“Nadia! Stop.” I turn away and snatch up the vase of pink carnations Spencer wanted to buy. I bring them back to the counter, because I wasn’t truly done arranging them yet. “And you absolutely cannot mention this to anyone else. Especially not the guys.”
“The guys? Your brothers?” She laughs. “You couldn’t pay me to deliver that news. They’d explode, and they’re too sexy to mess up.”
“Stop! Why is everyone crushing on my brothers lately?”
“Because they’re sex on legs, and wear uniforms for work. I mean really. Tell me you don’t want to touch yourself afterhecame in here in camo and said dirty things in your ear.”
“You better be talking about Spencer, and not my brothers, sicko. And no. Because he had guns. I hate guns.”
“Are you referring to his biceps? Becauseyeah he did.” She says it with a smirk and bouncing brows, which makes me want to smack her. “And you don’t hate guns. You respect them. You understand their importance for some vocations.”
“Right.Somevocations. Like military, and police, maybe farmers, and possibly, if the need truly called for it, spear fishermen.”
She snickers.
“But not all the handbag carriers, and not a guy walking through a flower shop. It’s unnecessary.”
“You’re looking for reasons to hate him!” she laughs. “All I’m saying is, I couldn’t stop looking at his thighs while he was feeling you up just now.”
“He wasn’t feeling me up! He was demanding things that he’s not entitled to. He was saying those things with tasteless cussing. And he was trying to take something from me that I’m not willing to give.”
“Yeah?” She lifts a sculpted brow – a skill I’ve never mastered – and drops a hand to her hip. “And what’s that?”
I press a hand to my stomach as it jumps with nerves. With trepidation. With longing. “My body.”
“And you’re not giving in… why?”
“Because I’m saving myself.”
“For who?” she practically shouts.
“For my future husband!”
“But what if… and hear me out…” She leans in a little closer, as though to tell a secret. “What ifhewas your future husband?”
I turn and laugh. It’s loud and ridiculous, but it’s cathartic in the way someone who might be mentally unstable would feel after a loud belly laugh.
“Bite your tongue, Nadia. He wouldn’t understand the concept. Now go back to work. I have things to do.”
“I’m just saying, he might be onto something. You’re theonlyperson you’re trying to convince. You’re allowed to want a slice of the forbidden pie, Abby. You’re allowed to be naughty every once in a while. You don’t even have to admit it to me, because I can see the truth in your eyes. But maybe you should admit it to yourself. You want the guy, and he seems pretty keen to oblige your wildest fantasies.”
“No, I absolutely do not.”
I walk away and carry my vase to the storage fridge out back, because behind my words are my thoughts. And they’re screamingI absolutely do.