Page 83 of The Arrangement

His face softened, and he traced a finger along my jaw. “Honeysuckles represent devotion, true happiness, steadfast attraction, and the bonds of love. There are a few other meanings I could toss in, like good luck and intertwining lives, but that’s the gist of it.”

“Fuck, Marc.” I gripped him tightly and pressed my forehead against his once more, overcome with a flood of emotion. “And every time you called me honey…”

“I was failing spectacularly at not calling you Honeysuckle. I’ve known I’m in love with you for a while now,” he added when I pulled back to look at him. “I was just too scared to say anything. When I’m in, I’min. Unfortunately, that rarely matches up with who I’m seeing. It can take me a long time to feel connected enough with someone to actually want an intimate relationship.“ He looked away, and I gently grabbed his chin and turned his face back to me.

“I get it, baby boy. For so much of my life, I’ve played a role. Even when I got away from all the high-society bullshit, I was really just trading one constricting life for another. I was still a tool, a pawn to be moved on the board. But with you…” I stared into his beautiful eyes while he waited for me to finish. “From the first moment you looked at me, it was as if you could see to the very heart of what made me who I am. And more than that, you accepted it—no caveats or anything. Just me. You made me feel like, for once, I was enough exactly as I am.”

“James?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m really going to need you to kiss me now.” He was already angling up to meet me halfway, and the kiss he gave me was sweeter than any confection. “Does this mean you’ll stay here in Fairhope with me?” he whispered against my lips.

God, I loved him so fucking much. “Depends on if anyone asks me to,” I teased him.

“You’re such an ass.” He pushed against my chest, then grabbed the front of my shirt and yanked me down to sear me with a kiss, his tongue sweeping past my lips to claim me. “It’s a good thing I love you.”

I felt fucking giddy as I smiled against his mouth. “I love you too, Tulip.”

His following groan went straight to my dick, and he captured me with another dominating kiss. “The things I want to do with you,” he said huskily.

“Right there with you, but maybe we should hold off until we don’t have an audience.” We looked toward the sliding glass door, where his sister and great-aunt weren’t even pretending not to be watching.

Marc’s full laugh pushed away any lingering insecurities, and he relinquished his death grip on my shirtfront. “Fair point. Later then.” He gave me a heated look that wasn’t doing my semi any favors, then tugged me toward the door. “Oh! I finally decided on a name for the shop.” His face was bright with enthusiasm as he glanced at me.

“Yeah? What did you decide to go with?” I brought his hand up and placed a kiss on the back, enamored with the way his face softened.

“Second Bloom.”

I blinked as I absorbed the myriad of meanings those two simple words held. “Wow. That’s… that’s kind of perfect. What led you to that?”

“Right? It feels obvious now, but I couldn’t have done it without Alex’s help.” He turned his beaming grin toward the young woman waiting not-so-patiently on the other side of the screen door, next to Aunt Petunia.

It really was eerie how similar they were, even with the obvious differences like hair length, breasts, and a narrower waist. They could easily be two sides of the same coin. “Hey, why didn’t you tell me your sister was also your twin?”

“Of course I told you we were twins,” he countered.

“You most definitely did not,” I argued right back. We were still going back and forth about it when we reached the sliding door and I finally got to meet the most important person in Marc’s life. “Hello Alex. I’m James. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.” I held out my hand, and she batted it away with a scowl.

“To hell with that shit.” I had a split second to panic, then she flung open her arms and dragged me into a shockingly tight hug. “You make him happier than I’ve ever seen,” she whispered in my ear, “but you break his heart and no one will find the body.” On that terrifying note, she released me with a beaming smile. “I think this calls for celebratory cobbler.”

“Oh, hell yeah!” Marc agreed enthusiastically, his “hell” a perfect echo of his sister’s and loaded with twang. It was possibly the cutest thing I’d ever heard.

I laced my fingers with Marc’s and he flashed me a grin. “What are we standing around here for? Lead the way.”

Chapter 41

Marc

One celebratory peach cobbler, three strong coffees, and five days later, I still couldn’t believe this was actually happening. Alex was here and planning to stay for a while. The shop was already being repaired. And James…James, I sighed wistfully to myself as my gaze sought him out once more. James said he loved me. He hadn’t reenlisted after all. He wanted to stayherewithme.

“Hey lazy bones. Quit with the lollygagging. You can ogle your boyfriend later,” Alex said as she walked by me carrying an armful of metal yard critters. Joy blossomed in my chest bigger than a mammoth sunflower, and I shot her a grin.

“But what if I want him to ogle me now?” James captured me in a hug from behind that lifted my feet off the floor. He also scared the living daylights out of me and I let out a mortifying squeal. Don’t mind me, just a former specialist in the Army with no proximity awareness. “You. Are. So. Fucking. Cute,” he saidwith a laugh as he put me down, punctuating each word with a kiss on any part of my face he could reach.

Alex shook her head, but her grin was huge, and I shoved James off with a fake scowl. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

“Never, baby boy. All I’m interested in doing to your heart is stealing it.”