She moves behind me and Arden to come up alongside me, clapping a hand on my shoulder. "I have a proposition for you too, Reese darling. How would you like to be my new vice president of advertising? My president of advertising will be retiring in a year or two, and I need to groom his replacement."
"Vice president? I've been a copywriter. And I'm twenty-four."
"So what? You're whip-smart, and I trust you. Trust is the scarcest commodity in business." She leans in to whisper in my ear. "If you're worried your coworkers will be jealous, let me handle that. I'm a genius at calming down internal strife."
That statement might've sounded arrogant coming from anyone else, but Celeste makes it sound reasonable. I believe she must be a genius at that, exactly as she claims.
"She really does rock the employee relations," Arden tells me. "Grams is great with people."
Celeste pats my shoulder. "Who knows? By the time you and Arden have your first baby, you might be the president of advertising at one of the world's largest corporations."
"Baby?" I splutter. "We're dating, Celeste. Only dating."
And I'm head-over-heels in love with Arden, but that doesn't change the fact we're still dating. It's been two weeks since we first met.
My girlfriend reaches across my body to smack her grandmother's arm. "Stop that, Grams. You're scaring Reese."
"I'm not scared," I announce.
Celeste kisses my cheek. "I'm looking forward to having you as a grandson-in-law."
"Grams!" Arden chastises.
"Still not scared," I declare, rather enjoying being sandwiched between beautiful women.
Dane, who's smirking, pushes up his glasses. "Arden, maybe you'd like to test drive some of my latest devices before they hit the market. I'm sure you'd have insightful feedback."
Arden tries to speak, but I jump in before she can get one word out. "No, she does not want to test your ruddy devices, Dane."
"What's wrong, Reese? Afraid she'll like my toys better than yours?"
I know he's having me on and trying his best to annoy me. Normally I wouldn't care. But whenever one of my brothers makes a slyly suggestive joke about my girl, I get... irritable.
This time, Arden beats me to the punch. "Oh, trust me, Dane. There's zero chance of your devices outdoing Reese. No offense. I'm sure your doohickeys are fantastic, but nothing compares to a real man."
I puff up like a turkey spreading his feathers for his mate. Yes, I'm a ridiculous arse. I don't care, because Arden announced to my smug brother that I'm a real man.
Dane chuckles. "Glad to hear it, Arden. Reese deserves a woman like you."
"What kind of woman am I?" she asks, and she's serious about the question.
Only Arden could try to give me a blow job in the coat room, then turn around and innocently ask my brother what sort of woman he thinks she is.
"The best sort," Dane says. "I've never seen my brother this happy before. You and Reese are perfect for each other."
Chance and Elena approach us then and announce they're leaving to start their honeymoon night. Tomorrow, they'll fly to the south of France for the first leg of their international holiday.
Arden and I go back to the bed-and-breakfast and get on with our lessons.
She is perfect for me. I think I've known that since the first time I saw her.
But it takes me three more weeks to summon the nerve to ask her the inevitable question. We're in my old bedroom in my parents' house, since the cottage we bought a few miles away isn't ready for us to move into yet. We're planning to alternate between America and England, so we can see both our families as often as possible. Arden has always worked from home, and Celeste loved the idea of her new vice president of advertising trading off stints in the New York and London offices.
Chance, Elena, and Dane are here for the weekend too. The newlyweds are just back from their honeymoon, and strangely, I want to hear all about it.
But right now, I'm sitting on the edge of the bed with Arden kneeling between my legs. She licks her lips and hums with pleasure.
"Mm, Reese," she says, "you always taste so damn good."