Always You and Me

by Dani Atkins

‘I love you, Lily. I’ve always loved you. There’s never been anyone else in my heart except you. And yes, I know this is the worst possible time to be telling you this. But better now than after you’ve gone through with it. I had to come. I had to stop you marrying the wrong guy, even if he is Mr Right, Mr Nice Guy, Mr Good Guy. He’s not the one you’re meant to be with. You’re meant to be with me.’

‘No. I don’t. I know I don’t deserve you, that I’m not worthy of you. Someone as incredible as you shouldn’t be in love with an idiot like me. But I think – I know – you are. And I couldn’t let you walk down the aisle without letting you know that there’s someone else who also wants to spend his life with you.’

Most people – if they’re lucky – get to have one amazing love story in their life. I’ve already had two. More than that would just be greedy.’

‘I don’t think I’ve forgotten anything you’ve ever said to me. Because back then, when you talked about the family you wanted to have one day, it seemed like the best fairy tale in the world to a battered and scarred teenage boy who’d never known what that kind of love felt like and didn’t believe he’d ever deserve it.’

‘You. You happened. You came charging back into my world and made it impossible for me to carry on pretending that I could live the rest of my life without you in

‘And in that moment, I knew that it didn’t matter that I wasn’t his flesh and blood, that I didn’t look like him, or that he’d never known me as a young child. He’d been there for me in a million different ways. He was my father in every sense of the word that truly mattered.

Every piece Josh had ever made, going back years and years. Every single piece had my name on it. It wasn’t a random symbol like he’d told me; it was a heartfelt declaration, a testimony to his feelings, and it brought a lump to my throat.