Nash Brothers Box Set - Carrie Aarons Page 0,135

and told the man who didn’t even want to take her out in public that she was in love with him.

That she had been in love with him since the day she’d laid eyes on him, and it had stayed that way for the ten years he’d abandoned her.

I beat myself up for a week about what happened in the library. And the worst part is, I think about it all day at work because that’s where the ultimatum happened. The library is my safe haven, the place I go to escape all the stress in my life. But the past week, all I think about when I look around my domain is Bowen, pushing me up against the stacks and kissing the rational thought out of me.

Having had the Mondayest Monday in the history of Mondays, I decide that I’ve earned a nice, long soak in the bath with a glass of wine as I pull into my driveway.

Grabbing the mail out of the box next to my doorbell, I twist the key in the lock and my shoulders sag as I walk into the space where I can be fully alone.

That’s when the scene in front of me hits my eyes.

Lilies. Hundreds of them, covering my first floor. On every surface, littering my couches, petals sprinkled on the floor.

My home smells like a greenhouse, one of those big, beautiful glass domes that contain every flower known to man. Every single color pops in my vision, and I want to cry it’s so pretty. Beautiful, is the word I’m looking for … there is something so beautiful about a fresh, blossomed flower. Something that strikes a deep chord inside a person, especially me. Rationally, I know that flowers are a plant and they’re put on earth to perpetuate the life cycle and eco-system. But to me? They’re here to bring the simplest form of joy … to brighten your day.

I told Bowen as much the first time he bought a corsage for me. It had been full of purple and white lilies and fastened with a pearl bracelet.

That’s how I know that this gesture is from him. That this is his apology.

It’s how I know he’s feeling just as disconnected and awful as I am about not seeing each other for the past week.

Walking through the first floor, I marvel at all the gorgeous blooms.

“How …?” I trail off, asking no one in particular how the heck he pulled this off.

It’s at this exact moment that my doorbell rings.

Running through the hall, I skid to a stop in front of the door and wrench it open.

I know I probably have a silly smile on my face, and my cheeks are pink from blushing and running. And that I should be more stern with Bowen in this moment, make him work for it.

But I just can’t. Not with all these lilies around me.

“I’m sorry.” Bowen stands in my doorway in dark black jeans and a black leather jacket.

And in his outstretched hand, he holds one beautiful, full-blossomed, purple lily.

It takes every ounce of strength in me not to fling myself at him and sob tears of joy like a hysterical damsel. Instead, I stand there, open-mouthed, unable to form words.

“I should have never said those things to you. I should have never treated you that way. You were right, you shouldn’t have to settle for the attention of a man who is half in. You are the ultimate catch, Lily, and I’ve always known that. It just took a sharp slap to the brain to make me remember it. And I don’t want to catch you, I want you to pick me. I want to be the man worthy enough of you … and after our history, part of me was afraid to be that man. But I’m not anymore. I’m in love with you, Lily.”

My brain short circuits. Did he just say he loves me? “What?”

“I love you. I’ve loved you since the minute I saw you. Hell, probably even before then. I love you so deeply, that when I’m not with you, my bones ache. I’ve been dead inside for the last ten years, and the only thing that’s kept me going are the glimpses I catch of you. I am in love with you. I’m in this. Completely.”

Now I do jump into his arms and surrender to the hysterics. Just like a damsel.

Bowen catches me, our lips meeting at the exact moment our bodies collide. I can