Page 175 of As They Are
Her cheeks only grew redder, and now I knew why. Her mom hadn’t done this for her, and she’d gotten the bare minimum from her father. I bet all of this was new.
Though it wouldn’t be for long.
“I suppose I should say thank you.” She gave me a soft smile. “And sorry for being such a distraction.”
“You’re not a distraction.”
“But I am,” she said. “I would know because we were up until midnight last night.”
There was a tiredness behind my eyes I couldn’t shake, but it was nothing coffee couldn’t fix. “I don’t regret that.”
“I didn’t say anything about regret. And I won’t, even when I cover up the hickey you gave me.”
“You could wear it loud and proud.”
“And risk Madison’s wrathagain?You’re playing with fire.”
“She’s pushing you with a man who isn’t me. She deserves it.”
Wren laughed and raised an eyebrow. “Possessive, are we?”
“Only for you.” I grabbed her by the waist and pressed a kiss to her lips. I was tempted to give her more, but she pushed me away.
“The smoothie? Then your job?”
“Sorry,” I said. “I’ll get to it.”
“And I’ll start mentally preparing for being on camera. Madison wants you to come by today. And you have plenty of flowers to bring. I don’t know how you would choose with everything you have.”
She wasn’t wrong. I’d forgone having a lawn a long time ago in favor of more native plants.
“It wasn’t all that hard,” I said as I grabbed the ingredients for the smoothie from the freezer. “I picked them based on how I felt about you.”
She turned to me. “How did you do that?”
“Each flower has a meaning. You probably don’t remember the ones I gave you, but?—”
“I do remember,” she replied. “I’ve kept them.”
My heart skipped a beat. “You did?”
She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “They were so beautiful. What was I supposed to do, throw them away? I dried them and put them in a scrapbook Mollie gave me.”
I didn’t know she’d cared enough to do that. All this time, I thought she was out of my league, yet she was exactly the person I’d been waiting for.
“It started with the irises.”
“On the second day I was in town?” She raised her eyebrows.
“It wasn’t totally intentional. Theywereblooming, but when I met you, I was so impressed by you that I thought they fit.”
“What do irises mean?”
“Many things. The one I thought of was valor. You’re ... so incredible, Wren. You’re brave, even when you don’t see it. When I met you while you had that flat tire, I knew ...”
“That I wasn’t normal?”
“That you were way out of my league.”
