YOURS TRULY

by Bella Grant

  With determination in mind, he decided at that moment he would win her back. He’d done a little research on her, using his ability to do background checks—which he acquired because he staffed ERs—and he could see that she had, from all records available to him, left gambling behind her. She still owed money but was steadily paying off the debt, sometimes paying larger amounts than the minimum payment. He was proud of her, though he wouldn’t be able to say it to her when they talked. He’d have to wait until she chose to tell him she’d kicked the habit.

  And he’d have to work hard to kick his bad habits as well if he wanted her in his life. He couldn’t continue being a workaholic and win her. He breathed deeply and made a promise to himself: Work hours would end, unless absolutely necessary, at the office. And he would leave the office no later than six every day, beginning Monday. He would not work on weekends after this one, and he would prove to Diana that he had changed.

  If she’d changed too, their relationship might possibly work.

  Travis texted her around eleven the next morning so he didn’t wake her, just in case she was still sleeping. She answered immediately, assuring him she’d be there by one, and his stomach roiled like he was on a roller coaster. His nerves were on fire, as if he was going on a first date with a new woman. But this was Diana, the woman he’d loved for years, even through the ugliness.

  Except she isn’t the same, and neither are you, he thought as he headed to his car. He wanted to pick her up some flowers before they met, but before that he wanted to drop the contracts off at the office so he wouldn’t be tempted to work that evening or the next day.

  He wondered, as any guy would, if maybe his evening might be occupied by a willowy brunette with eyes the color of leaves. He certainly wouldn’t push, but he wouldn’t say no if the opportunity revealed itself. Her slim, muscular legs wrapped around his waist as he carried her through his restored mansion, promising her the world he hadn’t given her the first time. Her lips on his, her tongue dancing with his, and the scent of her body as her desire exploded. He remembered making love to her and wanted to do it again, so badly, in fact, his cock was rock hard as he turned the ignition.

  Can’t go to lunch with a boner, he chided, shaking his head as he trained his eyes on the road and his head on anything but the goddess he’d been married to. He pictured Michael and his atrocious amount of leg hair, which he thought was disturbingly thick even though women didn’t mind it. His boner died more quickly than a squirrel hit by a car.

  His office was closed on Saturdays, although either he or Michael were there at some point every weekend. The man with the nightmarish legs was working in his office when Travis walked in several minutes later. He poked his head in Michael’s office and nodded.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Michael asked.

  “Thanking you,” Travis answered, leaning against the doorjamb and relishing the joke he was about to tell. “Your furry legs killed my boner so I could walk like a normal man.”

  “Ah, shit,” Michael said in disgust, shaking his head as he sat behind his large desk. “I know we’re pals, but that’s got to be over some friendship line.”

  “I didn’t get hard thinking about your legs,” Travis retorted, straightening and heading across the hall to leave the contracts on his desk. “That would be crossing the line,” he called.

  “That would be crossing a fucking ocean, man,” Michael yelled. “You nasty bastard.”

  He stuck his head back in Michael’s office. “Don’t work too late.”

  Michael called to him as he turned to leave. “You’re leaving? You were barely here!”

  “I have a date,” Travis announced, smiling at his friend.

  “I thought you were acting weird, coming in here talking about boners. Who is she?”

  Travis cleared his throat and walked back to the doorway. “Diana.”

  Michael’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline, but he smiled as if he knew a secret.

  Travis’ eyes narrowed. “What’s that look?”

  “Nothing, man. Have a good time,” Michael said with a wink. “Glad your balls dropped.”

  With a bark of a laugh, Travis flipped him off and left. He turned away from his parked car and headed to the flower shop a block down. He remembered Diana’s favorite flower was the lily, and she preferred the colored ones to plain white. He hoped they were in season and reflected that she would know the answer. Smiling to himself, he stepped inside the cool shop and breathed in the scents of multitudes of flowers, grateful he didn’t suffer from allergies.

