I’ve been needing to tell you.”
Oh no, what was he going to say? Her heart thundered. “Yes?”
“I lied.”
She cocked her head, asked leerily, “About what?”
“That engagement ring.”
She took it off, handed it to him. Weird that her hand suddenly felt so bare.
Mike closed his fingers around the ring, making a fist. “I didn’t buy the ring for Cassandra.”
“No?”
He shook his head.
“Who did you buy it for?”
He stared at her. No, not at her, into her. He stared at her as if she was the most incredible thing he had ever seen.
Gia’s jaw dropped, and a sweet, hopeful shiver ran up her spine. “Me?”
Mike nodded. “I was going to ask you to marry me. I had this idea where I would tie the ring to a kite and ask you to reel it in for me.”
Gia plastered a palm over her mouth and stared at him, gobsmacked. “What? When?”
“A year ago. The day you came home from college. The day you told me you were moving to Japan to study under master kitemaker Mikio Tetsuya.”
Stunned, she could only stare at him.
“Say something,” he pleaded.
“Omigosh, I had no idea.” Gia twirled her hair around her index fingers, freaked out by what Mike had just revealed. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“How could I stand in the way of you studying with one of the world’s greatest kitemakers?”
“But you’ve had this ring for over a year and never said a word about how you felt? When did you know you wanted to marry me?”
“When you were off to college and you weren’t around anymore. I tried to forget you. I dated. But no one ever compared to you.”
“Mike, that’s so heartbreaking. I don’t even know what to say. To put your life on hold for me?”
“I love you that much, Gia. All I want is what’s best for you.”
“Why didn’t you say something before? You never even tried to kiss me.”
“I didn’t want to screw up the good thing we had. Or risk losing my best friend.” He shrugged. “And our timing always seemed off. You were either dating someone or I was.”
“I-I’m speechless.”
He smiled again and dipped his head, sending her a whiff of his cologne. Her emotions were all kinds of crazy and she didn’t have a clue how to unpack them.
“I love you, Gia. I have for years and I’m hoping after last night that maybe you love me, too, in the same way I love you.”
She gulped. Mike Straus, the man who’d been her friend for twenty years, loved her. He loved her and not just in a best-friend kind of way.
In all her twenty-three years, no man—although granted she didn’t remember her father—had ever said those three words to her.
Gia hopped off the couch and backed up. “I need to go home.”
“Short Stack.” His voice was steady, but she could hear the layer of hurt running through it. “Don’t run away from your feelings. Stay here and talk to me.”
“This is too much. You’re too much.” She felt as if she couldn’t breathe. She had to get out of here, get some air before she passed out. He’d bought her a ring last year. He’d been loving her for years.
“You’re right. I shouldn’t have sprung my feelings on you like that. It was too much, too soon.”
“Mike,” she said. “You’re not at fault. It’s not you, it’s me. I’m the one who’s gone off the rails.”
“You haven’t gone off the rails. You’ve been through a lot in a short amount of time. And I think you’re holding it together beautifully. But I do want a real engagement and you need to know I’m serious about that.”
Everything they’d gone through and done together over the course of the past six weeks had come from a place of heightened emotion. Emotions she wasn’t sure she could trust. She needed to take a deep breath and regroup. Once upon a time, she would have automatically flung herself into his arms over his proclamation of love.
But right now, after the mess with her sisters, she just wasn’t ready for it.
“Mike,” she said. “I hear you and appreciate your feelings, but right now, I can’t tell you what you want to hear.”
“Are you saying you don’t love me, too, Gia? Because that’s not how it felt last night.” His Adam’s apple worked as he gulped, and he set his mouth in a grim line.
“Look, you’re the one who told me to give up my people-pleasing ways. You’re the one who encouraged me to stand