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He stopped talking midsentence. “What’s that look for?”
“Look?” I asked innocently. “Which look?”
“The look that says you’re madly in love with me and want to get me alone so you can take me apart piece by piece.” He turned his back to the crowd of guests and not so subtly adjusted his pants.
“Oh,thatlook.” I gave him a wicked, promising grin. “Was I giving you that look?”
“Drink up, Flynn,” he growled. “We’re leaving in an hour, tops.”
“Your mother’s never going to let you leave that soon,” I reminded him. “Any good-son points you earned by moving home were wiped out when you presented her with that bouquet from Willow’s cutting garden.”
JT snickered, and the sound went down deep in my belly. His happiness turned me on no matter where we were.
“The look on her face when I handed it to her was worth the bee sting I got assembling it,” he said before raising his voice into a semi-impressive Patricia Wellbridge accent. “Jonathan, darling, where in theworlddid you acquire this…wilderness hodgepodge?”
“She toldmethe arrangement was the ‘prettiest thing she’d seen since the spectacle Willow concocted for Box Day, Flynn.’” I shook my head fondly. Patricia was a connoisseur of the backhanded compliment. I was learning so much from her. It was much easier now that I understood snide comments were her love language. “I think Rosalia will like the flowers, though, and you and I both knew she’d be the one who ended up with them in the end.”
JT dropped the teasing tone. “That woman deserves all the flowers. She’s doing the lord’s work by staying here with my mother despite socking away money all these years. I don’t know how she puts up with… Oh! Senator Coglin.” He turned toward the older man with a friendly smile. “Nice to see you, too, sir. Have you met my partner, Flynn Honeycutt?”
If I could go back in time and tell the Flynn Honeycutt of a year ago just how hard my belly would flip to hear Jonathan Turner Wellbridge call me his partner, in any sense of the word, the old me would die a thousand deaths. But the two of us together was a potent kind of magic… and I was pretty sure I’d always recognized that truth, no matter how long and fast I’d tried to run from it.
It wasn’t that hecompletedme, or made me whole, or gave my life meaning, or any of that sentimental bullshit. I wasn’t one of Pop’s bargain-basement jigsaw puzzles with a missing piece, and neither was JT. But the way he supported and infuriated me, comforted and teased me, cared for me andsawme, made me more confident in myself than ever.
For the first time in my life, I trulyfeltlike the Firecracker Pop had nicknamed me for, loud and colorful, shining bright, because there was no need to hide any part of myself. JT knew all the worst parts about me and loved me not in spite of them but because of them.
And if I ever tried to run from the scary, overwhelming happiness we’d found together, I knew without a doubt that he’d drag me back.
As soon as we finished our polite chitchat and Senator Coglin wandered off to find someone else to bore with his stories, I turned to JT. “I remembered to ask the man about his equestrian daughterandhis interest in breeding Norwegian Lundehunds, plus managed to discuss your mother’s new yogaerobics studio with a straight face. That makes at least three blowjobs you owe me. Good ones. Not the quickie morning ones when I’m already hard for you.”
His warm laughter made me smile. “You did that for my mother, not me. I never asked you to play politics for the Wellbridge family. In fact, if you recall, I specifically asked my mother to keep you out of it.”
I shrugged. “It’s not that bad. Especially since glad-handing some of her friends is what led me to my investor.”
“Thatcher Pennington,” JT grumbled. “Don’t get me started.”
I rolled my eyes knowingly. “You liked him just fine until he offered Reagan an internship in New York. I know you don’t want to lose touch with your brother again. But I keep telling you, that won’t happen.”
“I don’tdislike him… but there’s something about the guy,” he said darkly. “Mark my words, Thatcher’s got secrets.”
“Don’t we all? Jeez, I was in love with an annoying Frog for years and kept it so secret even I didn’t know.” JT snorted, and I reminded him, “Thatcher’s been an amazing friend and investor for Honeybridge Mead.”
“Pfft. I guess. But he’s only in it for the money.”
“Which is why he’s aninvestor, Frog. Would you rather him be in it for other reasons? Like maybe he wants to bend me over the worktable in the—mpfh!”
JT’s lips on mine were never unwanted, even when they took me by surprise, but he let me go again quickly and darted a frustrated look around the yard, like he wished we were anywhere but there. “Thirtyminutes, Firecracker.”
I brushed my fingertips over my tingling lips. “Really? You’re getting all hot and bothered because I happened to mention Thatcher? I didn’t even bring up that sexy salt-and-pepper thing going on at his temples, or his alluring ankles, or those seductive tattoos.”
I had never noticed Thatcher’s ankles in my life, and since his idea of a casual wardrobe was a button-down shirt and slacks, I’d seen more visible skin on monks. JT knew this.
He also knew I found it really fucking hot when he got all possessive and proprietary, and that since this rarely happened anymore, now that Dan and JT were BFFs and Dan had sworn off dating, I was deliberately playing with fire.
The banked flames in JT’s eyes said I was going to get burned in the most delightful way.
“I’mnothot and bothered because of Thatcherorhis magnificent ankles,” JT informed me. “I’m hot and bothered because you were doing it again.”
I frowned. “Doing what?”
