“She stalks me back?” I grinned.
She rolled her eyes. “You two are hopeless. You better be there on Saturday, Green.”
“Oh, I’ll be there.”
8
Valentine
“What do you think of this one?” I held up a ‘50s raffia handbag. “It needs a little TLC, but I think we could make this beautiful and make a killing on it.” At the answering silence, I turned to Mindy to find her scanning the outdoor market. Was she looking for someone or something? “What’s with you? You’ve been distracted all morning.”
Mindy whirled around, her short blond curls flying around her face. “I’m not distracted. You said something about a bag?”
I held the bag up. “You are definitely distracted.”
“How much?” she turned the tag and frowned. “Let me try whittle the price down first.”
I let her take the bag to the seller because she was better at haggling than I was, and turned to see if the woman was selling other accessories with potential.
“Do you think this is too yellow for me?”
The familiar voice caught me off guard.
My eyes flew up from the bin I was raking through to find Micah on the opposite side of it, holding a yellow bikini top to his chest. What the hell was he doing here?
I straightened, my hands flying to my hips. “I think it’s too in Somerville for you. What are you doing here?”
First, he hunted me down using Instagram (according to Mindy) and ruined my date, and now he was here? I hadn’t posted I was at this market.
How did he—
Mindy!
Whipping my head in her direction, I found her watching us with avid interest. At my glare she gave me a half-grimace, half-smile, waved the bag at me as if in triumph and then darted off.
That little interfering… “I’m going to kill her.”
“Don’t.” Micah dumped the bikini back in the bin he found it in and stepped into my space. I wanted to retreat, but that would only prove to him he affected me. “She’s just trying to help me.”
“Help you do what? Mess with my head again?”
He frowned down at me. Those gray eyes of his were too easy to drown in. I wanted to look away. I didn’t want to be sucked back in. “Why did you say what you said in your store if you didn’t want to clear the air between us?”
“I said what I said because it was true and I wanted you to know I know what kind of person you really are.”
Hurt flashed in his eyes and guilt crushed me. “You don’t really mean that.”
“Micah, why are you here?”
“You know why.” He took hold of my upper arms and bent his head toward mine. His expression was everything I’d ever wanted from him when he looked at me. Yet now I had it, it terrified me. “You have to know that I have always felt the same way. From the moment I first saw you.”
I shook my head.
“I just… for so long I felt like I owed your parents. I didn’t want to upset them.”
“So you wanted me. Just not enough?”
His grip on me tightened. “You remember the day I came to see you. It was Valentine’s Day and when I got to your apartment, you had that guy there. Your boss.”
“Hard to forget. You assumed some pretty not nice things.”
“And what I should have said,” Micah pulled me closer, his breathing uneven, “Was that I was sorry. I was saying all those shitty things because I had come there to tell you I loved you and I wanted to be with you. And I was angry and jealous as hell.”
Oh my God. I’d been right all along and I’d let my mother make me think differently.
“Micah.” All that time wasted. “You should have said something. He was just a fling! If you had just said something—”
“I know. I know.” He pulled me into his arms, burying his face in my neck with a groan. Was this happening? It felt so surreal. “Christ, I know. You have no idea how much I wished I’d said something.”
“I should have something too,” I whispered, softening easily beneath his touch. I couldn’t let him take all the blame. “It’s on me too.”
“Go on a date with me.”
I pulled out of his embrace at the abrupt demand. My heart was racing. Excited butterflies sprung to life in my stomach. But fear had a tight grip on me.
Micah had the power to devastate me.
And too many people I’d loved had hurt me already.
I didn’t know if I could trust that he wouldn’t do it again. “We’re too different.”
He scowled. “That’s bullshit.”
I let out a huff of laughter. “It would never work. It’s been years, Micah. We’re strangers now.”
“No. We’re two sides of the same coin. We got split in half for a while, but we’ll fit good as new again if you’ll let it happen.”
Oh my God, why did he have to be so romantic? “You have to mean this, Micah. This can’t just be because you miss me and are confusing our old friendship for something else.”
“We were never friends.”
I flinched like he’d hit me.
“I mean,” he hurried to explain, “I never just thought of you as a friend. I don’t go around fantasizing about making love to my friends.”
Heat stained my cheeks. “Oh.”
He studied my reaction and his grin turned wicked. “If we’re putting the truth out there, I have been thinking about doing very dirty things to you since the moment I moved down the hall from your bedroom.”
I burst into laughter, covering my hot face with my hands.
Was this really happening?
Gentle but strong fingers curled around my wrists and gave them a little tug. I let Micah lower them from my face.
“Go on a date with me. Just one date.”
“I need to think about it.”
Micah winced. “Cupid, we have been overthinking this since the moment we met. Please. Just one date.”
His eyes were big and pleading.
Jesus, he was too handsome for his own good. I groaned, feeling my defenses crumble. “Okay. One date. Just one.”
Wednesday, September 23rd
Micah: three days until I see you again.
Val: u’re really committed to this daily countdown thing, huh?
Micah: I’m ignoring your lack of enthusiasm.
Val: That bodes well.
Micah: I know you. I know what you’re getting at.
Micah: Trust me, when I’m inside you, you’ll be voraciously enthused.
Val: Cocky much? Just try to make it thru the 1st (only?) date, Green.
Micah: I can’t fucking wait. And 1st of many. Definitely not ‘only’.
* * *
Thursday, September 24th
Micah: are your favorite chocolates still Ferrero Rocher?
Val: yes. y?
Micah: are your favorite flowers still peonies?
Val: What r u up 2?
Micah: peonies?
Val: yes.
Micah: Send me a pic. I miss your face.
Val: sent. Send me one too. I may or may not miss urs back.
Micah: you look beautiful. You always look beautiful.