Flirting with Forever (Forever Yours, #3)

by Cara Bastone

“All these people, including myself, think that you and she make sense together, John. When they ask if you’re together, what they’re really asking is Why not? Because they look at you and they think, Yup, there are two people who could really make a go of it.”

“I truly think that you might

be the only person on earth who looks at the two of you and thinks you’re not good enough for her. People aren’t thinking about you having to save money to take her out to a fancy birthday dinner. They aren’t imagining her in her Tom Ford shoes avoiding the loose nails in the floor of your tiny apartment. They aren’t wondering why in God’s name she would slum it with you. You’re the only one who asks those questions.”

“The rest of the world looks at you and thinks, Look at those two bighearted, kind, hardworking people. Don’t they make a handsome couple? So, why in God’s name can’t you see it, John? Why?

You look at Mary like all the light in the world originates from her. Stop telling yourself you can’t have her. Just stop it already.”

“I was calling because I was hoping to see you this week. Are you free anytime? I could just pop by the shop.”

“Will you make me dinner instead?”

“I know it’s presumptuous to invite myself over to your place,” she said. “But it’s been a hell of a couple weeks, and I just want a beer and something simple to eat, and I want to pet Ruth.”

He...kind of couldn’t believe his ears? Because this was Mary Trace on the other end of the line. She was asking for Ruth. And for a simple meal. And his studio apartment. She was asking him for a whole lot of things that he could absolutely give her. What a freaking world. “I—Yes. Of course. Anything.” He cleared his throat. “What day are you free?”

John had an opportunity to tell Mary exactly what he was hoping to have happen between them. And that was all he could really do, lay it all out there for her. If he was lucky, she’d want something similar to what he wanted.

“You never look me up and down the way you do every other woman on earth. Besides last night you’ve never tried to kiss me, but we were drunk so that barely counts. And if we’d gotten naked this morning, you would have seen me all in the bright light, and you’d have to come face-to-face with my age. I... I couldn’t handle that. Not when you already think I’m too old for you.”

“Too old for me? This is about what I said on our blind date? Mary, for God’s sake, are you ever going to let me live that down?” He

“You say you felt like a million bucks? Mary, you looked like a hundred million. A billion. My first date in six months, and I’d been expecting a softball. Someone who I could maybe impress with a law degree until I could get comfortable enough to flirt with her. But in walks this—”

he waved his hands in the air, searching for the words “—sophisticated creature in some sort of dress...heels...your hair...” He trailed off, not adept enough to actually describe how she’d looked. “And then you saw me across the restaurant and smiled at me with that fucking smile of yours.”

“What’s wrong with m...

“Nothing. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. It’s the best fucking smile in the universe. But you know what that kind of smile says to a man like me across a restaurant? It says, I will devastate you, you poor schmuck. And then there you were. The most gorgeous woman in the entire restaurant, on the entire block, in the entire g...

“I said the first thing that came to mind. It was...

“It’s not an excuse. It was a rude thing to say, and I wanted to staple my mouth closed the second I said it. But yes. I meant it literally. I don’t care about our age difference, Mary. It’s negligible anyways. Only six years.”

We’re at different stages of our lives. That’s what I meant. You’re a put-together, affluent woman. I’m still scrambling to pay off my student loans. It has nothing to do with age. It has everything to do with who we are.”

“Not attracted to you?”

“You want to know why I never look you up and down? Because it hurts to look at you.” He leaned back on the couch and closed his eyes, his face tipped up toward the ceiling. “Being around you is like being parched while there’s a glass of lemonade sitting right there, within arm’s reach. I have to talk myself out of gulping you down pretty much every second we’re together. I’d never be able to sip. That’s why I don’t look you up and down.”

“This is how I look without makeup.” “There’s no need to brag, Mary.”

“This is a big deal for me, John. To stand here in laundry-day clothes and wet hair and no makeup and no sleep. The world isn’t kind to pretty much any women when it comes to how they look. But especially not ‘women of a certain age.’ Ain’t that right, Ruth?”

“So, yeah. This is it. This is what I look like with no makeup on. After too little sleep. Thirty-seven and a beer too many. Whatcha see is whatcha get.”

“I meant that, like I said, you were about to see me in the bright morning light, and I thought you already had such an issue with my age that you wouldn’t be able to ignore it all spotlighted like that. I get that I misunderstood that now. But think of it from my point of

view. Last night I felt sexy and loose. This morning I felt hungover and ugly.” She turned her head to face away. “I didn’t want you to see me that way.”

“I thought you turned me away because you’d seen the situation in the metaphorical morning light and decided that you didn’t really want me.”

“But by the time I’d put the pieces together, you’d already left. We really misunderstood each other.”

You always glow with this internal light. You can’t help it. It’s your spirit. Your determination, your kind heart. The laughing, the smiling, it adds to it, but it doesn’t define it. I can’t define it either, really. Shit.”

“I think you’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever met, and it has very little to do with clothes or makeup or whatever. It’s you, Mary. It’s your whole thing that you have going on. That’s the best I can describe it. It doesn’t have anything

to do with age. I don’t want to date a twenty-five-year-old. Not even the twenty-five-year-old version of you. I want you, as you are right in this moment. With the sum of all your experiences making you who you are. I wouldn’t shave a single day off your life. This is who you are. And you are what I want.”

“I always knew that people like you existed. That there was a man like you out there, and that I deserved him. But my mother almost, almost had me convinced that I was wrong.”

“So,” she called through the open door. “You like me for the sum of all my experiences, huh?” “And more,”

“What the future holds for us?”

“Oh, just being together, mostly.”

“No, my parents aren’t together. But maybe it would help answer some of your questions, Naomi, if I just came clean about something. I’m crazy about Mary. I think she’s the most wonderful person on planet Earth. And the idea of getting to spend time with her, grow with her, fills me with nothing but happiness. That’s what I see for our future. Us. Together.”

“Mary and I haven’t talked about kids yet. We’re pretty new. But knowing us, if we did decide to have a kid, I think we’d just, you know, try pretty hard to make one.”

“Did you mean what you said tonight?” She turned to him in just her bra and underwear and watched his eyes get stuck

“I’m not sure which part you’re referring to, but I meant everything. Every word.”

“What about the part about having kids?”

“Did you mean that too?”

“Mare, what will be, will be. If kids are in the stars for us, I’m not worried about making a family with you. It’ll pan out somehow.” “That’s how I feel.”

“I’ll love you when you’re a raisin, but I don’t want you to worry yourself into one.”

“I’ll love you when you’re a raisin too,”

“Just in case it wasn’t clear,” she said, opening her eyes again, “I’m in—” “I’m in love with you,” he interrupted her, his brows down in that V. “Big-time. Sorry to interrupt. I just would always kick myself if I wasn’t the one to say it first. I just want you to know that even before you loved me back, I was in love with you. I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to know you and not be in love with you.”

“Did you just tell me that you loved me big-time?” He laughed. “Guess so.”

“Who would have thought that we’d fit together so well?” “Your mother.”

“I wanted to tell you about my suspicion that night of the fake date, when I walked you home. But then you said that you’d crossed me off your list, and I figured I’d save myself the heartache.”

“I can’t believe I said that. Especially when I was, like, four seconds away from catching feelings for you.”

“I’m pretty sure I loved you then. Or was just about to. Even when I didn’t think I had a chance. I was already committed to being in your life. As a friend, but st...