How should I tell her I Love her?

I met Jane in Job Corps. We were friends instantly from the first day we met. Jane had a b/f at the time and I had a g/f. We were really close friends though, and neither of our partners liked it. Jane broke up with her b/f when he started getting really jealous about me. He wanted her to choose him over her friend (me), and she wasn’t having any of it. So Jane was single for a while and then gets into another b/f named Bill. Bill and I got along pretty good and everything was gravy. Meanwhile, I found out my g/f was lying to me about being addicted to cocaine, I did my best to support and help, but g/f says she will not change for me so I gave up because I had changed for her and felt ripped off. So then I was single. By this time Jane and new b/f Bill had graduated JC and moved in together, Jane and I still talked and we were still close friends, even across a state. The months went by and I finally graduated JC. I went back to Portland/Vancouver to start my life and discovered Jane and Bill were living in Washougal, a few miles east. So we all got back together to party and go camping and hang out. Those were good days. And then after about a year Jane got pregnant. Things started to unravel there. As Jane was quitting smoking and drinking while making plans, Bill kept on partying and running around with some new friends of his, leaving Jane at home by herself, pregnant. So she starts having to rely on me to help her through all of it, being the only eligible man in her life- friend that I am. Bill gets the sense that his relationship is being threatened. By me. The sad part is, I was only helping my close friend through some bad weather. Bill and his friends decided to get me out of Jane’s life. I can honestly admit that I did get a bit caught up in this drama; I had been getting mixed signals from Jane since I became a larger part of her life. They convinced Jane that I was trying to steal her away from Bill, in my own sexual self interest. I was appalled and disgusted and stopped seeing and talking to both of them for almost a year. Meanwhile, Bill got his life together and fathered up a bit, just enough to convince Jane that everything was ok. They moved to northern Washington. Then she had her kid, and Bill got back into an old crowd from his hometown where they were living and Jane was once again left alone while Bill was drinking and partying. It was worse, because Jane actually had to take care of her kid then, instead of just needing some support through pregnancy. She left Bill and moved in with her grandmother in Arizona. So that year passes and I’m carrying on with my life, the whole thing reconciled and left in the past. I’ve got a dependable job and I’m supporting myself sufficiently. One sunny day I get a call from Jane. She and her kid Jack have moved back to Washougal and Bill is still up in Spokane. Jane informs me that she has broken up with Bill and is living with her dad now. She has nobody to talk to and needs help with Jack and here I am: the old dependable friend. Bill doesn’t seem to care anymore and she is showing a lot of interest in me. It’s like the whole thing is coming back again to screw up my life only this time it’s different. She’s alone and exhausted. I have been over to visit her a few times and each time we are together I can feel the magnetism between us growing. I was there last night, and before I left she hugged me so close, like never before. I swear I could feel this need in her, like that deep love that you only feel with just the right person- as though she didn’t want to ever let go. At that moment I realized that I love this woman more than anyone or anything I’ve ever known.

I am intensely nervous now. I don’t know how to proceed from here. I worry that she feels I only want her friendship, after what happened a year ago. It didn’t break my heart because my heart wasn’t completely involved at that point. It really was friendship and obviously it’s a strong one because here we are now. Inversely, I also worry that she only sees a friend in me because of her own personal feelings and reactions to that incident a year ago. Does she think I was only trying to sleep with her back then? That my motivations for helping and supporting her were impure or disingenuous?

Is this is a whole new situation? Different terms? I don’t know what to do because there is nothing keeping us apart now, and I really do love her. I’ve never been any good with this sort of thing, and it’s a bit awkward for me. I can’t see for sure (maybe I’m blind) if she feels the same way now, after all this time. I’m ready for her. Is she ready for me?

I don’t expect miraculous exact answers, just some kind of perspective or insight on this soap opera I seem to be living in. You (FunAdvice) people are awesome, and you comprise a very powerful collective mind. I implore you, help me clear some of this fog from my life!