Page 53 of My Dearest Mackenzie

“Now you know why I wanted to get the groceries. No interruptions,” Mack uttered as he drove faster.

I felt myself building again, and like he knew, Mack slowed.

I think his name came out like a growl, and he responded with, “Patience, Feisty Frankie.”

I lightly bit into his shoulder as he took his time…

“Savoring you,” he said with his hand behind me, protecting my back.

“Need you,” was what I think I mumbled, and Mack picked up speed.

“God, Frances,” he groaned. “I never…never thought this would be for me…”

I couldn’t respond because his words toppled me over the edge, and Mack started going with me, and together we hit a furious pace, striving for whatever this was to become…lust gone viral, feelings, or just a quick and awesome lay.

Later, cleaned up, showered, and in bed, my head lay on Mack’s chest while he ran his fingers through my hair. I remembered there was one detail I hadn’t shared. I didn’t know why I hadn’t said anything. Maybe because I wanted to know where the Jimmy and Rosie mission ended, and Mack and Frankie began.

Mack interrupted my mental war. “What’s got your head working overtime? I can practically feel you overthinking.”

I closed my eyes and spoke. “Remember the first set of letters?”

I felt Mack nod behind me.

“And they spoke about the lilies? And you said that was Silky’s first scent?”

“Yes.” His answer was raspy as his hand traveled down my arm and up again.

“I should have told you then, and I don’t know why I didn’t,” I rambled. “Maybe to protect me, or Paps, or you, or all of us.”

“What’s going on?”

He didn’t sound impatient or mad, which blanketed me in compassion. “I don’t want there to be secrets, okay?”

“No secrets.”

“My middle name is Lily. Before you say anything, it could be a coincidence, or just dumb luck…”

His fingers interlaced with mine, and I went on with my longwinded explanation.

“I wasn’t sure if I should tell you after you read the letters. It’s probably meaningful to note…I thought about it for a long time after I read them. Although it means my parents might know some of the story or not. Who knows? My Paps was influential and could have asked them to give me the name. Or maybe my mom really liked the name. I’m not close with them much anymore, and I never really asked them…”

“Or maybe it was about Jimmy keeping a piece of Rosie with him.”

I felt a tear well in the corner of my eye. “Maybe. You’re not mad?”

“No. You told me when you were ready. Solving Jimmy and Milly’s love affair was never my mission. If anything, it makes me think you’re even more meant for me with Lily as your middle name.”

Without interruptions, the rest of the weekend passed in a flurry of easygoing times and intimacy.

It was hard not to get swept into false hopes of a budding fairy tale.

“I have a surprise for you,” I told Mack on Friday when he called. It was mid-September and the weeks since we’d been in the Hamptons had passed in a flurry of work and seeing one another.

First, Mack went back to Paris and London, before heading to China to check on a packaging plant. The scope of his business was enormous, and I was beginning to understand how hard he worked to get where he was today.

I did take on two new customers, finding myself motivated to work harder and smarter—like the man I was falling for.

“Oh, yeah? Are you taking up golf? That would be an amazing surprise…”

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