Page 48 of As They Are (Strawberry Springs #2)

HENRY

Strawberry Springs Neighborhood Watch

Kerry Winsor: You people are way too into your phones! Look around! Notice your neighbors! JEEZ.

Comments:

Jade Clark : Is there something you want us to notice, Kerry?

Marjorie Brown : Probably that silly hat she’s wearing.

Kerry Winsor : It’s a BERET and it’s not silly! I was trying something new and no one even noticed!

Hu Gh: I noticed. I thought you were going through one of those midlife crisis things. I didn’t wanna be called rude again.

Kerry Winsor: IT’S NOT A MIDLIFE CRISIS! IT’S A FASHION STATEMENT.

Jade Clark: Do you have the urge to buy a sports car, Kerry?

Marjorie Brown : Aging is very normal! Just look at me!

Kerry Winsor : I HATE YOU ALL.

As usual, sunlight woke me up from my slumber.

But what was unusual was the woman I was curled around.

Night two of her being in my house only proved that I would never let her go, especially since she fit into my home like she was meant to be here.

She let me read while she worked on planning out the books she was getting for the library, and we tumbled into bed by nine, though we stayed awake far longer than that.

There was a bite mark on her shoulder, and my cock stirred at the memory. Every time we were together, it was right. I felt whole.

And I owed it to her.

“Is that a flashlight in your pocket,” Wren asked softly, “or are you happy to see me?”

“Why would I have a flashlight in bed?” I laughed. “And neither of us are wearing clothes.”

“The joke made much more sense in my head. Give me a break, I just woke up.”

I kissed her cheek before sitting up.

“Your beard grows fast,” she mused as she turned around.

“I have to shave it every morning.”

“So, this is just for me?”

“There are a lot of things that are just for you,” I said softly, leaning down to kiss her. “But I do need to get ready for the day.”

I wondered if she would pout and ask me to stay, but I forgot that she was just as busy as I was.

“Me too,” she said, stretching. “I hope I brought my good overalls from Mollie’s. I’ll need them.”

Wren was easygoing in a way I didn’t expect. I spent as much time as I could with her, but both of us had careers and lives. She wasn’t bothered when I had work. Back when I was with Norah, she’d been annoyed when I even studied .

I got up and shaved before getting dressed. Wren was heading for the door when I came downstairs.

“Wait,” I said. “Are you not having breakfast?”

She paused. “I’ll eat a big lunch.”

“Really?”

She slowly turned. “We’re both pretty busy today. I’ll figure it out.”

“There’s a reason I follow a routine, you know. I usually make a smoothie in the morning. Can you spare five minutes for me to get you one too?”

“That sounds great,” she admitted. “Do you use frozen fruit? I bet that would be so good with how hot it is.”

“I do, but I also have something else for you.” I reached down and grabbed one of my extra water bottles. “I’ll fill this up before you go. You need to hydrate.”

“I’ll have a bottle of water a day.”

“Those are sample sizes,” I reminded her.

Her cheeks went red. “ Fine. I’ll take care of myself. But no promises on refilling it if I finish it. That’s always the step I don’t have time for.”

“I’ll come by on my lunch and refill it for you.” I was used to being on camera and finally relaxing at home. I was starting to feel like myself again, so taking care of her was easy.

“You have work to do. Don’t worry about me.”

“Rule number one of having me as a boyfriend is that I’ll always worry about you.” I set down the bottle. “And take care of you.”

Her cheeks only grew redder, and now I knew why. Her mom hadn’t done this for her, and she’d gotten the bare minimum from her father. I bet all of this was new.

Though it wouldn’t be for long.

“I suppose I should say thank you.” She gave me a soft smile. “And sorry for being such a distraction.”

“You’re not a distraction.”

“But I am,” she said. “I would know because we were up until midnight last night.”

There was a tiredness behind my eyes I couldn’t shake, but it was nothing coffee couldn’t fix. “I don’t regret that.”

“I didn’t say anything about regret. And I won’t, even when I cover up the hickey you gave me.”

“You could wear it loud and proud.”

“And risk Madison’s wrath again ? You’re playing with fire.”

“She’s pushing you with a man who isn’t me. She deserves it.”

Wren laughed and raised an eyebrow. “Possessive, are we?”

“Only for you.” I grabbed her by the waist and pressed a kiss to her lips. I was tempted to give her more, but she pushed me away.

“The smoothie? Then your job?”

“Sorry,” I said. “I’ll get to it.”

