Audrey had been so studiously ignoring the people trying to pretend that they weren’t staring at her that it took her a moment to register that one person wasn’t pretending at all. He was staring right at her and began walking toward her with purpose until he loomed over her. She didn’t move, not even when he slowly lowered himself onto the bench beside her.

Audrey turned her head and met the gaze of her best friend. “Where’s your bow tie?”

He let out a harsh laugh. “I lost it. Only one of a couple of things I lost today.”

“Oh yeah?” she asked casually, proud of how cool her voice sounded and the way it didn’t waver, not once.

“Yeah.”

She lifted her eyebrows. “Let me guess. You’re missing a bride?”

“No,” he said, his eyes locking on hers. “I’m missing my best friend. My soul mate. The woman I want very much to make my wife.”

Her heart twisted traitorously in her chest at words a part of her was still thrilled to hear.

She looked away. “Right. So you can get your company?”

Clarke reached out and gently hooked a finger on the side of her jaw, drawing her face back around to his.

“No,” he said, his voice tender. “Because I love her.”

Audrey let out a small exhale.

Not enough, she reminded herself. Clarke had always loved her with the strong, everlasting love of a lifelong friend. She’d never doubted it, and she didn’t doubt it now. But she wanted more. She wanted the wild, take-your-breath-away, risk-everything love.

She knew how she felt about him, and she knew she deserved nothing less in return.

“I was looking for you last night, at the party,” she said quietly. “You were talking to your dad.”

He closed his eyes, and when they opened, they silently begged her to understand. “I know what you heard, Dree. And I’m not going to tell you that my dad didn’t offer me the job if I married you. I’m not going to pretend that my parents aren’t completely messed up or that my mom didn’t have one up on all of us the entire time, but that’s not important right now. What is important is that the damned company had nothing to do with why I proposed to you that day in the Plaza. And it has nothing to do with the reasons I’m proposing to you right now.”

Audrey’s lips parted in shock as Clarke slowly lowered to one knee in front of her and clasped his hands around hers, his eyes gleaming with unshed tears.