Page 12 of My Ex-Boyfriend's Brothers

She melted into the kiss and wrapped her arms around my neck, pressing her tits into me so eagerly that I had to reach up and cup one of them. She gasped and pulled away, twisting her head back and forth to make sure no one had seen. Then, with an angry face that wouldn’t scare a puppy, she slapped my arm. “You can’t just do that in public!”

I shrugged. “I keep telling you that I do what I want.”

“I’m going to go check on the flowers. Are you okay waiting out here?” She saw that I was already getting off the bike. “Or, you can come with me. You can be my second opinion about the practice arrangements.”

“Lead the way, Bubbles.”

11

***Maggie***

Istudied the arrangement from close up and then backed away. It was nice but there was something missing. It would’ve been so much easier if Christina or Brad had been there to give their opinions, but neither of them wanted to be bogged down with the “small” decisions. As if florals were small decisions.

“What if you added another peony? It’s beautiful but it’s not perfect.” I glanced over at Jackson and chewed on my lip. I felt bad for holding him up with my pickiness. “I’m sorry. I promise this won’t be that much longer.”

Steven, the florist, sighed when the bell rang from the front counter. He looked at his watch and winced. “I’m so sorry, Maggie. I have a standing appointment with a client who insists on coming in and helping me arrange her flowers every week. Why don’t you two walk the trail through the field? Take the bouquet. If you see something, clip it for me. I’ll be back with you as soon as possible.”

“Is that okay?”

Jackson raised his eyebrows. “Is it okay with me? Come on, Bubbles. Walk me through a field and let me tell you all the things I would wait through to be with you.”

Steven clutched his imaginary pearls. “Oh, my god. If I found a man who said that to me, he’d be tied up in my basement right now. Wow.”

I grabbed Jackson’s arm and the bouquet. “And we’re going.”

The field that Steven had mentioned was a maze of flowers growing behind his shop. There was a barn in the distance and a beautifully maintained trail that weaved through the different flowers. It was my personal heaven, despite the fact that not all of the flowers were blooming.

“Well?” Jackson took my hand like we’d been holding hands for a decade and led me down the trail.

“Well, what?”

“Do you want to tie me up in your basement?” He saw my look of shock and laughed. “Yeah, you seem more like the type to be tied up.”

I squeezed his hand, unwilling to say anything about being tied up. Instead, I pointed to the peonies up ahead. “What do you think?”

He didn’t take his eyes off of me. “I think you got the wrong brother if you want help with the pretty stuff.”

I bit my lip and turned to face him completely. “I don’t know. I think you’re kinda pretty.”

His smile sent a million butterflies fluttering around my stomach as he wrapped his arms around me. “You think I’m pretty?”

I nodded. “I do. And I think I have just the right brother here to help me. After all, you brought me on a motorcycle. You could pick the wrong flower and I’d still forgive you because of the bike.”

“I’m going to tell my family you said that. That I can get shit wrong because I have a motorcycle.” He pulled the clippers Steven gave us out of his pocket after letting me go and walked over to clip a peony for me. He was slightly heavy handed when he stuck the flower into the bouquet but he got the flower in and nodded. “I like it.”

“It’s perfect.” I looked at the bouquet from every angle and bounced on the balls of my feet. “You should show your family this. You even picked a flower that was slightly darker than the rest and it’s just the depth we needed.”

“My family doesn’t want to see that or anything else I do.” He threw the comment out so cavalier that I could tell he just felt it was a fact, a fact that he’d accepted.

“That makes me sad.” I let the flowers hang down as I stared up at him. “I think I could poop and tell my mom about it and she’d be thrilled to cheer me on. That’s how every parent should be.”

Grunting, Jackson walked deeper down the trail. “Your mom always sounded like an angel. I’m sure it helps that you’re great.”

“You’re great, too.” I grabbed his hand and made him stop. “You’re great, Jackson. Sorry for getting serious and weird, but I don’t like the idea that your family isn’t wholly supportive of you.”

“Bubbles, I wasn’t always worthy of their support.” He pushed my hair behind my ears. “I can’t blame them for having a hard time accepting that I’m not the same kid I was at eighteen.”

“I can.” I frowned. “People grow and change. I used to think I loved Brad. If people still held me to that, I’d trash the planet.”

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