Page 15 of Moving to Love

Joci watched him as he traced her tattoo, kissing the flowers. The emotions running through her were tough to process. So many at once. There was no question he was sexy as hell. But, having him touch her, ask her questions about herself and her life, wanting to know about her, and now intimately learning about her, this was overwhelming and emotional.

Her chest hitched, and her voice cracked. “It’s my family.”

Jeremiah raised his eyebrows in question. She swallowed to moisturize her throat.

“We are all bound by a tenuous little vine, which, if not nurtured, can wither and die. The vine is only as strong as the people who take care of it. The flowers are the fruit of that labor of taking care of each other. Each flower is one of the people in my family who help me nurture this vine. The color of the flower is the person’s favorite color.”

He touched the little white violet on Joci’s ankle. He wanted to know who these people were, though he suspected he already knew. But what if she had Keith or someone else on there that he didn’t want to know about? He had to ask.

“Who is this?”

“My mom. Her favorite color was white. Even though she isn’t here anymore, she gave me the base to start with.”

Jeremiah continued around her ankle.

“And this?”

“That’s Jackie. She loves orange.”

“And who loves blue?” he said, touching a blue flower.

“Gunnar.”

Jeremiah smiled. He knew that one.

“And this, who loves dark blue?”

Joci smiled.

“Dean, my nephew.”

“And how about yellow?”

“David likes yellow, though he doesn’t tell many people because they make fun of him. Apparently, guys aren’t supposed to like yellow.”

Joci smiled, remembering the time David told her his favorite color was yellow. He made her promise not to make fun of him. But she had told him her idea of the tattoo, and she wanted to make sure she had his correct. After all, it was permanent.

“And purple?”

“My nephew, Jacob.”

“And this light blue?”

“My dad.”

Trailing his finger down the vine to the top of Joci’s foot, there wasn’t a flower there, just a little bud. The bud was surrounded by green. There were cracks in the green bud, but the color had not started peeking out just yet.

“Why do you just have a bud here and no flower?”

Joci looked into Jeremiah’s eyes and swallowed a couple of times. Her eyes were becoming blurry with the threat of tears. He continued to look at her and waited for an answer.

Her voice full of emotion, she said, “That is someone who hasn’t been in my life yet. I saved that spot for the one man who loves me completely, doesn’t let me down, doesn’t betray me, keeps me safe, holds me when I’m sad, shares my happiness, and wants me and no one else.”

Jeremiah looked at Joci for a very long time. He looked at the spot on the top of her foot that held a place there for the man of her dreams. He wondered what it would look like to have a beautiful gray flower there, because since he had met her, his new favorite color had become gray, like a stormy night, the color of her eyes. Before that, his favorite color had been blue. He kissed the top of her foot before carefully laying it on the bed.

He slid his hands up her legs until he got to the juncture of her thighs, her very core. He massaged over her sensitive tissues through her jeans with his thumbs, watching her face the whole time. Joci closed her eyes and pushed herself into his thumbs, needing more contact. She heard Jeremiah’s breath catch and opened her eyes to look at him. His pupils were dilated, and she could see candlelight flickering in them.

“Lift up for me, Joci.”