Page 31 of Only You and Me

I ignore him.

My fingers are on the handle, about to open my car door when Ben, now standing at the front passenger side of my car, says something that stops me in my tracks.

“I haven’t sent you any flowers.”

My eyes dart to his. “What?”

“They’re not from me.”What did he just say?My heart skips a beat, then pounds in my chest. “So, tell me who else would send you flowers.”

Shit. I cannot let him read those cards.

He must notice my eyes glance over at the porch—where the cards are still on the ground—and see me move because he takes off for the porch as well.

“Oh, no you don’t,” he says as he gets to the porch first and scoops the cards up before heading inside. He leaves the roses outside, where he must have set them before he followed me to the car.

I follow him inside, even though I’m not invited.

“Give them to me. If they’re not from you, it’s none of your concern.”

He’s holding the cards high enough that it’s unlikely I’ll be able to grab them from his hand, but when it’s clear that he’s going to read them, I try anyway. And fail.

Ben clears his throat before reading the first card. “I can’t stop thinking about you.” He rolls his eyes. “Very original. Let’s see if the next one is any better.I keep dreaming about you. Maybe it’s a sign we should spend time together.”

He lets those two cards drop to the floor, his eyes blazing with anger. My heart pounds since I remember what the last two say, and if Ben isn’t the one sending me these flowers, I really don’t want him to read the words. Especially from the one I got yesterday.

“I think we could be really great together. You’ll see...”

His jaw tightens and a muscle in his cheek tics while he’s careful not to make eye contact with me. He sends the card flying several feet away from us with a flick of his wrist.

“Ben, please don’t read the last one.” He must hear the pleading in my voice, because he looks at me. My cheeks heat and my hands are shaking. “Don’t, okay?”

He doesn’t break eye contact with me for several long seconds, and it’s clear he’s trying to decide what to do. When I see the change in his expression that tells me he’s decided to read it despite my objections, my shoulders droop and I walk over to his couch and sit down. Leaning forward with my elbows on my thighs, I hold my head between my hands as I stare at the floor and wait.

“Perhaps my sweet notes aren’t what you want. Perhaps I need to make your body mine, only mine, until you can’t ever let another man touch you. More to come…pun intended.”

Ben remains standing with his back to me, breathing heavily and crumpling the last card in his fist. I wait quietly on the couch, no clue what to say. After a solid few minutes, he walks to the recliner across the room and sits.

As he stares out the window, his eyes flat. “I’m aware you consider it a mistake, but until we confirm otherwise, I’m assuming we’re really married. And that means something. So, now that you know these aren’t from me, can you please ask whoever is likely sending them to stop until we get this”—he clears his throat—“between us figured out?”

I’m so tired. These last several weeks have been some of the most stressful times I’ve had in years, and I don’t have it in me to argue or pretend with him right now.

“I don’t know,” I whisper.

Ben sighs and turns to look at me. Though it shouldn’t, the hurt in his eyes bothers me. “Fine.”

“You’re misunderstanding me. I mean I don’t know who is sending them. I have no idea who it could be.”

“What?”

I simply shrug my shoulders. “I’m not dating anyone. They simply started coming.”

“When?” he asks.

I glance up at him. “The week we got back from Vegas. Once a week since. That’s why I thought they were from you. And at Annie and Jack’s party, you implied you wanted to talk about it.”

“I meant because one night when I was at O’Riley’s, I overheard a few firefighters from your station talking about you getting flowers two weeks in a row. That pissed me off because I assumed you were dating. I didn’t mean we should talk about it because they were from me.”

“Oh.”

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