Chapter 19
Chapter nineteen
Greyson
Five and a half years ago . . .
My jaw slackened when Paisley swung open the door of the apartment she shared with Juliet. She was . . . breathtaking. Which explained why I was having a hard time breathing. Pepper spray? No big deal. This woman? No words.
Paisley was willowy and understated with her soft features, but man . . . seeing her in a dress and cardigan did something to me. She smiled shyly, biting her lip.
Don’t look at her lips. Do. Not. Look.
“Hey,” she said softly, pink highlighting her cheeks.
I cleared my throat. “Hey. You look . . . perfect.” I loved the way a deeper rosy flush stained her cheeks and neck at the compliment.
Paisley tucked a loose piece of hair spilling out of her messy bun behind her ear. “Thanks. You clean up nice, too.” She reached up and gave the collar of my flannel shirt a straightening tug.
“These are for you.” I held out a bouquet of blue hydrangeas, white roses, and eucalyptus. It wasn’t a traditional flower bouquet, but it felt like her when I’d seen it between the roses and the lilies.
Paisley’s breath caught as she accepted them. Then those beautiful dark green eyes blinked up at me behind her almost-too-large wire frames. “Greyson,” she whispered, stroking a petal reverently. “They’re gorgeous.”
“Not as gorgeous as you, though.” I never dreamed I’d say something so cheesy. But here we were, and I meant every word.
She ducked her head with a smile. “Let me just—”
“I’ll put them in water,” Juliet said, materializing from down the hall. She nodded at me approvingly before taking the flowers and disappearing again.
“You ready?” I asked Paisley, offering her my arm.
“Yup.” She shrugged her purse over her shoulder, then her hand curled around my bicep, making my skin dance with tingles. Like I could conquer the world. We stood there for a moment just smiling at each other.
“Go be mushy somewhere I can’t see you,” Juliet called, her blonde head poking out into the hallway and breaking the moment. “Behave yourselves.” She speared me with a look that promised painful retribution if I fumbled this.
No pressure, sis.
I shook my head, tucking Paisley’s hand firmly against my side and ushering her out the door. “Always do.” I needed to get her out of there before Juliet decided to say something embarrassing. Which she would. Because younger siblings were annoying like that.
At the bottom of the stairs, we left through the side door the apartment shared with the Bean There, Done That Café. I held the passenger door of Cal’s borrowed truck open for her, and Paisley eyed the picnic basket on the console before hopping in. “A picnic?”
“You opposed to eating outside?”
She laughed softly. “Not at all. Although it is early February, and you didn’t strike me as a picnicking man.”
She had me pegged. I wasn’t. Not in the slightest. Eating MREs in the field during training exercises or backyard BBQs were about as outdoorsy eating as I got. But there was a whimsical air to Paisley that made me think she’d enjoy a frolic. And I couldn’t believe I’d just used the word frolic.
“I promise you won’t get cold.” I didn’t actually intend for us to eat outside. There was a nice little heated indoor gazebo next to the Snake River with a beautiful view.
“What else do you have planned?” Paisley asked when I slid into the truck. The words were light and casual, but an undercurrent of unease threaded her question.
“It’s supposed to be a surprise.”
Silence filled the cab, and she picked at her fingernails for a moment before she tucked her hands under her thighs. “Okay,” she said quietly.
Instead of turning the key and driving away, I shifted to face her. “Hey, if you don’t like surprises—”
“It’s okay!” she said too brightly. Too forced. “I don’t want to ruin anything for you.”
“You’re not ruining anything, love,” I said, surprised the nickname popped out. And from the wide emerald eyes peeking back at me, so was she. No going back now. “I figured we’d have dinner along the river and then head over to Bonneville Point to watch the stars.”
“You . . . you put a lot of thought into this, Marine.”
I casually shrugged, unsure of just what to say.
Because I had put thought into this. I wasn’t clueless to the fact that Paisley was my little sister’s best friend, and Juliet would pick Paisley over me in a heartbeat if I hurt her.
So I wasn’t messing around. But also . .
. this woman had woken something up in me.
Something that hadn’t been there before—ever.
I’d dated a few women, but nothing had ever fit right. Something was always missing.
And Paisley? She had me questioning everything I wanted in life.
Made me want things. Dream again in a way I’d forgotten how to.
But she was settled here in Serenity Springs.
My current base was in South Carolina. Was I ready to get out of the military?
I’d considered it. Even talked about it with my buddy and superior, Gabe Carson, who turned out to be Paisley’s best friend’s older half brother. Small world.
“Are you mad? That I don’t like surprises?” Paisley whispered, pulling me out of my head into the present.
I jerked back. “Mad? Of course not. There’s nothing wrong with not liking surprises.” Just the thought of someone being mad at her because of it or making her feel small set my blood boiling.
“Do you? Like surprises, I mean?” She fidgeted with her thumb ring. A nervous habit I’d picked up on at trivia the other night.
“The good ones.”
Paisley chewed her lip thoughtfully, drawing my attention like a siren once again. “I haven’t had many of those.” Absently, she picked at her thumbnail again before lacing her fingers in her lap. “Sorry, I’m being weird. This is the first date I’ve been on since . . . well, in a really long time.”
Same. I let a slow smile spread across my face. I hadn’t smiled this much in years. “Not weird at all. You’re all good.”
“So you’re not already regretting this?” She worried her lip, uncertainty etched across her face.
Who made this woman feel so small? The need to reassure her flooded me. “Not even a little bit.” I held her gaze steadily. “I like what I see.”