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He didn’t respond; he just remained quiet as he studied her.
She took a breath. "I know that’s not fair because I asked you not to say anything to anyone, and I would really appreciate it if you didn’t, but I had to tell her. She called and wanted me to go on a walk tonight, and I said that I was staying in because I was tired. She said she’d grab some pizza and come by, and I realized that if we were going to be…hooking up, she would know something was going on with me."
He smiled and tilted his head to the side.
"What?" she asked.
"You’re really cute when you’re flustered."
"I’m not flustered." Laura always prided herself on being cool, calm, and collected in any situation. It was something of a badge of honor for her.
"Okay, well, then you’re cute when you’re not flustered."
She rolled her eyes and stared at the flowers he’d brought, which she’d put in the center of the dining room table. Just like when he’d given them to her, she opened her mouth to speak but then closed it, pursed her lips, and returned her attention to her meal.
"Was that it?" he asked.
She shook her head, not looking up at him. She didn’t want to appear ungrateful, but she needed to know how he’d known that her favorite flowers were purple daisies. "It’s just... something’s been bothering me."
"Wow. I’m already bothering you. I didn’t realize we’d made it to that stage yet."
She smiled. "How did you know about the purple daisies?"
Knox’s brow wrinkled. "What do you mean?"
"Those are my favorite flowers. How did you know?" Laura had gone back and checked her social media and hadn’t found any clues that he could have found on Insta or Facebook. Her family knew that she loved them, and so did Kennedy, but she doubted he’d asked any of them.
"I didn’t know they were your favorite. I saw them and thought of you."
Her expression must have made it clear she didn’t believe him because he continued his explanation.
"It was your dress. That dress you were wearing at the wedding. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. When I saw them, they were like the floral version of the dress. They made me think of you."
She nodded; that made sense, and because she seemed to swoon at everything Knox did, it sounded very romantic to her.
"Can I ask you something?" His grin revealed a deep dimple on his left cheek.
"Sure."
"You said you were married twice. What happened?"
Right. She figured this might come up. It wasn’t her favorite topic, but since they were going to be intimate, telling him about her past was fair. "I met Mario when we were in middle school. He asked me to be his girlfriend when we were twelve, and we stayed together all of middle and high school. I thought I was going to be with him forever. We got engaged right after high school and got married when we were twenty. I thought everything was good. I was working in hotel management, and he worked for his dad. I did have to travel a lot; I’m not saying that was an excuse, but... anyway, four years into our marriage, he went on a bachelor party weekend with his friends, got drunk, and cheated.
"To his credit, he did tell me as soon as he got home. He didn’t hide it from me, and he was really sorry. He thought I would forgive him and we could work through it, but I just... I know myself. I can forgive, but I don’t forget. If I stayed, every time he was late or wasn’t where he was supposed to be, my imagination would fill in the blanks. So I ended it."
Knox nodded. "What about bachelor number two?"
Laura took a deep breath. Even though she hadn’t loved Lucas as much as Mario, his betrayal had cut her deeper. It had seemed more calculated, deceitful, and selfish. "Right, Lucas. We met while I was still married to Mario. We didn’t know each other well. I’d see him a few times a year. He worked in sales for several different hotel chains.
"When he found out that I was divorced, he asked me out. We talked about having kids on our first date. He said he wanted two. We dated for about eighteen months and then got engaged. We got married, and after a year, I went off my birth control because I’d always wanted to be a mom by the time I was thirty. When I didn’t get pregnant right away, I figured it was just the birth control getting out of my system. But as the months went by, I wanted us to go see someone, get checked out, and find out what was going on. He made excuses about being busy for a few months, then tried to tell me that I was being too impatient and was stressing, which was why I wasn’t getting pregnant.
"I let him gaslight me for months before I came to my senses and insisted that we go and get checked out. That’s when he told me that he’d gotten a vasectomy before we got married."
Knox almost spit out his drink. He choked and then swallowed the wine. "What?!"
"Yeah. That was pretty much my reaction. I was shocked. Angry. More about the lying than anything else. I knew the procedure was reversible, and I thought he might have just been scared and had the surgery done because he didn’t want to have kids before he was ready. But then he admitted that he never wanted to have kids. He had just told me that he did because he knew how important having a family was to me.
"So, I left and filed for divorce. That’s when I moved to Whisper Lake. I figured since my personal life had blown up in my face twice, I might as well focus on my professional life. I’ve always wanted to own my own business and live in Whisper Lake, so that’s what I did."
