Chapter Twenty-FourMicah
Chapter Twenty-Four
Micah
As excited as I am to see Kit and Skyler tonight, I have absolutely no idea what to expect from Fischer.
I’m already on edge from leaving work early and earning myself a rather threatening voicemail from Lila after she realized I left just before four, so I’m really hoping tonight will be a good sort of unknown. Not a heartbreaking one.
He said he was going to make all the moves, which is pretty hard to misinterpret, but that doesn’t help my nerves.
I’m on my third outfit when he knocks on my door because he told me he would be picking me up rather than meeting me at the restaurant. It was practically an order, though I wouldn’t have argued. I haven’t had someone come to my door for a date in years.
When I open the door to find him with one hand on the frame above his head and the other holding a bouquet of flowers, I can’t speak.
One: he looks deliciously attractive standing there like that in a hunter green button-up and jeans, and a smolder burning in his eyes.
Two: he brought me sunflowers . Big, bold, and bright yellow sunflowers that barely fit the plastic wrapped around them.
“This is my guess,” he says, his words a low rumble as he holds the flowers out to me.
I still can’t speak. I can barely breathe. Honestly, I didn’t know what my favorite flower was. I was hoping I would figure it out when the right guy came along, and apparently I was right because my whole heart is telling me that he’s right. Both about the flowers and right for me.
“Why?” I eventually whisper, reaching out and taking the blooms from him.
His lips curl up in a sympathetic smile. “Your mom. You said the field behind her grave is full of sunflowers, and your eyes lit up when you talked about it. They always do when you mention your mom.”
My chest explodes with warmth and fireworks and the pounding rhythm of my heart. He remembers that? I don’t even remember telling him. It must have been soon after we met, which means he’s been paying attention from the beginning.
“Am I right?” he asks. Vulnerability shines in his eyes as he tentatively reaches out and brushes a tear from my cheek. “It’s hard to tell with the crying.”
I laugh, and then I throw myself at him, wrapping my arms around his neck and loving how tightly he holds me. “Yes. Yes, you’re right.”
“You are beautiful.”
Not ‘you look beautiful’ but ‘you are. ’ That distinction fills me to the brim, and I’ve never been so glad to have my boss mad at me. Leaving work early just days before a big event was absolutely worth experiencing this moment.
“So, I’m not complaining.” Fischer tightens his hold to emphasize that point. “But we’re going to be late for dinner, and I want to make a good impression on your family.”
Laughing, I slide from his arms and hurry to put the sunflowers in a vase. “It’s just my siblings, by the way. My dad’s still in Diamond Springs.”
He lets out an audible sigh of relief. “Good to know. Is Chad back in town?”
“No.” Though, I kind of wish he was. I want to know his impression of Fischer now that we’re apparently more than colleagues.
Does Chad know about whatever Fischer’s business partner did?
I’m still not sure of the details, though I tried looking it up (and got brain zapped by too many business words I didn’t understand).
Mostly I just found out that his old partner is extremely beautiful and mature.
More the kind of woman I would have paired with a guy like Fischer if given the chance.
I’m glad I wasn’t given the chance because it means I can step in and offer myself.
“Goodness, sunflowers are amazing,” I say as I settle the bouquet inside my biggest vase and take a step back to admire them. “They’re so cheery and unapologetically themselves.”
A pair of arms wrap around me from behind, sending chills through me as Fischer moves in and tucks his chin on top of my head.
When he said he was making all the moves, he clearly meant it.
“I’ve been kicking myself since leaving Santa Fe this afternoon for not realizing sooner that you are a sunflower personified. Just like I’m sure your mom was.”
One: awwww . Two: how’s a girl supposed to concentrate when her senses are suddenly overloaded with the most incredible cologne? He smells like an ocean breeze had a baby with a forest right after rain. Three: “Santa Fe? Why were you there?”
His hand finds mine, fingers entwining until he slowly spins me around to face him. “Late,” he reminds me, at the same time moving in until his nose brushes mine.
Heavens to Betsy. He wasn’t kidding when he was talking about moves.
“ I know how you feel about being late,” I whisper, closing my eyes.
He smiles. How do I know this? Because I feel it. His lips twist upward against mine in the closest thing to a kiss a person can get without actually kissing. “Maybe it’s not so bad,” he says against my lips.
Just kiss me already.