  “Good morning, sir,” the clerk, an older, gray-haired woman, greeted him after finishing with her customer. She turned to him with a warm smile, and he was reminded of his father’s mother. “How may I help you?”

  “I have a date at one and would like to get her flowers,” he explained, smiling at her. Her eyes twinkled at him, and he continued. “Her favorite flower is the lily, but I didn’t know if they were in season.”

  “Oh, sir,” she tittered, waving her hand dismissively as she walked around the counter to lead him to a display. “Lilies are always in season, if you know the right grower and greenhouse. We have a lovely selection right over here.”

  Travis looked over the selection, smiling when he saw purple, her favorite color. He looked at the clerk, who waited patiently. “Can I get a bouquet with purple and…um, what color would complement them?”

  “Well, that would depend on whether you want the bouquet wrapped in paper or in a lovely vase?” she asked. “Are you picking her up?”

  “Um, no, we’re meeting at a deli, so I guess I’ll need the flowers wrapped,” Travis told her. “And you can pick the color you think is best to complement the purple.”

  “I’ll have them ready in no time, sir,” she promised as she hustled. “Your new young lady will love them.”

  Travis smiled and thanked her, moving away to look at the display of roses. He didn’t bother to tell the woman Diana wasn’t a new girl. She seemed to enjoy the idea of a new romance and what some called the old-fashioned gift of flowers. However, his father had been giving his mother flowers at least once a week for as long as he could remember. Their house had always smelled like fresh flowers, different scents from all sorts of buds, and he’d wanted the same for his home and wife.

  Travis had brought flowers to Diana in the beginning of their relationship, and they’d enjoyed the scents together. But as his business began to expand and he grew busier and busier, the flowers were often forgotten, his wife put second to his work. His marriage had become less important to him than his job, and he’d lost her to her addiction.

  Shaking himself out of his negative reverie, he glanced at the door as it was pushed open by a pair of women, from the looks of them a mother and daughter. The daughter looked around twenty, flitting about and exclaiming over every flower she saw, her energy captivating and contagious. The mother, on the other hand, looked exhausted and threw herself onto the small bench for waiting customers.

  “Well, hello!” the clerk called as if she recognized them. “Have y’all talked about what you want?”

  “Only a million times,” the mother murmured, waving a hand in her face as if fanning the heat away from her face. Her cheeks were reddened as if they were in the middle of a heat wave.

  “Oh, Mom,” the young woman said, rolling her eyes and looking at the clerk. “She’s just tired.”

  “Dress shopping, caterers, now flowers,” the mother droned, ticking off their errands on her fingers. “Of course I’m tired!”

  The clerk smiled and told them, “I’ll be done with this young man’s bouquet in two shakes. And I promise to make the flowers for your wedding as painless as possible.”

  “Thank you,” the mother said, grimacing a little as she glanced at her daughter. “You know, your daddy is going to flip when he sees what we’re spending.”

  “I think he’ll be all right,” she replied, glancing at her mother with a silly
grin. “After a few years.”

  The mother shook her head. “You’re just lucky your man and your daddy get along so well, or he wouldn’t pay for this damn wedding.”

  The daughter giggled and the mother sighed, though she did smile. Travis was amused by the conversation and wished he and Diana had been able to afford a wedding. Her father was an unknown, even to her mother, who was a drunk Diana had moved away from as soon as she could. And though his parents had offered to pay for a small wedding, he and Diana had agreed to go to the courthouse and let the Justice of the Peace marry them.

  He told himself to stop wasting his thoughts on regrets, and he promised himself if he were to marry again, be it to Diana or any other woman, he would give her a wedding to remember. His imagination sparked, he pictured Diana in a white wedding dress with a lovely bouquet of lilies, walking down the aisle towards him with a smile on her face and a gleam in her eyes. The gleam of love for him he’d seen so many times during their relationship.

  “Sir?” The clerk lifted the bouquet for his inspection before wrapping the flowers in paper. “Does this look like what you had in mind?”

