose.”
    Those few pictures felt like they took eons, and when they were finally cut loose, Michael reached for her hand before she could dart away and pulled her behind a rose bush where they could talk in relative privacy.
    “If I thought that you would be happy with someone else, I’d back off. Even if I thought you really didn’t want me, I’d back off. But I know you, Emily. I see how you react every time we’re close together. Just like today when we were dancing, how your heartbeat sped up and your breath came faster. Just like mine did from holding you.” His dark eyes held hers, as if he were daring her to lie and tell him it wasn’t true. “If I thought you would be happy with me as the guy who lives down the street and just drops by for Sunday dinner and to fix things, I’d do that for you. But I don’t think you want that. I think you want more.”
    He paused again, just long enough for her heart to leap all the way into her throat as he said, “Tell me the truth. Am I wasting my time? Are you looking for someone else? For a different man to love you—and for you to love right back?”
    Emily’s lips opened.
    But nothing came out.
    To her sisters, Michael had always been a surrogate big brother. Someone who would look out for them. Someone they could go to when they needed help. Someone to do the job when their boyfriends needed reminding to be polite, or to listen to them when they thought Emily wasn’t being fair.
    But with her and Michael, things had always been different. He’d been a friend, not a brother. And then, sometimes...sometimes she’d found herself dreaming of more. Of more than a friend. Of what his kisses might feel like. And of what it might be like not just to let herself fall for him, but to fall all the way, head over heels, heart and soul.
    All her life she’d been the strong one. The sensible one. But just then, when she heard a photographer say through the rose bush, “Where’s Emily? We need to get a few shots of Morgan with all her bridesmaids now,” she nearly fell to her knees in gratitude that the photographers she’d just wished would go away weren’t actually done yet.
    “I have to go. They need me.”
    But instead of letting her go, he continued to hold her hand for a long moment in which she couldn’t look away from his eyes. She couldn’t hide from everything he was now showing her. Not only how much he loved her, but also his clear determination not to give up. Finally, he lifted her hand to his lips for a kiss.
    One that was easily the sweetest anyone had ever given her.

CHAPTER SEVEN
    The day after Morgan and Brian’s wedding, the Walker house was a hive of activity. Between organizing the wedding gifts,