She hurried on. ‘I just wanted you to know. I don’t want anything back...don’t expect anything back. And please don’t feel bad—I don’t regret loving you.’
‘Holly.’ His voice sounded strangled. ‘Look at me.’
She looked up, braced herself for pity, anger, sorr
ow, but instead saw a shell-shocked look of stunned disbelief succeeded by a dawning of joy, a light so bright, so happy, that her own heart gave a small cautious leap.
‘I came here to tell you I love you.’
Happiness sparked, but she doused the joy, needed to know he meant it, that it was real and not an illusion.
‘Don’t say it because you feel sorry for me.’
‘I would never do that. I do not feel sorry for you. I love you.’
‘But just days ago you told me you didn’t want love...didn’t do love.’
‘It turns out I knew absolutely nothing about love. I love you whether I want to or not, and it turns out I do want to.’ He sounded almost bewildered. ‘I love you and I want to shout it from the rooftops. I love the way you smile, I love the way you twirl your hair round your finger, I love your warmth, your generosity, your loyalty and how much you care. Loving you makes me a better person—a stronger person, not a weaker one. Maybe it does give you power over me, but I trust you not to abuse that power. I’ve been falling for you since the moment I laid eyes on you; and now you have made me the happiest man on this earth.’
Now he paused.
‘As long as you’re sure too. You’re not mistaking love for duty? It’s not for your father, or for Il Boschetto di Sole, or...?’
‘No! This love is for real! I love you—I love how you bring out the best in me, make me strive and question and leave my comfort zone. You make me smile, you make me laugh, you make me feel safe, you encourage me and you make me so happy I can feel the happiness tingle through my whole body.’
He rose to his feet and pulled her up with him. He spanned her waist with his hands and twirled her round, and then he sank to one knee and took her hand in his.
‘In this beautiful place—our beautiful place—will you, Holly Romano, stay married to me, Stefan Petrelli, for ever? To have and to hold, till death us do part?’
She beamed. ‘Yes, I will.’
And as he stood and kissed her, she knew that they would fulfil each and every vow they had made with love and happiness. For ever.
EPILOGUE
STEFAN LOOKED OUT over Forester’s Glade—Radura dei Guardaboschi.
‘You OK?’ Holly asked, slipping her hand into his.
‘Yes. Really I am.’
They had just scattered his mother’s ashes over the earth she had loved so much and a sense of peace enveloped him.
‘I hope she is now at rest.’
Holly moved even closer to him, increased the pressure of her clasp. ‘I wish I could have known her. I wish it could all have panned out differently.’
‘Me too. But I know she would have been happy for me and I know she would have loved you. Not, of course, as much as I do, but she would have loved you.’
For a moment they looked out over the lush, verdant land, listening to the babble of the stream, the rush of the waterfall.
‘I love you very much, Holly. And I am very proud of you. Especially for that award.’
‘I’m pretty stoked myself.’
She’d won Global Marketing Trainee of the Year and she more than deserved it.
‘But the wonderful thing is how much I love the work. And did you see my father’s face when they handed me the prize?’