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Chapter 8
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He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: The Flower Shop Sisters Chapter 9
I have a proposition for you,” said Liam without preamble.When Liam had texted me a week after we’d returned from Las Vegas to ask that we meet in a neutral place, I hadn’t hesitated.Now I wondered why I hadn’t hesitated. Apparently him giving me an amazing orgasm had fried my brain and made me forget he was a giant jerk-wad.“A proposition,” I repeated. “Why do I not want to know what that means?”His grin was too easy, his body language almost languid. Like he knew I’d agree before I’d said the magic yes word. It was annoying.We’d decided to meet in a neutral place, a coffee shop in Ballard that currently had an array of customers, including a man with a blue macaw on his shoulder. No one batted an eye at the bird even when it squawked random words at other customers. Beans! Coffee! Llamas!Last week in Ballard, I’d seen a guy wearing a cat in a front pack so random pets were pretty normal around here.“I don’t need people knowing we got married when we were drunk in Vegas,
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: The Flower Shop Sisters Chapter 10
A week after Mari and I signed our contract, and three days after Mari moved into my place, I cursed myself for being the greatest fool alive.Live together, I’d said, it’ll be fine, I’d said.Except it wasn’t fucking fine. Mari was in my space, her smell, her voice, her very being taking up both my physical and mental space.She’d filled my fridge with chick food. I was pretty sure she’d bought at least one bottle of rosé and one bottle of chardonnay, both of which I never allowed near my kitchen for obvious reasons. She’d filled my bathroom cabinets with so many items—how did women have so much stuff?It had been so long since I’d lived with a woman I’d forgotten they collected products like magpies collected things for their nests. They had soap for each body part. They had tweezers and clippers and tiny scissors; they had lotion and razors and hair spray. And so much makeup. Thankfully Mari had kept most of her makeup in her bedroom—my second bedroom—because there wasn’t room f
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: The Flower Shop Sisters Chapter 11
That Saturday, I found myself hiding in my parents’ bathroom during a family dinner. Why? Oh, I’d just told everyone I was married now and living with my husband. Surprise!At the moment, I was avoiding speaking to my husband. Because I knew that if I spoke to him, he’d try something. Like seduce me.So I kept our conversations as unsexy as possible if I needed to say anything at all. A guy can’t really work with questions like “Where’s the toilet paper?” and “When does your recycling go out?” Not even someone like Liam Gallagher, seduction expert.But now I had a more important issue than the possibility of making recycling bins sexy: explaining to my family that I was married.The conversation thus far before I’d run to hide in the bathroom had been as follows:“You’re what?”“To who? David? Did he beg for you to take him back?”“Why would you marry David? He cheated on you. He sucks.”“Are you joking? You have to be joking. It’s not a good joke, Mari. Stop this.”My parents
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: The Flower Shop Sisters Chapter 12
By the time I arrived home—no, not home, it was Liam’s place—I stalled going inside. The entire drive home, anxiety churned in my gut. For the first time, this entire situation had truly dawned on me. It was like I’d been floating through a dream until reality had splashed me with a bucket of ice water.I pressed my forehead to the steering wheel. That too-familiar panic threatened to take over like it had at Jenna’s wedding reception. I took in a shuddering breath. Then another. Until I was calm enough to go inside and hope Liam wouldn’t ask me about my supposed work party.I wasn’t talking to him anyway, so that should be easy enough.Liam was lounging on the couch, music filling the living room. He had a spectacular view of Elliott Bay—way better than my view of a general store I’d had at my old place. The most exciting thing I’d see out my window was when raccoons would knock over the trashcans and the owner would come out, yelling at them and threatening to call the cops. I’d n
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: The Flower Shop Sisters Chapter 13
“Niamh,” I said, totally at a loss. “The bloody hell are you doing here?”It was Mari who had the sense to usher my soaking-wet sister into the apartment. When had it started raining? When you were licking your wife’s pussy, that’s when.“What’s your name again?” said Mari to my sister.“Niamh,” said Niamh slowly, her teeth still chattering. “Like ‘weave’ except it starts with an ‘n.’”“It’s nice to meet you, Niamh. Let’s get you out of those wet clothes.”“I can do it myself,” groused Niamh. “I know where the bathroom is. I don’t even know who you are, though.”Niamh headed to the bathroom and shut the door hard enough that I winced.What the hell was my teenage sister doing here? Did Uncle Henry and Aunt Siobhan know? It was a two-hour drive from Olympia, and it was a school night. There was no way they would’ve let her come here.I checked my phone, only to realize the battery had died. Plugging it in, the screen filled with missed calls and texts from my aunt and uncle.Do
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: The Flower Shop Sisters Chapter 14
Running after a teenager wasn’t exactly in my plans this morning, but here I was, on the streets of downtown Seattle, trying to catch up to Niamh.Liam hadn’t told me much about his sister beyond her aspirations to get into an Ivy League. He’d said she wanted to study political science and to start a non-profit.“Why am I the one doing this?” I said to myself, startling a man walking past me. Liam should be the one here, not me.I could see Niamh and her blue hair up ahead, about a block away. I walked faster, almost running when I saw the WALK sign turn on.“Niamh! Wait!”Niamh glanced over her shoulder, scowled, and walked faster.I was considerably taller than Liam’s sister, my legs longer, and luck was on my side when Niamh got caught in a crowd of fanny-pack wearing tourists most likely walking to Pike Market.Why anyone would come to Seattle in January, I had no idea. Maybe they were actual masochists. Based on their shorts and sandals, they were either insane or robots wh
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: The Flower Shop Sisters Chapter 15
