She’d labeled it as friendship back then, and it was, but now she could see the layers beneath it, the foundation that had been built brick by brick. She’d always thought of love as a rush, a lightning bolt. When you knew, you knew. She’d been so wrong.

She’d been falling in love with Ash for a very long time. Maybe from the first day she’d met him in grade school. She just hadn’t understood what that feeling had been.

Images of their time together flitted through her thoughts as she lay there next to him. The night of prom, always so hazy in her mind, drifted back to her in wisps. Her insisting that Ash go to the dance because she couldn’t imagine prom without him. How she’d felt when she’d seen him in his tux. She could feel it again, that little nudge of awareness when he’d gotten into the limo and sat next to her. She could feel Graham’s hand on her knee, feel the squeeze he’d given it, as if he’d sensed that, for a second, she’d thought something she shouldn’t about her best friend.

A memory hit her suddenly, and she let out a gasping breath.

“You okay, baby?” Ash asked, voice sleepy.

The pictures in her mind sharpened, turned into high definition. “I asked you to dance.”

Ash, who’d been lying quietly next to her, eyes closed, turned his head and looked at her. “What?”

She wet her lips, staring at the canvas but seeing the night in the gym more clearly than she ever had. The lights from the cheesy disco ball, the crowded gym, the corsage on her wrist. Graham had asked her to marry him, and she’d felt giddy and scared at the same time. She’d wanted to tell Ash, get his opinion, but then she’d seen him standing there in his tux without his date, hands in his pockets, eyes on her. She’d felt his stare as if it’d been a touch, and a wave of longing had gone through her. One that had flat-out terrified her because she wasn’t supposed to feel things like that for her best friend. She was in love with someone else. But she’d walked across the room anyway. “At prom, a slow song came on, one we both liked, and I asked you to dance.”

His arm tightened around her. “I remember.”

She could see the moment like a movie. The way Ash had looked at her, the flash of pain in his eyes, the way his gaze had shifted away. “You said no.”

He took a moment to respond. “I know.”

“Why?”

He let out a breath. “So many reasons. I didn’t trust myself not to reveal how I felt about you. I was good at hiding it, but that night, the wall I’d put up was crumbling. If we danced, if I held you against me, I was going to ruin prom for you. Make a scene.”

She closed her eyes, the realization hitting her like a gut punch. “I wanted you to say yes.”