“And I’ll start mentally preparing for being on camera. Madison wants you to come by today. And you have plenty of flowers to bring. I don’t know how you would choose with everything you have.”

She wasn’t wrong. I’d forgone having a lawn a long time ago in favor of more native plants.

“It wasn’t all that hard,” I said as I grabbed the ingredients for the smoothie from the freezer. “I picked them based on how I felt about you.”

She turned to me. “How did you do that?”

“Each flower has a meaning. You probably don’t remember the ones I gave you, but?—”

“I do remember,” she replied. “I’ve kept them.”

My heart skipped a beat. “You did?”

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “They were so beautiful. What was I supposed to do, throw them away? I dried them and put them in a scrapbook Mollie gave me.”

I didn’t know she’d cared enough to do that. All this time, I thought she was out of my league, yet she was exactly the person I’d been waiting for.

“It started with the irises.”

“On the second day I was in town?” She raised her eyebrows.

“It wasn’t totally intentional. They were blooming, but when I met you, I was so impressed by you that I thought they fit.”

“What do irises mean?”

“Many things. The one I thought of was valor. You’re ... so incredible, Wren. You’re brave, even when you don’t see it. When I met you while you had that flat tire, I knew ...”

“That I wasn’t normal?”

“That you were way out of my league.”

Now her eyes were wide. “That’s really what you thought about me?”

“Yep.”

Her face flushed as she brought me in for a kiss. I would have stayed there forever if I didn’t have more to tell her.

“The next were the buttercups.”

“You forgot the clover,” she said. “That’s the first thing you picked for me. It got dried too.”

“I think that one is obvious.”

“Still.” She shrugged as she looked at me through her lashes. “It was adorable. What did the buttercups mean?”

“Joy. I mainly thought that it was a good idea for the show, but then I realized I feel joy whenever I look at you.”

“And that’s why you gave me the nickname?”

“It’s why it stuck.” I brushed my thumb over her cheek. “Then there was the morning glory. It means unreturned love. Or it could mean undying love. For the show, I meant it to be the second one.”

“And for you?”

“A few weeks ago, I would have said the first. Now, I agree with the second one.”

“Then the hydrangeas?”

“Gratitude. For being there for me when I had my issues.”

“Of course. Those were beautiful, though a pain to dry.”

“You didn’t have to.”

“The flowers are the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. I wasn’t throwing them away.”

“You’ll have to show me the scrapbook,” I said. “And the final one was?—”

“The rose. Which usually means love.” She tilted her head. “Was that one for the show too?”

“They were blooming, and I thought of you. And then I justified it by saying it was for the show. But after ... I knew.”

Wren straightened. “No way did you say you loved me through flowers.”

“Technically, I realized I loved you through flowers.”

“Both are equally nerdy. And equally adorable.” She tucked back more of her hair, and I saw that her entire body was flushed. “What made you finally figure it out? So I can do it all the time, of course.”

“There wasn’t a moment that did it, just a lot of little things that added up.”

“Still, there has to be something .”

“It’s just you, Wren. You’re what I love. You don’t need to do anything to earn it or keep it. You just have it.” She blinked, and I could have sworn I saw wetness in her eyes. But I knew her well enough to let her process, so I continued. “You don’t have to say it back?—”

“I want to, though.” She cleared her throat. “I do love you.”

My cheeks heated at her saying those words. I knew that, without a shadow of a doubt, those words would become my favorite to hear.

“Dating for one day and we’re already saying the L-word? We’re moving fast.”

“Technically we’ve been dating for months.”

“That doesn’t count.” I shook my head. “Because I didn’t have all of you.”

“And you like having all of me?”

“I do.”

I wished I could have said my day went well from there, but the construction on the community center echoed around the square, invading even the clinic.

It didn’t help that my schedule was packed and I was busy from the second I unlocked the door through lunch.

There wasn’t much I knew about tiling, but workers were cutting a lot of it. The high-pitched squeal followed me around, giving me a headache by midday, and it only got worse when I refilled Wren’s water like I promised to.

My mood was rapidly declining, something I usually would have gone home for. But in the afternoon, I had to go to Food ‘n’ Things again to get ingredients for dinner. Most of what I had at the house were portions for one, and Wren had already asked to come back over.

I didn’t want to cancel, so I put in the earplugs. They didn’t block out everything, but they made it all more manageable. I had to take a few minutes to sit in the near silence before I left, but I was already more like myself.