“No.” Slowly Lori shook her head. “That was always your mistake. It’s supposed to be hard, and scary and real.”

“There’s this clutching around my heart.”

“Yeah.”

“And…and…” Frustrated, Bess turned, scooting around a chair so that she could pace the length of the table. “And my stomach’s all tied up in knots one minute. The next I feel so happy I can hardly bear it. When we were together last night…” No way to describe it, she thought. No possible way. “Lori, I swear, no one’s ever made me feel like that. And this morning, when I woke up beside him, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.”

Lori rose, held out a hand. “Congratulations, McNee. You’ve finally made it.”

“Looks that way.” With a laugh, she threw her arms around Lori and squeezed. “Why didn’t you ever tell me how it feels?”

“It’s something you have to experience firsthand. How about him?”

“He loves me.” She felt foolish and weepy. Digging through her bag she found a tattered tissue. “He told me. He looked at me, and he told me. But—”

“Oh-oh.”

“He doesn’t want me to tell him how I feel.” Hissing a breath through her teeth, she pressed a hand to her stomach. “Oh, God, it hurts. It hurts everywhere when I realize he doesn’t trust me enough. He thinks it’s like all the other times. Why shouldn’t he? But I want him to know it’s not—and I don’t know how.”

“He only has to look at you.”

“It’s not enough.” Calmer now, Bess blew her nose. “Everything’s different this time. I guess I have to prove myself. I do love him, Lori.”

“I can see that. I wasn’t sure I ever would.” Touched, she lifted a hand to Bess’s hair. “You could take your own advice, and talk to him.”

“We have talked. But he doesn’t want to hear this, at least not yet. He wants things to stay as they are.”

Lori lifted her brows. “What do you want?”

“For him to be happy.” She chuckled and stuffed the mangled tissue back in her purse. “That makes me sound like a wimp. You know I’m not.”

“Who knows you better? It only makes you sound like a woman in the first dizzy stages of love.”

Bess gave her a watery smile. “Does it get worse or better?”

“Both.”

“That’s good news. Well, while it’s getting worse and better, I’ll have time to show him how I feel.” She picked up her coffee, then set it aside again. “Lori, there’s one more thing.”

“What could be bigger?” Lori demanded.

“Alexi wants me to have dinner with his family on Sunday.”

After a quick gurgle of laughter, Lori’s eyes widened. “He’s taking you home to Mother?”

“And Father,” Bess put in. “And brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews. A couple times a month they have a big family dinner on Sunday.”

“Obviously the man is crazy about you.”

“He is. I know he is.” Then she shut her eyes and dropped into a chair. “His family is enormously important to him. You can hear it every time he mentions one of them.” She grabbed another tissue and began to tear it to shreds. “I want to meet them. Really. But what if they don’t like me?”