"What about those?" she poked one of the white chrysanthemums. "Do they say something?"
I swallowed hard. "Truth," I said grimly. Kiki and Jazzy both looked at me sharply.
"Did he lie to you?"
I shook my head. "No. I don't know. I don't think so." I walked over to the couch and sank into it, defeated. "I believe him for some reason...and I hate myself for it."
Kiki walked over and sat next to me, patting my leg in sympathy, but Jazzy was still staring at the bouquet. "Pine needles are getting all over my counter," she observed. "I suppose he's telling you something with those as well?"
I nodded and yanked on the throw blanket. Kiki shifted, letting me pull it up to my chin. For some reason it made me feel better to clutch it as I said, "Those I don't quite get. They may be filler. They could just be seasonal foliage." I shook my head. "But that's not Liam's way. Pine has two meanings, one is pity...."
"Boy best hope that ain't it," Jazzy said darkly, slipping back into West Philly-speak for a second.
"But I don't think so." I shook my head. "The other meaning, well, that's hope."
Kiki made a little "aw" noise, then clapped her hand over her mouth. "Sorry Shay."
I patted her knee. "Don't change."
Jasmine was still eying the bouquet like it had offended her mother. "What about this? Seems really random." She poked the red tulip and I turned away.
"Red tulips, well, they have two meanings." I swallowed hard again as I remembered how he had kissed me in the greenhouse out in Longwood while the tulips swayed around us. There was meaning in them all right. He knew me well enough to know what tulips would remind me of. "They mean 'believe me.'"
Jasmine plopped herself onto the couch next to me. "Okay, spill it."
"Last night, at the shop," I started. Images of Liam's face between my legs, that deep dimpled smile as he watched me writhe around his fingers. "Last night, he stopped by and...."
"You're awfully squirmy about it," Jazzy rightly pointed out.
"We...made up," I finally sighed.
"Aw," Kiki squeaked again.
"But?" Jasmine could be a real bulldog when she wanted information. Served her well in her research but made it awfully uncomfortable when her research subject was you.
"But...," I shot another look over at the bouquet. "I asked him to tell me the truth from now on...and he did."
"I take it the truth was not something you liked hearing?"
I looked at them both. "He said that he would always leave if Lily called. Because I was strong and...and she isn't...."
Jasmine whistled through her teeth. Kiki jumped up like I had scalded her. "Hang on," she said darkly and raced into Jasmine's office.
"So Lily is for sure his girlfriend and you dumped his sorry, cheating ass, right?" Jasmine said thunderously. When I didn't answer immediately, she pinched the back of my arm.
"Ow! I did! I thought I did. But..." I rubbed my arm, "but he swore he was telling me the truth when he said that Lily wasn't his girlfriend...and that there was only me. He said I'd just have to trust him."
Jasmine growled. Kiki emerged from Jazzy's office, holding the laptop in her hands. "Okay, I need information here," she said, plopping back down next to me and typing rapidly. "Is this him?"
She turned the laptop to me and there was row upon row of Liam's face looking back at us. "I image searched him," Kiki explained. "Damn. He is one fine looking brother."
"He's white," Jasmine clarified.
Kiki cocked her head. "He's pretty tan for a white guy."
"He's rich," I explained. "Vacations in the tropics and all that."
She clicked on one of the pictures. "Damn, I guess he is. Says here William Graves is the only child of Dahlia Jessop Graves, who can trace her family back to William Penn's time. They're one of the oldest and richest families of Main Line Philadelphia."
"That explains how he got hyacinths in the dead of winter," Jasmine deadpanned.
But I was too busy reading. There was more information on Liam than I had ever considered, but none of it explained...him. His board's holdings, his charitable contributions, the events he attended, those were all available with the click of a trackpad. But as for his personal life, the only thing I could see was that there wasn't much to see.
Or for Dahlia, for that matter. She looked out of the screen at me with clear blue eyes that looked nothing like her son's gray storms. She was pale, milky-white even, while Liam was bronzed. She had a cap of sleek, straight white hair cut into a chin length bob. He kept his hair short, but I could tell it would be curly if he let it grow.
Whoever Liam's father was, he had left his mark on him.
I clicked through silently for a second, hoping to read something about his father. But the Graves family either never spoke to the press or had an excellent PR person. There wasn't a hint of anything about who fathered the man who communicated with me in flowers.
"Hey, I want to read something, gimme that a sec?" Kiki slid the monitor into her lap.
I collapsed back on the couch and closed my eyes. "What do I do, guys? He asked me to trust him. He swore he wasn't a cheater...and I believe him."
"You believe him," Jasmine echoed. Not judging, just letting me hear my own words back again.
"I do. But I believed Tre too. I'm no good at this. They say trust your gut, but my gut is defective."
"Maybe you just let it die out?" Jasmine ventured. "Don't respond to him, just let it fade away?"
"I don't think he'll do that," Kiki piped up.
"Why do you say that?"
"The bouquet." She stabbed the monitor of the laptop with her finger. "Red tulips. Did you know they have more than one meaning?"
I looked at her. "Believe me...and..."
She looked at me with her wide eyes even wider. "Declaration of love."
Chapter Seventeen
"It's like he learned about dating from a manual or something. Published in the 1950s. Or he read a book about what men are supposed to be like and committed it to memory," Jasmine shook her head.
More bouquets were arriving each day. Daffodils for "you're the only one." A random nosegay of dandelions that made Jasmine laugh herself into hiccups before I looked them up and explained they meant faithfulness. Enough purple hyacinths to take over the apartment. I found myself wishing he would place the orders at Mrs. Young's. He'd be able to keep us afloat singlehandedly.
I also found myself yielding. The sprig of ivy with the white tendrils almost sent me to the phone. 'Anxious to please,' it meant and it was so lovely in such a simple little way. The tin of nuts made me laugh out loud for the first time in weeks, then laugh again when I explained to a bewildered Kiki that they represented stupidity. Jasmine's brown eyes gleamed as she popped one into her mouth. "Maybe you should invite this boy over. If nothing else, I like his humility."
I had my mouth open, ready to pop a macadamia into it, when I froze and stared at Jazzy. "That's it!" I cried
"That's what?"
"You guys. You need to meet him and tell me if he's sincere or not. I didn't listen to you about Tre and I'm not doing that again."
Jasmine nodded sagely and Kiki clapped her hands. "Invite him over. You know I'll tell you the brutal truth," Jazzy said, and I got the distinct impression that she wanted to rub her hands together in evil glee.
Chapter Eighteen
Kit was now openly staring from the back room. I pressed the door closed on him - as gently as I could - and turned back to Liam.
"Thank you for getting back to me," he said. Even his dimple looked grateful.
"You wore me down," I exhaled.
"That was the idea," he grinned sheepishly.
"You're a very persistent man who doesn't know how to take no for an answer."
Liam raised his eyebrows. "I would have stopped if you told me no, Shay. But, I thought very hard about it, and I couldn't remember a single time you actually said the word 'no.'" He leaned forward, and brushed his lip
s against my lobe. "Except when you were telling me 'no stopping' while I ate your pussy."
My mouth fell open, in shock and a flood of desire at the memory. "Of course I told you no!"
He shook his head. "You didn't," he moved a little closer. "You told me you wouldn't be my other woman." His gray eyes darkened. "But since you weren't...and you still aren't...."
"You didn't listen to me."
He nodded, his dimple flashing. "I listened to what you meant."
I blew out a puff of breath. "You...."
He took my hand and brushed his lips across my knuckles. "Me," he nodded.
"You're maddening."