“Do you want some words of advice, Tess?”I glanced at Adam’s profile as he sipped.“Don’t give your heart away too easily.” He turned to me. “Make him earn it.”

“He slid over to me and grabbed me closer to him. My smile fell from my face with the unexpectedness of it. His hands cupped my face, his lips hovering above mine.“You seriously want to know, Tess?”He closed the space and claimed my mouth with an urgent, hot, delving kiss.He smiled. “You are sexy, in your own goofball way, you’re sweet and beautiful and smart and funny and, although you kiss to the point where I feel like I want to go back for seconds, you’re my best friend, and that’s why I don’t want to tap that.”

“I love you, Tess McGee. I don’t do big funny or heartfelt speeches in front of people at birthday parties, but I’m excellent in private alcoves in beer gardens.” He paused. “Okay, that sounded really bad, what I mean is …”I kissed him into silence. I pressed my forehead against his with a sigh. “I love you, too, Toby. In fact, that’s what I was going to tell you before we walked into the beer garden. Right before the really bad singing started.”Toby chuckled. He let out a sigh of relief. “Ready to reminisce?”I whispered my final word before he closed the distance.“Always.”

“Tess, will you marry me?" Toby laughed.”

“Tess, there isn't a drunken, screaming netballer in the world that would have made me not want to ... continue.”

“I like you, Tess.”

“He looked at me now."Remember I said, 'what if I didn't want to fix your bike?'"I remembered. "Yes...""I didn't want to fix it, because I liked driving you places.”