  “It’s perfect, thank you.” Travis smiled as he pulled his wallet out. He leaned close to the clerk as she wrapped it, hoping the mother and daughter pair wouldn’t hear him. “Do you know what they’re after?”

  The clerk twinkled at him, lifting her shoulders in a happy shrug. “They’ve been in here three times. She’ll pick the first flowers she chose two weeks ago, but we’ll have to look at all the options again.”

  Travis smiled at her. “Pretty typical, huh?”

  “Oh, yes,” she replied sagely, nodding as she wrapped the bouquet carefully. “All the young girls take forever to make up their minds, and ninety percent of them choose the first set they saw.” She finished wrapping the lilies, tying a ribbon around the end, and told him his total.

  “Would you add their total, or what you think it will be, to mine, please?”

  The woman nearly dropped the bouquet in surprise. She looked at the women, who were sitting together on the bench chatting amiably about wedding nonsense. Her eyes returned to him and she leaned closer to whisper, “Sir, that could be hundreds of dollars.”

  With a smile, he leaned close to her. “Make it an anonymous gift. Add five hundred to my total. Will that cover it?”

  She glanced at the pair on the bench, then at him. “Sir, that’s probably too much. I don’t know for sure what they want yet, and—”

  “The rest will be for you,” Travis told her, “for putting up with a young girl’s silliness.”

  “I have to ask one more time. Are you sure, sir?”

  “I’m sure. I didn’t get to have a wedding, and every young girl deserves a beautiful wedding,” Travis told her sincerely. He pulled out his wallet, grateful he carried cash so he wouldn’t have to use his card.

  “Five hundred only, sir,” she squeaked when he counted six one-hundred-dollar bills. “That’s more than enough for yours and theirs.”

  “More than fair,” he told her, smiling as he handed her the bills. He accepted the bouquet as she took the money, her face a mask of amazement.

  “Sir, are you sure you don’t want to tell them of your gift?”

  “Oh, no. This will be such a good story for her to tell when she’s been married twenty years, don’t you think? A story for her grandchildren.”

  Tears filled the older woman’s eyes, and her smile was brilliant. She blinked rapidly to rid her eyes of tears. “You’re a good man. Your lady friend is lucky to have met you.”

  Travis winked at her, a gesture he used more often than he realized. “Thank you. Don’t tell them until I leave.”

  “I won’t,” she whispered, shaking her head in awe.

  Travis waved to her and called his thanks, smiling hugely at the mother and daughter, who both blushed over the handsome, smiling man. He walked nonchalantly to the door, but as soon as he was outside, he quickened his steps. He ran across the road and down a block, worried the clerk would tell the two women before he could get out of sight.

  He slowed once he’d turned the corner, and his heart was light as he meandered through the street to the deli where he was supposed to meet Diana. He held the bouquet carefully, wanting its perfection to remain until she saw them. He’d have to ask for a glass to put them in while they ate so they didn’t wilt. The day wasn’t incredibly hot—mild, in fact—but the flowers were delicate.

  He reached the deli a few minutes later and secured a table on the patio. He’d thought about going up to the balcony, but he wouldn’t be able to see her as she walked up. He wanted to watch her before she saw him, see her beautiful face as she looked for him and the smile alight on her lips when she saw him. Her smile had always been her greatest asset. Still was, according to her Facebook page.

  He ordered a mimosa, feeling foolish for sipping what was labeled a “girly drink,” but orange juice and champagne together was the most delicious combination. He decided that when Diana arrived, he’d order a pitcher since she’d always liked them.

  He watched the crowd, paying attention to the eccentric folks that made up New Orleans. Tourists were obvious, locals more so, and all were fascinating. Travis loved The Big Easy and the people who populated it, even if some of those people were nothing like him. So eclectic, so unusual and usual in the same breath, New Orleans was a visual buffet for the people watcher. As he waited for Diana and sipped his mimosa, he watched with a small smile on his face.

