"It took me much longer to get away than I thought it would."
Joshua glanced at her and enfolded her with a warm smile of welcome. "I was feeding the fish, and didn't notice." He handed her a fistful of stale bread crumbs for her to toss onto the water's still surface. Huge goldfish, some marked with black-and-white blotches, battled for the crumbs, stirring up the water's smooth surface.
"This has always been one of my favorite places," Joshua said.
"Mine too," she admitted. It didn't surprise her that Joshua felt the same way about this place as she did. They appreciated many of the same things.
They stood side by side, content without speaking, satisfied simply to be in each other's company.
"There's something I need to tell you," Hannah said once she'd regained her breath and her equilibrium. Being with Joshua always seemed to pull her off center.
Joshua hesitated, and his eyes sparkled. "Am I going to need to sit down to hear it?"
"No. At least I don't think so." She thought about what she had to say and realized he was the last person she should be telling instead of the first. "I've decided not to marry Carl."
"I know." Joshua tossed the last of the bread crumbs into the pond with a flourish.
Of all the reactions Hannah had expected from Joshua, she'd never anticipated this calm acceptance. She frowned. "What did you say?"
"I said, I knew you weren't going to marry Carl."
"And how could you be so confident of that?" she asked. She hadn't realized it herself until the night before. Once she'd admitted that she couldn't go through with the wedding, she'd felt as though a great weight had been lifted from her heart. It hadn't been an easy decision, and she didn't want him to think she'd made it flippantly.
"I knew you weren't going to be marrying Carl, my sweet, adorable Hannah, for one simple reason. I fully intend for you to marry me."
Hannah blinked back her surprise.
"And yes, if you're wondering, that's a marriage proposal."
"But I'm already engaged to Carl," she argued, saying the first thing that came to mind. He'd shocked her so thoroughly that she wasn't sure how to respond. The second thing that came to mind was that she would have liked nothing better than to be Joshua's wife. She was forced into biting her lips to keep from blurting it out.
He warmed her with another of his bone-melting smiles. "You see, I realized something the very first time we met."
"You did?"
"It's simple, really," he said with the calm reasoning of an attorney. "I realized you and I were meant to be together."
"But what about Carl?" she pleaded. "I was already engaged to him when we met." While that wasn't technically true, for all intents and purposes she might as well have been betrothed to the rabbi's son. In the eyes of both families, all that needed to be decided was if they should or shouldn't hire a wedding coordinator.
"I suppose I sound overly confident of myself," Joshua said, and reached inside his coat pocket for his leather gloves. "I wasn't sure about any of this until recently, though. The night at Rockefeller Center, to be exact. I gave you my business card, remember?"
"I didn't phone you."
"True," he was gracious enough to agree, "and I'll admit I haven't been sleeping well because I fully expected you to contact me long before now." He reached for her hand and raised it to his lips, brushing her knuckles with his mouth. "You and I share something very special, Hannah. I don't know what I would have done had you decided to go ahead with the wedding with Carl."
Hannah dipped her head. "I haven't said anything to him yet." It was far easier to tell Joshua of her decision first. She realized she was behaving like a coward, but she sincerely felt that Carl would experience a deep sense of relief once she asked him to release her from the engagement. She was certain he shared her feelings. They were both eager to please their parents and had allowed themselves unwittingly to be drawn into a self-made trap.
Joshua loved her. The knowledge shook her because she didn't understand how anyone as powerful and intelligent as Joshua could care for someone like her. "I've treated you terribly. I've ignored you, pretended I didn't know you, and shunned you."
"When something is of high value, then it's worth a few inconveniences," Joshua said, and gently bounced his mouth over hers. "In many