Waiting for Your Love (Echoes of the Heart) by Anna DeStefano Read Free Book Online Page B

and energy on the bank, rather than with his family.”
    “And here you were today.” Clair hugged Conrad tighter. “Bravely walking into the lion’s den. Serving yourself up to my mother’s machinations like a thick, juicy steak.”
    Conrad laughed, loving Clair’s spunky, sassy resilience. Even now. Nothing kept her down for long. “If I’m going to get eaten, can I at least be prime rib?”
    “I tried to warn you”—she punched him for emphasis—“that today was a trap.”
    “Or maybe I’m exactly where I needed to be.” He waited until her gaze lifted. “Mind telling me why all the secrecy?”
    “It’s been really hard”—She blinked back a sheen tears—“Facing how much I’ll have to let go of, to follow my dreams.”
    “Letting go of me, you mean?” That sounded promising.
    “I’ll miss a lot about Chandlerville. My clients and friends. I’ll even miss my crazy mother and the rest of my family. But the last few years, you and I have gotten back what we had when we were kids, Conny. We’re stronger than ever, and I’ve wanted that for so long. I haven’t been able to face giving us up again.”
    “Giving us up? Or dealing with what we might be? Are you honestly telling me this PetClub offer isn’t a little bit of a relief, where we’re concerned? You don’t have to make a choice now, right? You’re leaving. So there’s no way to know if we’d make it, or if we’d make a bust of being a couple.”
    “That’s…” She shook her head. “I…”
    He kissed her softly.
    The truth was there in her eyes. In the things they’d already said.
    You and me—dating—would be a bad thing?
    If it’s not real, if we let things go too far and then realize after it’s too lake that we’ll never be able to go back to the way things were, yes!
    If Clair tried to make a romantic relationship work with him, it would mean the possibility of failing. And her whole life, failing at love was the only thing he’d ever known her to be afraid of.
    “You should have everything you’ve ever dreamed of, Clair Bear,” he told her. “And if on of those dreams is having a man in your life who worships you, then here I am. We’ve never tried us as a couple. Why rush into giving that up?”
    Forehead wrinkled in confusion, she inhaled to respond.
    His raised hand to stalled her.
    “Let me be clear,” he added. “I do adore you as a friend. But for a while now, I’ve wondered if we’re becoming more than two people who’ve known each other all our lives. And I want to give the possibility of us having more a chance.”
    She threw her arms around him, her elation swamping them both. “I can’t believe you’re really saying these things.”
    “I’ve been an idiot, not telling you sooner.”
    “But the timing, Conny…” She swiped at happy tears this time. Relief, tinged with pain. “PetClub is pretty much a done deal.”
    “ Pretty much is a good start.” He wiped the last of her sadness away, loving how she welcomed the intimacy of his touch.
    “I want this merger,” she said. “For my business. For my future. I’m not going to back off from what’s best for ALL PAWS.” She gestured between them again. “What good will come from us dabbling in starting something now?”
    “Dabbling?”
    “As my mother’s so fond of pointing out, I’m not a long-term relationship girl, remember? I wouldn’t even know how to be part of a real couple. I’ve built my world around not knowing how. I refuse to cross over to Barbara’s dark side like Ra has, and settle for anything less than…”
    “Someone who’ll be there for you, totally into you and the life you want, whatever that life is?”
    Conrad waited her out.
    “Aren’t we already like that for each other?” he prompted.
    “Conny and Clair Bear… Friends forever .”
    He winced at her resigned tone. “Friends aren’t allowed to want more?”
    “I’m moving on, Conrad.” But hope sparkled in her crystal blue eyes. Hope and