She returns her attention to her laptop and her smile inches back into place on her mouth. “I’ve been putting some serious thought into the flower shop idea.”
She starts telling me all about how her sisters turned their hobbies into a sustainable venture and how she wants to do the same.
“You were right. I should be sticking to what I know,” she rambles. “I’ve been busting my brain, trying to figure out how to get an online business up and running instead of focusing on what’s right in front of me. A traditional brick and mortar business. I ran a sandwich shop for years. I know how to work with suppliers and manage inventory and serve customers. Of course, a flower shop and a sandwich shop are two very different beasts but I think that, at the end of the day, I can piece it all together based on what I already know.”
I’m grinning from earlobe to frigging earlobe, absorbing her excitement. Her passion is unbelievably sexy. I find myself growing a hard-on just listening to her.
She gets up and starts pacing the kitchen floor as she lists off her lengthy to-do list on her fingers. “I’ll need to develop a website, come up with a company name, and apply for an LLC.” She instinctively flips on the kettle and grabs my favorite mug from the cabinet. “I’ll need to think about suppliers and marketing and competitor analysis.” She’s absently pouring hot water over a chamomile teabag and setting the mug in front of me. It’s like she doesn’t even have to think about it; taking care of me comes naturally to her. Tiny acts like that make me appreciate her even more.
She carries on for about ten minutes. Hell, she’s making me dizzy with how much she wants to get completed this week but I love seeing her in this state.
She’s still talking. “Of course, I’ll have to figure out financing and—”
“I’ve got financing covered,” I blurt out.
She stops. She stares at me. “Jude, I’m not sure I want to complicate—”
“I can have Cannon’s lawyer write up a contract. There. Complication solved.” I grab her by the hem of her tank top and pull her into my lap. I breathe her in.
Iris twists around to watch me. “Do you seriously want to help me? I don’t want you to feel obligated.”
This woman has no idea, does she? I smooth my hands up her bare thighs. “Of course I want to help you, Iris. Do you know how sexy it is watching you go after your dreams? I want to be a part of that in any way I can.”
“Jude…” she cups my cheek.
I kiss her shoulder. “I want to help. Just tell me what you need.”
Her smile lights up the whole room, and for that smile, I’ll gladly pull an all-nighter. Fuck—if it would help show Iris how much she means to me, I’m game to skip sleep all damn week.
Her eyes dart around her messy kitchen table. She’s almost vibrating with excitement. “Okay.” She nods. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
Iris hands me a stack of papers and slips into her own chair. I put my head down and get to work just relieved that she'll let me get involved. That she won't fight me off with declarations of independence and feminist manifestos. Because I don't want to take her power away from her. I just want to bask in her light, let it wash over me.
Side by side, we do research and toss around ideas into the wee hours. Eventually, Iris lays her head on her outstretched arm.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” I ask when I glance up and our eyes connect.
She strokes her fingertips reverently across my knuckles. “You fixed me, Jude. My heart was in pieces before you got here. And now, I feel whole again. You fixed me.”
I grab her little hand and kiss the inside of her palm. “You fixed me first. I was broken, body and spirit. You put me back together with your shy smiles and your sweet affection. You have this way of seeing the parts of me that nobody else notices. I’m still trying to figure out how you do it.”
She just smiles. “Shy girls get a bad wrap. Everybody thinks we’re boring or we’re cold. Everybody expects the heroine to be bold and sassy and larger-than-life. But us quiet ones, we have our own superpowers, you know?”
I brush my fingertips down the bridge of her nose. “I didn’t know it before…but I sure as hell know it now.”
When I look up from my work a few minutes later, she’s breathing evenly, soundly asleep.
I chuckle to myself as I tenderly brush breadcrumbs from her forehead.
This woman is everything I didn’t realize I needed. And it’s fucking time I make it official, make her mine.
41
Jude
Iris meets my eyes across the room and my lips curl into an insta-smile. From my seat here on my parents’ couch, I have a great view of her curvy, little body where she and Penny are in the kitchen, talking and laughing and helping my mother prepare some healthy game day snacks for the rest of us.
The girl makes me salivate, wearing nothing fancier that her jeans and a T-shirt. She’s quickly becoming a delicious habit I can’t kick. And what’s worse, I don’t want to. The more time we spend together, the more I become wrapped up in the woman she is, the more I want to find a way to make this work.
I get a sharp elbow to the ribs, and I grunt at my abuser. Cannon’s eyes dart suggestively between Iris and me. He’s trying to hold a conversation with me with just his eyebrows.
I pretend like I don’t know what the hell my idiot brother is silently asking. I shove his arm away. The faintest grin dances on Walker’s face where he’s sitting in a recliner, observing the interaction. Lexi is here, too, fluttering back and
