Page 82 of If This is Love

The wood planks with mason jars and fairy lights were at the center of every table with elegant floral arrangements nestled around them, featuring large white roses, deep purple stock flowers, bright gold sunflowers, tiny, glittering green baubles on tall, skinny stems, and peacock feather accents. Each jar had warm, glowing tea light candles in them, and each table was dressed with a shimmery, emerald green tablecloth.

I looked at Gabe and saw he was looking at me, but then he glanced at the table. “Oh. Yeah, look at that. There they are.”

I leaned over the table, still holding his arm, and breathed in the scent of the stock flowers. “Oh myheavens, these smell almost as good as my roses back home.”

A giggle scrambled up and out of my throat as I stood up straight, hugging his arm close to my side while I smiled up at him, and I felthighonlife. The atmosphere was full of laughter and sultry New Orleans jazz standards played by a small quartet in the corner of the large room, and I had on anamazingdress, and my date was not only my favorite person I’d met in recent years, but also the hunkiest man in the whole room.

And even better, when I snuggled up to his side just now, Gabe slipped his arm out of mine and settled his hand on the small of my back, drawing me close to him. “I do enjoy stock,” he said somewhat neutrally, his eyes flicking to the flowers in another minimal acknowledgment before he looked at me again. His fingers were tracing a line up and down the very center of my spine. “I thought about planting some, but they require attention that I wasn’t up to giving them.”

The quartet was in the middle of a sexy-sounding song that wasn’t terribly slow, but it had a rhythm that seemed to infect me. I found myself swaying against him. “Maybe you should teach me.” Gabe was looking down at me and slipped his other hand out of his pocket to settle on my back, and his scent suddenly overwhelmed anything from the flowers. All I could think of was his flavor that I’d had a tempting taste of less than an hour ago, and my arms draped around his neck without me even thinking about it. “And then I can give them all that attention like the proper Southern old lady that I’m quickly becoming.”

A half-smile broke across his neutral expression, and all ten of his fingers were stroking up and down that small section of my back as he began to sway subtly with me. “If you want stock for your flowerbed, I’ll plant them and give them all the attention they need if you’ll sit on the porch with Gunner and Jax and keep ‘em from sticking their big, wet noses in the way.”

Another giggle pealed from my lips, and I stifled it, squeezing my arms tighter around his neck, and I felt positivelydrunk. I hadn’t even had a sip of anything. The champagne bubbles tickling the inside of my chest were all because of Gabe and our picture-perfect first date. “It’s a deal.”

“Deal,” he echoed, gazing down at me like I was the only thing in the room with him. We continued to sway, and one of his hands drew up my spine, across my exposed shoulder blade, and down to my lower back. He repeated the motion a couple of times, adding, “I think you need some of those pale purple roses, too.”

I smiled even wider, angling my chin up at him, secretly hoping he might kiss me but knowing he wouldn’t just because of the setting. That was the only drawback to having your first date at your date’s brother’s engagement party, especially if you were a little rusty at dating like Gabe and I were. “Are you going to plant me a whole new flowerbed, Gabe?”

He lifted his hand from where he was stroking my arm and drew his thumb across the line of my jaw. “If anyone deserves for me to plant a flowerbed for them, it’s you.” He paused, his gaze briefly straying from my face. “I never planted stock because the person I was trying to plant it for didn’t deserve how much work it required. You do.” He moved his hand back to my arm, pulling it away from his neck just so he could hold my hand and smooch the back of it. “So you just make a list of every flower you like, and I’ll plant you the perfect flowerbed.”

My brows drew together, heartache over his heartbreak mingling with the champagne-bubbles feeling in my chest. “You don’t need to do all that for me, Gabe.”

“I know,” he said simply. “I want to.” He looked at the table again, narrowing his eyes at the flowers for a second. “You like that shade of purple?” He turned to me. “That’s a regal purple, fit for a queen like yourself.”

Still smiling, my bottom lip caught between my teeth with giddiness. Michael used to call me his queen, and for the first time ever, there was no pang of heartsickness. In fact, something in me could feel him watching this scene from Heaven while his perfect heart warmed knowing I was able to be happy like this after so many things that had made me so sad. “I do love that shade of purple. Purple is my favorite color.” I lifted my hand off his shoulders for a second to flit it through the air. “All shades of purple.”

Gabe offered the smile he only gave to me. “And what other colors?”

“We-ell…” I drawled coyly, settling my hand across his shoulders. “I do love pink. I’m a girly girl like that. So, all shades of purple and pink, but I also love sunset colors.”

His nose did a tiny scrunch like he was holding back a chuckle. “Sunset colors?”

“Yeah.” I grinned widely, taking in the sight of his liquid silver eyes. Maybe if things went well for us over the next little while, I’d tell him my new favorite color was actually that magical shade of deep, intoxicating pewter. “When there’s a perfect sunset, there’s all those beautiful colors.” I canted my head to one side as though gesturing across the river at our neighborhood. “Like that sunset when we were coming over here. That was a perfect sunset.”

“Hmph,” he grunted quietly, his lips quirking at one side. “Too bad I missed it.”

“Aw.” My brows drew together playfully. “Really? How’d you miss it while we were driving toward it?”

“’Cuz I was looking at you.”

A happy-tears lump surged to the top of my throat out of nowhere, and I had to giggle it away to keep my composure. “Oh myheavens, listen to this swoonydateof mine, giving me all the best lines.”

A wider but closed-lip smile pulled across Gabe’s face. “Well, you kinda set me up for that one. I couldn’t resist.” His smile retreated into his neutral but thoughtful gaze. “Still true though.”

We just looked at each other and swayed slowly for a moment, and a tingle of emotion spread though my heart. “You are so endearing.”

Endearingwas the safe way to express what I’d been feeling for a little while now. Saying what I really felt kind of scared the heck out of me.

Nevertheless, Gabe’s expression was nothing but warmth and something that mirrored my feelings. “You’re pretty endearing yourself.” His eyes abruptly flicked away from mine, looking over my shoulder and then darting back to my face as he dropped his voice to a whisper. “Don’t look now, but we have an audience.”

I had no idea who was looking at us, but it was hilarious for some reason. I pulled one hand away from his shoulders just so I could stifle a snicker behind my hand. “Is it someone we can politely ignore?”

A low chuckle rumbled deep in his chest. “Only if we’re okay with everyone whispering all night.”

I snickered again, dropping my face to his clavicle for a second. “Okay, let’s not politely ignore them.” I slipped my hands away from his shoulders, wrapping my arm around the crook of his elbow, and I let him turn me away from the table.

It was Skye, Brennan, and Connor who were eyeballing us, and the second we turned toward them, they each quickly and awkwardly averted their gaze to various places around the room.

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