  As if her personality called to him, he looked in her direction when she was still nearly a block away. She wore a pale green sundress that, he was certain, would bring her eyes to life and make them shine brighter than the sun. The dress was halter style, revealing her shoulders, one of his favorite places to kiss. Her hair was halfway up, loosely tied back with half down and half up, like a hippy at Woodstock, and following the style, she wore little to no makeup.

  His heart skipped about four beats, and his eyes refused to leave her. He didn’t even care if she caught him staring as he watched her walk towards him, her step so self-assured his insecurities flared for a moment. He had to remind himself that she had loved him once, that they had shared something special and might be able to again.

  When she was closer, he rose and lifted his hand. She looked at him, and her smile settled in his mind forever.

  Chapter 6

  Diana lifted a hand in a wave and opened the door to the deli so she could walk around to the patio, which had a thigh-high, black, wrought iron fence around it so no one could wander up and have a seat. When she’d seen Travis, her stomach had twisted excitedly, and the smile on her face was reflex. Seeing him made her smile. You told yourself you wouldn’t make a decision until after the lunch, she chided herself before stepping onto the patio.

  She located him quickly when he lifted his hand, and she wound between the tables filled with other patrons to his. He rose as she approached, and her mind screamed, Hug him? Shake his hand? Sit quickly so I don’t have to choose? Anxiety tripped through her, causing her pace to slow, but when she reached him, the decision was removed from her hands.

  Travis wrapped his arms around her tightly, squeezing briefly before letting go and pulling her chair out for her. “Good morning.”

  “Hi,” she replied, her voice quiet as she told her body to calm itself. The hug had incited her desire for him, something she had tried to tamp down. She shifted in the chair, which made the need worse, so she sat still and smiled, glancing at the pitcher. She pointed to it, pretending nonchalance, and asked, “Mimosas?”

  “No better way to start the day,” Travis told her, lifting the pitcher and pouring the sweet liquid into a flute waiting for her. His fingers brushed hers when he handed her the glass, and Diana was positive he’d done it on purpose. He’d always been able to read her and knew when she was horny, which had been incredibly sexy when they’d been together. Now it put her at a disadvantage.

  “Thank y
ou,” she said with a small smile, controlling her expression and her eyes—which had always revealed every thought she had—and sipped. “Oh, this is delicious!”

  “And it’s not even the best thing they have here,” he replied with a chuckle. He reached to the chair next to him, which was covered by the tablecloth, and lifted a bouquet of flowers. With a smile that touched her heart, he held them out to her.

  Diana reached for them, her fight with her expression lost as pure enchantment filled her. “You remembered my favorite flower!”

  “And your favorite color,” he added, eyes twinkling. “I asked the waiter to bring water for them after you arrived, so don’t worry about them wilting.”

  Diana laughed, shaking her head. “You knew exactly what I was thinking! They’re beautiful, thank you.”

  “Beautiful flowers for a beautiful woman,” Travis complimented, leaning forward to prop his chin in his palm as he watched her. “You haven’t aged at all.”

  A blush crept up her throat and into her cheeks, both from embarrassment and pleasure. “Well,” she shrugged, looking away, “it’s only been five years, you know.”

  Travis didn’t reply immediately, so she sipped her mimosa again to cover her bashfulness, realizing that only Travis could make her feel this way. Pleased, she smiled at him as she set her glass down, catching him staring at her.

  “I always liked it when you blushed. So cute,” Travis told her.

  Their eyes caught and held, and Diana’s heart lurched in her chest as if it wanted to leap out and land in his hands. She opened her mouth to reply but could think of nothing to say and was grateful when the waiter appeared. Much more forward, she thought giddily.

  “Hello, and welcome, miss! Here’s a vase I found in the back for your flowers. Wouldn’t want them to fade,” he exclaimed proudly, waving the vase excitedly and nearly sloshing water out. He set it on the table and held out his hands for the bouquet. Smiling widely, she handed them to the man and sent Travis a look. While he artfully arranged the flowers after removing the wrapping, he asked, “Would y’all like to order food now or enjoy your drinks for a bit longer?” The young blonde man with striking blue eyes smiled as he glanced from one to the other.