Patrick’s POV
How wonderful was this feeling that Lexie awakened in me! And it was marvelous to stop swimming against the current, to accept that I loved her and be able to tell her so. I had never experienced anything like this before, no feeling so strong, so definitive, that nothing could change. And she had made it clear long ago what she felt for me - I was loved back with the same intensity, and she had never been afraid to say she loved me.
Love! Now I said I loved her with such certainty, because I knew these weren't words spoken carelessly or in the heat of emotion, not even at the peak of a fleeting, passing infatuation. It was love, the kind that comes, arrives without warning, terrifies you with its magnitude, but never leaves again.
I pulled Lexie back into the room and only stepped away from her briefly, just to close the door and curtains. Then I led her to the armchair and sat there with her.
"For you!" I pulled the gift box closer to her. "Actually, it's for us!"
"And
