Page 37 of The Arrangement

He snickered, sliding his hand along my waist as he moved to grab another decoration from the box. I loved that he felt more confident touching me, even if most of the time it left me achingfor more. “You say that as if you don’t like the things that come out of my mouth.”

“Quite the contrary,” I said, snagging his face and smacking him with a kiss. The radiant smile he flashed me before stepping away, metal lizard in hand, made me want to crow, beat my chest, shout my joy from the top of the roof. I was so far gone for Marc Weathers I didn’t know what to do with myself. Thankfully, his back was to me and he couldn’t see the truly asinine lovestruck grin I was undoubtedly giving him.

“Do you think it’s too much to have more than one lizard together? I was going for a kind of nest effect.”

I walked closer to get a better idea of what he was talking about. The current arrangement of metal lizards could be seen as an orgy or a slaughter. Either way, it wasn’t even close to resembling a nest. Did lizards even have nests? “I guess it depends. Do youwantto scare the daylights out of your clients?”

He tilted his head one way, then the other. “Okay, yeah, I see the problem.” He removedonesmall lizard and took it to another part of the store. Shaking my head, I helpfully relocated several others while he wasn’t looking. “Hey, JD?”

“Sup?” I asked, bracing to defend my interference. To my surprise, Marc wasn’t holding a relocated-lizard, but my phone, and wearing a quizzical expression.

“Who’s Andy and why are they blowing up your phone?” If it had been anyone else, I might have been more concerned about the hint of insecurity in Marc’s posture. As it was, the joy already flooding me compounded, and I basically bounded over to him like a damn golden retriever.

“No shit?! He never calls me. Or texts for that matter.” Marc’s eyes narrowed as he passed me my phone, and I automatically started pulling up my voicemails. It wasn’t until I could feel his gaze boring a hole into my skull that I realized I’d neglected to answer his very reasonable question in my excitement. “Sorry.”I gave him a sheepish look. “Andy’s my little brother. We’re kinda polar opposites. Besides that, he never reaches out to me anyway. I was pretty sure he was still pissed about me fucking with him when I came home for Christmas a couple of years back.”

Marc raised an eyebrow. “What did you do?”

My face heated. Oh damn, I was going to have to admit this shit out loud. I cleared my throat and mumbled my confession as quickly as I could.

Marc’s other eyebrow shot up. “I’m sorry, you didwhat?”

“I may have hit on his boyfriend and outed some of the kinky shit they're into. In my defense, the second part wasn’t on purpose.” Marc continued to stare at me. “It wasn’t! What did he expect would happen getting freaky in our parents’ house? It’s not exactly soundproof,” I added with a harrumph. Marc still didn’t relent, and I wilted. “Fine.Fine. His boyfriend is also super hot, and I was testing the waters.”

A smirk teased Marc’s lips, and I narrowed my eyes, brandishing the metal bird I was still holding at him.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Because I know the real reason you hit on your brother’s boyfriend, and it has nothing to do with him being hot, though I’m sure that didn’t hurt.”

I straightened, lowering my arm and the metal bird. “You do?”

He shrugged. “Of course. I’m total shit at flirting, but Alex and I have done the same for each other plenty of times.”

“And what’s that?”

He walked closer, casually sliding his arms around my waist, and looked up at me. “You wanted to make sure he was good enough for your brother. That he’d be true.”

I think my heart actually stopped as I looked into Marc’s hazel eyes with their starburst of green at the center. The words “I love you” were right there on the tip of my tongue, and I’dnever wanted to say them more in my life. So many people—my siblings included—assumed the worst of me. JD the flirt. JD the clown. JD the dunce. I was good for a laugh or a roll in the sack, nothing more. But he didn’t look at me like that. Not Marc. Never Marc.

Thankfully, my phone vibrated with an incoming call before I could do anything as disastrous as give voice to the words growing bigger in my chest by the second. I cleared my throat and held up the phone. “I should probably get that.”

“Yeah, you probably should.” He squeezed my sides and stepped back.

I shot him a smile of appreciation, then darted out the back of the shop to take the call. “Hey, little man, since when am I your favorite person?” I answered with a laugh, spinning around to lean against the sun-warmed bricks.

“While I’m well aware that you’re taller than me, Sergeant Gallagher, it seems rather rude to point it out in such a way. As for being my favorite person, since you’re dodging my emails, I felt a call was in order.”

My heart dropped through my stomach, and I scurried to straighten to attention even though my CO couldn’t see me. “Sorry about that, Captain. I thought you were my younger brother. I didn’t—”

“At ease, Gallagher. I assumed as much. Sounds like leave is doing you some good.”

I rubbed the back of my neck and risked a glance inside the shop before slowly closing the door until only a sliver remained open. “Um, yeah. You could say that.”

“I did say that. What I’d like to know is why I still haven’t received your reenlistment paperwork. When we spoke before your leave, you’d mentioned being uncertain. I’d hoped sometime away would provide the clarity you were looking for. How’s that going?”

I struggled to swallow, my throat suddenly unbearably dry despite the instant sweat I’d broken into upon stepping outside.

The heavy sigh that came through the line raised the hair on the back of my neck. “I suppose that’s as much of an answer as anything. What is it, Gallagher? You’ve never been wishy-washy before.”