Page 120 of The Secret
“Constantine Luciano, did you just stick your tongue out at your brother? How old are you?” She threw her long braid behind her back.
“He’s twenty-six,” Theo volunteered. “Old.”
Con snickered. “Old enough to kick your…”
“Hush!” Angela said. “You’re disturbing Lauren’s baby.”
Which was so ridiculous, none of us could argue with it.
“Let’s go get you some coffee, while everyone’s here to cover for us,” I told Con, grabbing his hand and pulling him out of the booth. “Come on.”
“Yes, because more caffeine is what he needs!” Theo yelled.
“Come on, Constantine.Come on, Constantine,” Con said, even as he knitted our fingers together and leaned into my side. “Always the same thing with you.”
“You complaining?”
“About coming with you? Nah.” He smirked. “You know I lovecomingwith you. Hey! Where are we—”
“I changed my mind,” I said, pulling Constantine between two of the booths to the grassy lane that ran behind them, the place where I’d first stood and overheard a conversation that had changed… well,everything.“You don’t need coffee.”
“I could use another vacation,” Con suggested. “If you’re offering.”
“Four days on the beach in Sarasota with all the Shirley Temples you could drink wasn’t enough?”
He yanked on our hands and pulled me to a stop. “Never enough days with you, Micah Bloom,” he said softly.
God.The man killed me sometimes, he really did.
“How the hell did I ever think I could resist you, Constantine Ross?” I wondered. “You make me laugh, you piss me off, you challenge me to do better, you love me even when I fuck up. You know, before you, I thoughtstabilitywas the ultimate goal. That’s all I wanted out of life. I didn’t know I could aim higher or dream bigger, until you.”
Con frowned and swallowed hard, his eyes suspiciously shiny. “Why would you say something like that?” he accused. “Why would you make me fall in love with you even more, right in the middle of the fucking farmer’s market, when I promised Mitch I’d cover my one shift a month at the stationtonight,and I can’t even—”
I kissed him, thoroughly and passionately, until he forgot what he was saying. I’d gotten pretty good at that, if I did say so myself.
“Your flirtation game,” Con panted against my mouth a minute later. “Has gotten so much stronger.”
“I try,” I said modestly. With one hand, I sketched an oval in the air. “Imagine my flirtation game is like a seed.”
“Hey! You can’t justusethat expression. That’s trademarked.”
“Trademarked?”
“Yes! I came up with it. Yourseedis mine.”
I turned both of my lips under, and pressed them together hard.
Constantine frowned. “What? What did I… Oh!God. Really? Sperm jokes?I’m marrying a forty-one-year-old adolescent.”
I burst out laughing.
“You’re a troublemaker!” he insisted. “Provoking.”
“That’s my boyfriend’s influence,” I told him solemnly. “I used to be way more mature.”
“You don’thavea boyfriend anymore,” he reminded me.
“That’s right. And pretty soon I won’t have a fiancé anymore either. If he’d ever pick adate.”
