so the last wasn’t filled with sugar, nor edible, but the potted orchid had made my heart squeeze.
Thump-thump—
The door opened and every cell in my body went on high alert when I saw Garret standing there. “Hey,” he said.
I bit my lip. “Hi.”
We stared at each other for way longer than was normal.
Eventually, though, he coughed and stepped back. “The leak is in the storeroom, I saw it when I was going up to bed.”
Bed.
Yes, more of that, please.
I sighed, trying to keep perspective on the gifts. He was just being a nice person, trying to make me feel better. Fran had been discharged from the hospital, but I’d been in the papers for a couple of days, somehow having entered an alternate universe where my heroics were apparently exciting news.
But heroics aside, Garret had been perfectly friendly.
Just friendly.
So, there it was. Friendship. No Plan C.
That was fine.
I’d come to terms with it, understood that I’d gained a good friend and had gotten a lovely night of orgasms in the process. That would have to be enough. It had to be enough.
Straightening my shoulders, I pushed by him and hurried into the back room.
Water was pooling on the floor, gushing out from beneath the sink, and creating a mess that—
“Towels,” I ordered.
“On it,” he said, walking into the room with a large pile of them. “Was just starting to clean up when you knocked.”
“Glad to see you learned something.”
He grinned.
I dropped to my knees . . . not in front of him. Instead, I kept my gaze firmly on the sink, the brand-new vanity Delia and I had picked out. I opened the cabinet door, peered underneath.
What the—?
I leaned back out, glanced up at Garret.
The angle stop looked—
He was busy cleaning the floor, or maybe he was deliberately not looking at me.
Because the angle stop appeared to have been tampered with.
Not wanting to waste time with that, since water was gushing out onto the floor, I just reached into my toolbox, pulled out the proper wrench, and got to work under the sink.
A few turns, and everything was reattached.
Water stopped flowing.
“Here,” Garret murmured, reaching in and handing me a towel.
I shivered when his hand brushed the bare skin of my arm.
Friends, remember? Just friends.
Friends wanted to jump friends’ bones, right? I stifled hysterical laughter and slipped out of the cabinet, eyeing the man who looked way too sexy for an after-hours plumbing emergency, the man who was now looking extremely guilty.
“You tampered with it.”
He froze, wet towels in his arms. “How’d you know?”
I lifted a brow.
“Right. Charlie . . .”
He trailed off, and I waited for him to say something that made sense. He could have called if he wanted to talk to me, could have come over again. Instead, he’d broken my work, made a huge mess, and—
“I love you.”
My mouth dropped open.
“I thought this would be a good idea, getting you back here, alone, bringing us full circle, but now I realize that it was stupid. You worked hard on this, and I—”
I put my hand up. “What did you say?”
Twin spots of color appeared on his cheeks. “That you worked hard.”
I twitched my fingers. “Not that. The other thing.”
“Full circle?” he asked. “I just thought, we’d met here, and I—”
“No, Garret,” I interrupted. “Before that.”
He thrust a hand through his hair, mussing the brown locks. “The I love you?”
My heart pounded, terror warring with hope and excitement. “Yes,” I whispered. “That.”
“I—” He coughed. “I know this has been all sorts of mixed up, but from the moment I met you, I knew that you were different, knew that I was different with you,” he said. “And it scared me. I didn’t understand how you could get under my skin so quickly, so deeply.”
I was breathing heavily, short gasping exhales.
Plan C—
It seemed possible and yet . . .
“I tried to push you away. I used every excuse I could think of. My past, my ex, that you’d be better off without me, that you deserved better, and—”
I think my brain was on overload, my head was spinning.
“But I can’t stay away,” he said. “I’m staying, Charlie. I’m staying because I love you, because I want to build—”
I covered my ears.
Not because the words were horrible, but because they meant too much.
Terror gripped me, my vision hazed at the edges.
“No, Garret,” I said. “Just no. I can’t—” I shook my head.
“Charlie—”
“No.” I pushed past him, lungs seizing up, tears welling in my eyes. This couldn’t happen like this. It