Then he pulls away, leaving me aching for him to come back. And he knows it. His smirk says he knows exactly what he’s doing to me, and this is just the beginning.
“Shall we?” he says, holding out his arm with a wink.
His smile is still there, so natural and easy that it’s like he does it all the time.
But no, I’m suddenly faced with an impossibly handsome man who seems to have perfected the art of the tease overnight.
Or apparently during a drive from Santa Fe.
I want to slap him. Then kiss his face off. Who needs dinner when I’ve got a snack right here? “I hope you know what you’re getting into,” I say, way too breathless for someone who has been standing in the same place for the last two minutes.
When I take his arm, he tugs me close and heads for the door. “With you, or with your siblings?”
“Both.”
He waits until I lock my door, and then, in a move so smooth that I honestly don’t know how he did it, he has my back pressed against the door with his hands against the door on either side of my head.
His dark eyes are black holes sucking me in.
“I know exactly what I’m in for with you,” he says on a breath.
His eyes slip down to my mouth, tracing my lips with careful study.
“You are warmth. Beauty. Chaos. Happiness. Hope. Confidence. Distraction.” He leans in. “ So. Much. Distraction .”
I make a sound that’s almost a whimper, and he grins before taking a step back and holding out his hand this time.
“Seriously?” I whine.
He nods. “I want to make a good impression.”
“Well, you’re not making a good one on me, that’s for sure,” I grumble but take his hand anyway.
He laughs, and the rare sound is almost enough to dispel my frustration.
Almost . “I’m sorry,” he says as he leads the way down the stairs to his car.
“I know I shouldn’t tease, but I can’t help it.
I meant it when I said you’re distracting, and I know that once I start…
” He pauses with one hand on the passenger door, his eyes fixed on mine. “I won’t want to stop.”
This time, I try to make the move myself, leaning up on my toes and grabbing the collar of his shirt to keep him from running.
I make it within an inch of his mouth before he ducks down and throws me over his shoulder.
I shriek, half laughing and half growling in exasperation as he pulls open the back door and stuffs me inside.
“You are a bad influence, Micah Taylor,” he says without a hint of growl, which honestly is sexier than I would have thought.
Though I fight him, he somehow manages to get my seatbelt on through our shared laughter.
“Will you stop?” He grabs both my wrists and fixes an ineffective glare on his face.
“How am I supposed to hold your hand when I’m all the way back here?” I demand.
His glare shifts into a smile. “Exactly. I’ve already demonstrated that I am dangerous behind the wheel when you are distracting me.”
I huff, attempting to fold my arms even though he’s still holding onto me. “So, I’m just supposed to sit in the backseat like a child without so much as a ki—”
“Fine.” His lips on mine cut me off, warm and firm. It lasts only a few seconds, but his kiss absolutely leaves me dumbstruck.
Fischer looks just as awestruck as I feel as he pulls back. His eyes are glazed over, like he’s suddenly forgotten where he is. “That…that was a bad idea,” he stutters.
I shake my head. “That was a great idea. We should go back upstairs and follow through with that idea. I don’t even want dinner.”
But my stomach betrays me, bellowing a whale call to answer Fischer’s on Monday.
A glorious smile breaks out on Fischer’s face, and though he spends several seconds tracing my freckles with his fingertips, he eventually closes the door and makes his way around to the front seat.
“Bad idea,” he repeats to himself and turns on the car.
As soon as we’re moving, I unbuckle my seatbelt and climb over the console to the front. Fischer curses loudly, but I’m already in the front seat and buckling myself in before he can pull the car over. Thank goodness I’m small.
“You shouldn’t say anything like that in front of Houston,” I say calmly, even though my heart is pounding after that tiny kiss. I can barely even call it a kiss, but I think it might have broken something inside me because I feel all sorts of dizzy and lightheaded. “He’s trying to quit.”
To my delight, Fischer immediately takes hold of my hand now that I’m within reach. “What, swearing?”
I nod. “He’s a work in progress, and we don’t want him to be tempted.”
“Who’s we?”
“Me and Brooklyn.”
“Duly noted.” He’s quiet for a moment, squeezing my hand every few seconds before he says, “By the way, Kale had a girl over when I was leaving.”
My eyebrows shoot high. “He did? Like, a date?”
“Not sure. They were acting strange.”
“Strange, how?”
“Like they didn’t especially want me there.”
I giggle. “Of course they didn’t. You were interrupting their date .”