Just Say Yes (33 page)
“Well, yes. Not speaking to me. Distant. You know what I mean!” she cried. “Josh, I can’t keep this up. Tell me that you still want me to move in here, because if you don’t, I take back what I say about it being all right. I’ve given Lorna a full-time job looking after the London office and I’ve told all the clients I’m going to be working from down here and I’ve got tenants for the flat and—”
Josh reached out his fingers and lightly stroked her cheek, making her mouth tingle inside, almost unbearably. “Lucy, my love, I want you with me more than anything in the world. In fact, I want more than that. I’m sick of losing the people I love and I want to make sure, this time, that I don’t lose you. You see, I’ve agonized for a whole damn week, wondering if it was too much to ask you to rearrange your life for me. By the time I saw you get off the plane, looking so… bloody corporate, I’d convinced myself that it was too much to ask. I thought you were going to tell me it was all over.”
“All over? Oh, Josh, nothing could be further from the truth!”
“I can see that now but you have to understand. Until now, I’ve lost pretty much everything I’ve ever loved and I’m scared that having you is too good for me. You see, I want to—God, I don’t know how to say this without it sounding cheesy, but I really want you to spend the rest of your life with me. Make it formal. Jeez, what a mess I’m making of this. Look. I want you to marry me.”
What happened next was weird. Lucy felt as if the whole world had begun to turn around her and that neither of them was quite real. But Josh was still talking, running his hand though his hair and stumbling over the words. “I know it will mean putting up with my moods, my cooking, wetsuits in the kitchen, but I really love you…”
It was then that Lucy realized that there are very few moments in life when you knew what you wanted, completely, utterly, and without a single shred of doubt. And this was one of them.
“Josh, I love you. I love the whole messed-up, beautiful package that is you. The answer’s yes and just so you understand, I’ll keep on telling you until you believe it.”
He seemed so genuinely amazed at her answer that she knew, then, she would love him forever. Then a smile spread over his face.
“You know, I don’t think telling me will be enough,” he said, pulling her toward the farmhouse table. “I think you’ll have to actually show me how much you love me, every day.”
Claws clattered on the tiles as Tally shot out of the kitchen.
“
Every
day?
” whispered Lucy as her head bumped softly against the tabletop.
“Three times at least,” said Josh, lowering his mouth to hers.
This book was a terrible struggle to write… no, I can’t lie, it was great fun from the first word to the last. Here’s my chance to thank some of the people who made it such a pleasure, especially Claire Baldwin at Headline, Deb Werksman and Sourcebooks, and my fantastic agent Broo Doherty. I’m also indebted to Rosy Thornton, Annette, Julie Haggar, Izabella Gawarecka, Duntay, Ania, Liz Fenwick, Janice Hume, Catherine Jones, Lorelei Mathias, Barbara Whale, and to Sue Jackson and Lynn Logan at Heart of the Lakes.
Most of all, to John and Charlotte. ILY x
Phillipa Ashley studied English Language and Literature at Oxford University before working as a freelance copywriter and journalist. She lives in an English village with her husband and daughter. Visit
www.phillipa-ashley.com
.
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