“You are my bunny, I always will be. But I want to show you something.”
Alexander gets up and walks across the office, heading out the office door. I’m too stunned by the fact he just left me there, walked out, as if this conversation is over? I wasn’t done yelling at him yet, so I followed. Plus, I have a lot to say, and I’m not done smelling him either.
He walks across to the foyer, heading towards the library. And he opens the door. Completely ignoring him, I stomp inside and then stop dead in my tracks. Rows and racks of my plantsare there. They have arrived. He made a makeshift atrium for them. My babies are everywhere.
God, I can’t believe it, my plants have arrived. Oh, I’m ecstatic. The first thing I do is inspect the ones by the front window. Some can survive with filtered light or even partial shade rather than full sunshine. But they made the trip. Now it’s time to put them where they belong.
I turn to Alexander and ask how long ago they came. Sunday he informs me they’ve been here a week? Rose has been caring for them on my behalf, but this is my job. Although I adore Rose, these are my babies. I wouldn’t put them in just anybody’s care. As much as I dislike being in Alexander’s space, I will not allow any of my plants to die out of pride.
Without thinking, I hand him pots and rearrange my shelves, explaining every plant, what they mean, what they need and what they require for sunlight. I’m so caught up and catching up with my babies, I forget that he’s following me. Till he says we should make a living library.
What a great idea! I would have never thought of that? We have the space. It’s huge here if we rearrange some bookshelves and move some of the furniture. It could actually be a living library. I get so caught up in my plants and being excited at the idea; I forgot.
Alexander is always playing games with me. So I asked him if he was, and he said that it wasn’t a trick—that he really wants to take part in this project. After a few minutes of concentrating on his features, I can see it. He is serious about turning this space into a living library.
My stomach growls and I’m starving. I didn’t really eat much this morning, and I was too pissed off at him when I stormed out before I finished eating the last of my breakfast. It’s close to lunch, and I’m not going back home. Alexander says he wants to go grab his laptop and we can start looking for what we willneed, so I finally pluck up the courage and asked him if we could have some food.
He looks at me and smiles and says, anything you want and I’m craving pancakes and maple syrup so badly. I can actually taste it in my mouth. And crispy bacon. I want crispy bacon. With a smile on his face, he leaves to get us brunch and his laptop while I continue to rearrange my plants, putting them where they belong.
The smell of bacon wafts up my nose and I can’t help it. I put my plant down and I can see that there’s a dome on the table. I never even heard Rose come in. Rushing to the table, I pull the chair out, take my seat and lift the lid off the tray and breathe deep,Ahhh, bacon.I literally just rammed a piece into my mouth and started chewing.
“So Good.” I mumble in between bites.
Alexander joins me at the table. Plopping a couple of pancakes on his plate. And he smiles at me. I cut a sizable chunk of my pancake and shove it into my mouth. Half the syrup is sloppy down my chin and Alexander reaches over his with his thumb and wipes it off. This is the first time he has touched me in a week. I don’t know if it’s the scent of maple syrup or the pancake, could be the bacon. But I want to lunch myself across the table and eat his lips for lunch.
His eyes turned dark as he sucks the syrup off his thumb because he has the same expression on his face he did that night of our wedding. I don’t know if he feels the same way I do and we just stare at each other, waiting for someone to make a move or not. But then he regains his composure first.
“You’re right, so good,” he says with a wink.
Trying to ignore the sexy man sitting beside me, I concentrate on my pancakes. He gets up and grabs a couple of pencils and a notepad and comes over and we design the room while I eatthe last of the bacon. I take one pencil and show him my ideas. I study him as I draw. He actually seems interested, and he’s not pretending. He really seems genuine about this, so I relax. It’s not like when he asked me about Harry Potter and I knew he didn’t give a shit. He actually cares about this project.
We spent the afternoon going over plans. And it was actually fun. We laughed and joked about his lack of knowledge of plants. We’ve never done that before, joked. And it was genuine. It wasn’t pretending or trying to get something out of one another that we weren’t willing to give. It almost felt like a friendship.
And I guess if we’re going to have a child together, that’s the best place to start. We agreed we’d pick up tomorrow afternoon. I haven’t heard from Anna and I forgot my phone on my coffee table in my anger. So, I have no idea whether she is going to stay over tonight or if she is going to come over for dinner. It is nearly five o’clock, which means it is time to go back home.
“I guess I should head home. Anna will come over soon.” I push my chair back and Alexander gets up immediately and helps me. I put my pencil on top of my sketches. He’s so close. I can feel the heat from his chest at my back and I can smell that butterscotch. And it takes everything I have not to turn around and put my nose to his neck and sniff. I can feel my cheeks heat from my train of thought, so look away so he can’t see my face flush.
“I’ll walk you out.” Alexander puts his hand on the small of my back and guides me out of the library. We stop at the base of the stairs. And Alexander looks at me, turning me with his hands on my shoulders.
“I really enjoyed today, and I don’t want to ruin what we have going on. But I would like to give you those letters that I wanted you to read. They’re from your grandfather. I don’twant to lie to you, and I want to be straightforward from now on, with everything.”
His voice is quiet, he looks so serious.
“Read them in your own time. There’s no rush and if you have questions or anything you want to say to me or my father, just let me know.” He tucks a curl behind my ear, stroking my cheek as he takes his hand back.
“I’m really looking forward to this project with you, plus I’m really looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.”
He strokes my nose with his finger and turns to go to his office. I completely forgot about the letters he was talking about last week. After those gentle touches just now, I completely forgot about pretty much everything. Alexander comes back shortly with a large envelope and hands it to me. We walk to the back door, past the kitchen to the patio. This feels like one of those scenes in a movie where the awkward girl in high school has a crush on the popular boy, and he’s standing right in front of her and she doesn’t really know what to do.
“Thank you for looking after my plants. And I’d like to thank you for all of my presents.” When I say it out loud, it sounds stupid and makes me feel dumb.
Trying to recover, I blurt out, “I really love all my Harry Potter stuff. Tomorrow I’ll bring some butterscotch candies. I missed them this afternoon.” I am trying to be funny, but it’s coming out weird. Taking another step down. “Thank you again, Alexander.”
His smile is wide and genuine as I look up at him. His dimples are on full display and those straight white teeth sparkle. “Well, I couldn’t let you forget about me now, could I?”
I laugh now. “No, they were a constant reminder.”
Taking the last step down, I bite my bottom lip, “Anyway,goodnight. I will see you tomorrow afternoon.” I smile up at him. He has his hands in his pocket, his powerful forearms on display, making my belly crazy.
