22. Mark
“ I ’ll be there in a second, babe,” I said with a grin. “See you soon.”
I was practically whistling as I hung up the phone with Jesse. It had been silly to call him. The walk from the realtor’s office to the cafe wasn’t even that long and I really would be seeing him in a matter of seconds. But I’d been too excited about the news I’d just gotten and I’d felt like I had to call him to tell him I had a surprise.
Thank God he was only a few blocks away. News like this was impossible to keep to myself for very long.
I opened the door to Cardigan Cafe and my grin widened. Jesse was bending over, writing up the day’s specials on the chalkboard that would go on the sidewalk outside. His ass was perfect. The only thing that could have made it better was a pair of those itty-bitty racing shorts I kept trying to get him to wear. Well, that, or if he’d been naked.
“Hey, you,” I said, walking up and putting my arms around his waist from behind. Jesse laughed as he stood up and turned around to kiss me. “I missed you.”
“You saw me not even—” he broke off and glanced at his watch, “—five hours ago. You can’t go that long without starting to miss me?”
“Apparently not. I was absolutely pining. Wasting away. ”
He put on a considering face before cracking into a smile. “You know, I’ve decided I’m actually okay with that.” He glanced over his shoulder at the display case. “We can get you a muffin for sustenance, since you burned up so much energy yearning for me.”
“Mmm, but what if I don’t want one of those muffins?” I asked, letting my hands drift lower until I was cupping his ass. I gave one cheek a squeeze. “What if I want these ones? The perfect size for my mouth. And even tastier.”
Jesse snorted. “I’d have to double-check, but I think rimming someone in a coffee shop might be an OSHA violation.”
“Even if I promised to wear a hairnet? And disposable gloves?”
“Ooh, kinky.”
He wrapped his arms around my neck and pulled me in for a kiss, only to jump back at the sound of something thwacking onto a table behind us. I turned, still holding Jesse in my arms, to see that Brooklyn had just come in the door with a stack of the local newspaper.
“Oh, don’t let me bother you,” he said with a snicker. “Though there are no cameras around this time, so don’t get your hopes up.”
“What are you talking about?” Jesse asked suspiciously.
“You guys are famous.” Brooklyn nodded towards the stack of papers, then walked to the far side of the counter to grab his apron. “Take a look.”
We made our way to the table by the door, and my jaw dropped. Sure enough, there was a picture of me and Jesse kissing on the front page, with the headline Love Wins the Race , along with a local interest story about the marathon.
“I thought I heard a camera,” Jesse said, cocking his head to the side. “But I had no idea they were taking our picture. Did you?”
“I’m as surprised as you are,” I said, laughing. “Though I can’t say I mind.”
“What do you mean?”
“I find myself suddenly hoping that one Mr. Tanner Carmichael gets the local paper delivered daily.”
“You’re evil,” Jesse said, swatting at me lightly. He paused for a moment. “But now that you mention it, I guess I hope so too. Do you think we should drop one on his doorstep, just in case?”
“Now who’s evil?” I grabbed a copy with a grin. “But yeah, maybe. Keeping up with current events is important. It would be a shame for him to miss out.”
Jesse laughed. “Not that revenge isn’t delightful, but I believe we have more important matters to discuss. Namely, this surprise of yours. Because it turns out, I have one too.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, but you go first. What is it? Is it a bulldog? Is it five bulldogs? Is it a trip to a farm full of bulldogs and nothing but bulldogs as far as the eye can see?”
I snorted. “Sadly, no, though now I’m thinking I shouldn’t have told you about the surprise in advance at all. I’m not sure the actual surprise can live up to the hype.”
“I am positive I’ll still love it, whatever it is. And we can always go to a bulldog farm later.”
“We’d have to find a bulldog farm first,” I said. “Do they even have those?”
“I think we’re getting sidetracked,” he said with a giggle. “Come on, just tell me, so that I can tell you mine.”
