Page 52 of Marrying the Gardener
“Is there anything I can do for you, Crimson? Please. Let me do something for you.”
He sounds as ready and eager to please as I am.
If I’m not mistaken, the recipe for a good relationship is a thirty-seventy effort, with both parties striving for the seventy. I think…Ihopethat this is going to work out beautifully. “You can carry me to bed,” I say.
He settles his hands under me and rises. My ankles lock behind him, and I forget to release when he lowers my back into my bed. Dangling off him like a sloth, I meet his heated gaze.
His eyes sparkle. “You wanna keep me tonight?” he whispers, kissing my forehead. “I’m willing. I’ll beg just to hold you in my arms.”
My skin warms. “Maybe soon. But not tonight.”
He unlatches my hands from around his neck and pins them above my head. His fingers tangle with mine and squeeze. “More hope. You’re so merciful, Rose-red. If you change your mind about tonight, wake me. Assuming I can even get to sleep, I know I’ll be cold without you.”
It is the last day of July. There is no way he’ll be cold without me.
Not a single chance.
And, yet, once he leaves—locking my closet door behind him—I find myself shivering as I bundle beneath my blankets and smile into my pillow.
Chapter 16
?
Not exactly thetouch her and dieyou’d expect.
Crimson
No, I’m not exactly sure what convinced me that bringing Kaleb along to the pool party today would be a good idea. Something in my head decided it might prove a safe way to test the waters and introduce him as my husband in my circle. Something in my heart, idiotically, wanted to spend more time with him.
Clearly, my heart’s wishes overshadowed the reality a bit more than I’m content to admit.
Would this experience have been inevitable within the contracted year and absolutely unavoidable in the event that Kaleb becomes my permanent husband? Yes. Still. I was not expecting blatant confrontation like this.
“He was at Juniper’s party with Vivia just two weeks ago, Crimson,” Daria murmurs after taking me aside. Lights reflect off the surface of her family’s pool, mere yards away. Laughter and splashing water fill the stiffness in the air between us. “I saw them leave together. He was playing with her hair the entire night. You know I wouldn’t say anything unless I was sure, and I’d know those shoulders of his anywhere.”
My gaze traces Kaleb’s broad, bare shoulders as he sits on a lounge chair beside the pool in swim trunks, gaze consistently finding its way back to me every time it drifts off.
On some level, I was hoping that no one at Juniper’s party two weeks ago would have been sober enough to peg Kaleb tonight. Alas, what frail dreams and wishes…
“I think he has athingfor redheads,” Daria offers, toneconspiratory, “which is totally fine—unlessyou two have been together for longer than two weeks.”
Our backstory certainly says we have, which means we absolutely have.
Even though this isn’t a part of the scam—since I don’t imagine my grandfather will check in with a bunch of young adult girls related to some of my father’s clients whenever he makes his business decisions—I think a red flag might just help me out of this.
“Is Vivia coming?” I ask.
Daria shrugs, sipping her margarita. “No idea. But, trust me.” Her heavily made-up cat-eyes fix on me. “That’s him. Those are the shoulders she was with.”
Letting my lip jut, I say, “I suppose he got cold feet before we got married the Monday after that party.”
Daria’s mouth drops. “Married?You two aremarried?”
Nodding, I pluck a strawberry off the rim of my virgin daiquiri. “Yeah. Kaleb and I have been seeing each other secretly for a few years now. We eloped the Monday before last. I don’t mind that he was with Vivia that Saturday. You know how cold feet can affect men. They see all their options dwindle down to just one, and it freaks them out.” I smile a little stupidly, hopefully givingwoman in love. “The important thing is he still chose to marry me in the end.”
Daria stares at me. Dumbfounded. Dry as a desert, she says, “Um. No, Crimson. Theimportantthing is that he cheated on you two days before your wedding.”
Daria. Beloved. Why can’t you make this easy for me? I say, “It’s okay.”
