Page 4 of The Arrangement

Jones: Help is on the way!

That had been twelve hours ago. Now we were creeping up on 9 p.m. and I hadn’t received a single update. I’d have been worried if I weren’t so irritated. He knew how important this was to me. I’d told him all about it when he’d asked almost a year ago whether I planned to pursue officer training. I wasn’t career military. Hell, I’d only enlisted to appease my father.

I threw the pen down on top of my ever-growing lists scattered across the coffee table and rubbed my tired eyes. Stressing about when Jones would get here wouldn’t solve anything, and I had an early day ahead of me. I got up from the couch, which was in surprisingly great shape considering how old it was. Though I had my doubts about the pull-out mattress. It probably—definitely—needed to be replaced. Then again, Jones wasn’t exactly my favorite person at the moment.

I snickered to myself at the thought of worn-out springs jabbing him in the back while he tried to sleep as I changed for bed. It would serve him right for forgetting his promise, because despite what he said, Iknewhe’d forgotten. Part of that was on me. I should have reminded him sooner, but there’d been so much going on that it was time to go before I knew it.

I’d just begun brushing my teeth when a knock came at the door. Relief washed over me, and I made my way through the single bedroom into the open kitchen-living space to answer the door. “It’s about damn time,” I said around my toothbrush as I opened the door. “What’d you do, paddle across the bay?” Mytoothbrush hung from my slack mouth as the man who definitely wasnotJones turned to regard me with a smile.

“I didn’t realize that was an option,” JD Fucking Gallagher said.

I took in the stuffed rucksack on his back and his obviously expectant look and seriously contemplated shutting the door and trying again.

“Are you going to invite me in, Weathers, or should I have brought my bedroll to bunk in the hall?” He raised a copper eyebrow, and I lurched into motion.

I stepped out of his way and into the kitchen to spit out my toothpaste and wipe my mouth. “Sergeant First Class Gallagher. What are you doing here?”

He laughed to himself as he stepped inside the small apartment, which now felt microscopic with his giant self in it, and dropped his bag on the floor beside the couch. “Of course Jones didn’t tell you.”

“Didn’t tell me what?” I asked, my voice an embarrassing mix of strained nerves and irritation.

“He had some family stuff come up. I owed him one. So here I am.”

A beat went by as we stared at each other, then said at the same time, “He forgot.”

“Fuck,” I groaned, leaning my elbows on the kitchen counter and covering my face. If I’d known something like this could happen, it would have been at the top of my list of worst nightmares.

“He mentioned something about helping you move and fixing up a shop? I’m assuming that would be the old flower shop downstairs.”

I grunted in reply and wondered how long it would take for him to call me out for being a creepy voyeur. Why the fuckcouldn’t Jones have given me a heads-up?Anyoneelse would have been better than Sergeant Gallagher.

“So, what’s it going to be?”

My eyes widened behind my hands at the proximity of the voice. I slowly lowered my hands to see JD’s face less than a foot away as he mirrored my pose on the counter. “What’swhatgoing to be?” I asked tentatively.

“The shop downstairs.”

“A flower shop,” I replied flatly. Surprise flickered in his blue-green eyes. “What?”

“Nothing. You just don’t look the type to be a florist. Are you helping someone get it up and running? Friend, family, girlfriend?”

I bristled at his assumption. “No. And what exactly does the ‘florist-type’ look like,Sergeant?”

He winced. “You’re right, that was an asinine thing to say. I should know better than anyone to check my assumptions at the door. I apologize.” He waited for me to nod stiffly, then added, “Oh, and do you think we could drop the rank-business? This is my first extended leave in eight years, and I’d rather not be reminded of that every time someone talks to me. That okay with you, Weathers?”

“Marc,” I said by reflex, though I wasn’t sure what to make of the wide grin that spread across his face.

“Marc it is,” he said, extending his hand, grin still in place. I automatically accepted the handshake, doing my best to stuff my issues into a box and yeet them to the far recesses of my mind. Not easy tasks, with the way his fingers seemed to glide over my palm and his firm, yet oddly gentle grip. Then he flexed his fingers.

I sucked in a sharp breath, and promptly blue-screened. All I could think about was the way those same fingers had slid through the brunette’s hair, how they’d tightened, and she’dmoaned. The sadistic part of my brain couldn’t help but wonder if I would react the same. And with that curious thought, I lurched back to reality where JD was wearing a smirk I had no desire to decipher and apparently saying something.

I shook my head. “I’m sorry. It’s been a long day, with… surprises. What were you saying?”

Something sparked in his intense blue-green eyes—and, yep, not going there. I could deal with my crazy on my own time. “Exactly that. I was asking if it was alright if we turned in for the night. It’s been a long ass day with the layover from hell.” I blinked, not trusting anything my brain was interpreting. “I noticed you were brushing your teeth?” he added when I continued to stare blankly at him.

“Oh! Yeah. Of course. Shit, I must be more tired than I thought.” I ran a hand over my face, not that it did anything for my headspace. “It’s a small apartment, so the only bathroom is the en-suite.” I gestured vaguely toward the bedroom and realized too late what a hot fucking mess it was in there.

JD nodded his appreciation and grabbed his bag from the floor, then headed to the bathroom. The moment I heard the door shut, I bolted into the bedroom and started cleaning like it was my first week in basic training. By the time JD finished, the bedroom wouldn’t pass a thorough inspection, but at least it didn’t look like a bomb had gone off, and I was finishing setting up the pullout bed in the living room.