“Okay, well, here goes.” I took a deep breath. “Yesterday, when I was finishing things up at Gigi’s house, she told me something kind of insane. You know how her plan was to sell her house and go live in Arizona?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, she still says she’s going to do that. But she’s already decided on a buyer for her house.”
“Wait, really? Who?”
“Me.” I smiled, still not quite able to believe it. “She wants to sell it to me. For a dollar.”
“What?” Jesse looked as stunned as I’d felt when Gigi had first told me.
“I know. That’s what I said. But she’s serious, apparently. She says she doesn’t need the money, and she wants me to be happy —well, she actually said she wants us to be happy—and I tried to tell her that was crazy, but she’s insistent.”
“That is crazy.” Jesse smiled. “Like, seriously crazy. But also awesome. You’ll have a permanent place in Savannah now.”
“Well, so, actually, that’s the second part of the surprise. Or, I guess this part isn’t technically a surprise, because it’s not a done deal. But, the thing is, I was thinking that maybe it could be not so permanent?”
“How do you mean?”
“I was thinking that I might sell Gigi’s house, too. I already asked her if that would bother her, and she said no, that she figured that was what I would do. Because I could get considerably more than a dollar for it, if what the realtor I spoke to this morning said is true.”
“Oh.” Jesse’s smile slipped for a second before he plastered it back in place. “Well, that’s great. I didn’t, um, realize you had plans to move. But that’s still exciting. Where, uh, where were you planning to go?”
“ I’m not going to go anywhere,” I said, a grin spreading across my face. “But I’m very much hoping that we are going to go somewhere together.”
“What?”
“I want to sell Gigi’s house, Jess. And I just talked to a realtor, and with the money I'd get from the sale, I’d have enough cash to get the Sea Glass fixed up and operational.”
“You want to—” Jesse shook his head like he couldn’t believe what I was saying. “You want to buy the Sea Glass from me?”
“No, I want to buy it with you. Or not even buy it with you, but help you get it up and running, after you buy it. However you want to do it, I’m in. I want us to be partners.” I laughed, hearing the double meaning. “Business partners, that is. But the other kind too.”
He stared at me, incredulous. “I just heard from Cam half an hour ago. That was my surprise. He accepted my offer.”
“That’s amazing.”
“No, you’re amazing,” Jesse said. “You really want to be partners?”
“If you’ll have me.”
He arched an eyebrow. “What if I want to get a bulldog?”
“Then we’ll get a bulldog. Hell, we’ll get ten. We’ll be the world’s first bed and breakfast slash bulldog farm. Every guest gets complementary slobber on their pillows. I still think they’re ugly as sin, but if that’s what you want, I’ll do it. As long as you’ll do it with me.”
“Oh, Mark. There is a long, long list of things I will do with you.”
“I hope they don’t all involve bulldogs.”
He laughed. “No, but a surprising number of them might involve pillows. And maybe even some slobber.”
“I’m somehow both disturbed and turned on right now, and I don’t understand how that’s possible.”
“It’s a brave new world, being a bulldog bed and breakfast proprietor.” Jesse laughed. “You have so much to learn.”
“Lucky for you, I’m an excellent student.”
“Interesting…I might need you to prove that, before I officially get into bed with you. Metaphorically speaking.”
I slipped a hand down and squeezed his ass again. “If you’d be willing to literally get into bed with me, I’d be happy to show you.”
“Hey, Brooklyn?” Jesse called.
“Yeah?” Brooklyn stuck his head out from the kitchen, then laughed. “You two really can’t keep your hands off each other, can you?”
“What can I say, my boyfriend’s enthusiastic.” Jesse grinned. “Anyway, I just wanted to tell you, I’m taking my fifteen-minute break. I’ll be back in a bit.”
“Fifteen minutes?” I dropped my voice low as Brooklyn laughed. “That’s all the time you’re giving me?”
“That’s all the time you’re getting right now,” Jesse said. “But there’s always tonight. And tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that .”
“Good,” I told him, nipping at his earlobe. “Because I don’t think I’m ever going to be done with you.”
Jesse brushed a kiss across my cheek. “I like the sound of that.”
Thanks for reading!