Letters to Molly (Maysen Jar, #2)(22)

Finn chuckled. “How about we start by taking a walk through the backyard? I’d like to ask your mom how she wants it to look.”

That statement sent my chin to the dirt. When Finn had done the landscaping here, he hadn’t asked me what I wanted. Not once. I recovered from the shock quickly, knowing exactly what I wanted for my yard. “I’d like a lilac bush.”

“What color?”

“Deep purple.” I’d always wanted one so I could cut blooms in the spring and put them in the house to enjoy their smell. But with the other bushes and shrubs, there wasn’t room. Lilacs expanded rapidly and there was enough trimming to do each year as it was.

“You got it.” Finn led the way to the backyard, the kids skipping along at his side.

I trailed behind them.

Finn was fixing my yard. Personally. What the hell is happening?

He wasn’t just tossing a side project to one of his foremen to manage. He wasn’t delegating this down the line to a crew of college kids who’d come over to my house and track dirt inside whenever they needed to use the bathroom.

He was putting in the effort to do this on his own.

The three of us walked around the perimeter of the backyard as Finn asked me questions about what I wanted to keep or ditch.

“What about the fountain?”

“I don’t want it,” I admitted. “It takes forever to clean and is always full of leaves.”

He nodded. “Then it’s gone.”

If not for my heart swelling to three times its normal size, I wouldn’t have believed this was real.

“We’re having BLTs for dinner tonight,” Kali said when we’d made the full loop of the yard. “Want to eat with us?”

He looked to me for permission. His blue eyes were bright in the sun. He smelled like the spring air and fresh grass. His square jaw was dusted in light scruff from the day. He looked so handsome, a small smile pulling at one side of his mouth, that I forgot all about my plans to ignore last night and keep my distance from Finn.

“Stay. Please.”

His eyes flared at my words. I’d said the same thing last night when he’d had me pressed against the hallway wall outside my bedroom. His lips had been trailing down my neck. His hands had been cupping my breasts.

Dinner wouldn’t just be dinner.





- LETTER -





Darling Molly,



I’m proposing to you tomorrow.



I’m so damn nervous I can’t sleep. I’m not good at telling you how I feel. I get the words jumbled and nothing comes out right. I’m terrified I’m going to mess it all up and you’ll say no. Maybe I’ll keep this letter as my backup. If I start to say something stupid, I’ll just hand this over. Not that you can even read it. My hands are shaking so bad I can barely write.



I love you, Molly.



I love that you, above all else, are honest. I love that you have an old soul and still bug me to write you letters. I love that you said no when I asked you to move in with me because you wanted to save that experience for married life.



I love that we have the same birthday. There isn’t a person in the world that I’d want to share my cake with besides you. And tomorrow, when we blow out the candles, I’m wishing for you.



Please say yes.



Yours,

Finn





Five





Finn





“Finn, are you here?” Bridget called from her office.

“No.”

She laughed as the wheels of her desk chair rolled over the wood floors. Gliding backward, she appeared in my doorway. “You snuck in while I was on the phone.”

“There was no sneaking about it. You were shouting so loud you didn’t hear me.”

Bridget’s lip curled up. “I was talking to that asshole, chauvinistic salesman from the nursery.”

“You mean you were yelling at that asshole, chauvinistic salesman from the nursery. What did Chad do this time?”

“He screwed up my order. Again. He sent Colorado blue instead of Norway spruce and he knows how much I hate the blue with those sharp-ass needles. He didn’t include our bulk discount, he sent two extra chokecherry bushes, and to correct his own mistakes, he said it will be another two weeks. My crew is ready to plant tomorrow on the Nelson project.”

“Shit.” I rubbed my forehead. “I’ll call the owner.”

“This is the third time. Chad always gets your orders right. Always. He’s batting zero on mine, and we both know it’s because I’m a woman.”

I wanted to argue and tell Bridget that Chad was just an idiot, but she was right. I’d been at the nursery the first time the two had met and when she’d gone to shake his hand, he’d blown her off.

“I’ll call the owner. Either he puts a new salesman on our account, or we’ll just use Cashman’s.”

And pay an extra five percent on every order. I’d been using this smaller nursery for the past year because their products were top-of-the-line and their prices were unbeatable. But I wasn’t going to make Bridget deal with a prick.

“Thank you.” She pushed her chair farther into my office, rolling right up to the edge of my desk. She smiled at the picture of Max and Kali on the corner. “Today is the last day of school, right?”