I paced the length of my flat while Mari and Niamh were gone. I reconsidered at least twenty times if I should go after them. Niamh was my sister. She’d been my responsibility since the moment she’d been born.Yet Mari hadn’t minced words in her texts. Stay home; you’ll make things worse.It pissed me off. I wanted to go straight to that cafe and prove Mari wrong. Pull up a chair, plant my arse in it, and force Niamh to talk to me.Right as I debated leaving, my phone rang. Thinking it might be Mari, I answered it without looking at the caller ID.The voice on the other line, though? Definitely not a woman’s voice. It was a voice I’d only heard a half dozen times in my life, but I’d never forget it.“Liam,” said old man Gallagher in that Irish brogue that instantly took me back to my days in Dublin. “How are you?”My grandda had called me once before here in the States to tell me I was getting a tiny percentage for my inheritance while Niamh was getting the rest.“Did you really
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: The Flower Shop Sisters Chapter 16
Niamh left the next day, but not before Liam had made her promise to behave herself.“You’re giving me gray hairs already,” he’d said when she’d hugged him.“You’ll look dashing with a salt and pepper look.” Niamh had turned to me, and to my surprise, had hugged me tightly. She’d whispered in my ear, “Take care of him? He’s stupid but I love him anyway.”I’d just nodded. That moment last night, when Liam and I had sat in silence, had changed something between us. It had been a silence loaded with intimacy, with emotions, with things that were dangerous but heady at the same time.Returning to his apartment, we lapsed into silence again. We hadn’t been truly alone in three days—not since the night he’d given me the greatest orgasm I’d ever had.Sleeping next to him without really sleeping with him? That had been pure torture. His smell, his heat, the way he looked while he slept. His hair tousled in the morning, or how he stretched and showed off every muscle without even realizing
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He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: The Flower Shop Sisters About the Author
A coffee addict and cat lover, Iris Morland writes sexy and funny contemporary romances. If she's not reading or writing, she enjoys binging on Netflix shows and cooking something delicious.Stay in touch!irismorland.comIris Morland’s MermaidsNewsletter Facebook Twitter BookBub Goodreads Instagram
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: The Flower Shop Sisters Also by Iris Morland
Say You’re MineAll I Ask of YouMake Me YoursHold Me CloseWar of the RosesPetal PluckerHe Loves Me, He Loves Me NotOopsie DaisyincludingThen Came YouTaking a Chance on LoveAll I Want Is YouMy One and OnlyThe Nearness of YouThe Very Thought of YouIf I Can’t Have YouDream a Little Dream of MeSomeone to Watch Over MeTill There Was YouI’ll Be Home for Christmas
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: The Flower Shop Sisters Enjoy this exclusive excerpt
When I exited the clinic three days later, I glared up at the sun. Why was it so happy and shiny? It should be raining because this damn city should always reflect my mood. It should be cold, rainy, gray, and sad.Okay, maybe not sad—just scared. When the nurse practitioner had told me in her cheery voice that I was pregnant and that they could do an ultrasound right then to check on the fetus, I’d wanted to scream and cry.Oh, and in case you were wondering, when the parasite is this small, you don’t get to have one of those “squirt goo on your belly” ultrasounds. You get the “giant wand shoved up your vagina” type of ultrasound.So after basically losing my virginity a second time to an ultrasound wand, I crossed the street to sit on a bench in a tiny park about a mile from campus. A few moms with their kids played on the playground; one toddler tried to climb onto a swing and subsequently face-planted into the ground. I had to cover my mouth to keep myself from laughing.It was
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: The Flower Shop Sisters Epilogue
I married my wife a year and a half after I married her the first time.I’d wanted to do it much sooner, until I’d realized that Mari had planned to use the wedding things she’d bought for her wedding with David for our wedding.“I already have almost everything we need,” she’d said, rather too calmly for my liking. “I’d rather use all of it if I could.”To that, I’d countered that there was no way in hell that I was allowing anything that had to do with her weasel of an ex at our wedding. Mari had thought I was being ridiculous, so I’d seduced her until she’d finally agreed with me.So, the idea for a summer wedding that first year went out the window. A year would put us in the wintertime, which Mari refused to plan a wedding for.So, it had taken eighteen bloody months to plan, primarily because Mari had got the idea to have the wedding in Ireland. Which sounded great, until you considered how much of a pain it was to work with wedding people on the other side of the world. Mar
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: The Flower Shop Sisters Chapter 23
The following Monday, I went into work, entered Leslie’s office after a single knock, and handed her my letter of resignation.Too bad she didn’t even look up when I entered. She was just typing away on her computer. She waved a hand at me.“Sit down. I’ll be with you in a second.”I sat down. Five minutes passed in silence, Leslie ignoring me entirely. Two more minutes passed.Finally, I stood up and set the letter on her keyboard, forcing her to recognize my existence.“What is this?”“I’m quitting,” I said.Leslie picked up the letter, dangling it from her fingers like I’d handed her a dead bird.“Excuse me?”“I’m quitting.”Sighing, Leslie set the letter down, not even bothering to open it. She steepled her fingers and gestured for me to sit down.I didn’t sit again.After the conversations with my sisters and my mom, I’d realized that Liam had been right: I’d been playing it safe my entire life. I’d thought I could avoid a broken heart that way. I thought if I just did
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: The Flower Shop Sisters Chapter 22
When the prints of the photos I’d taken of Mari arrived, I didn’t look at them for days.I’d ordered them before that fight in the park. After our disagreement that night, though, I shouldn’t have tweaked fate’s nose. But I’d been hopeful. And fucking stupid.I grabbed a glass of whiskey and, sitting on the couch that somehow still smelled like my wife, I opened the package.I thumbed through the photos: one of Mari smiling, looking away from me. One of Mari with her eyes closed, a pink nipple just peeking out from below the bedsheet. Mari smiling at me, every emotion under the sun shining from her face.But I’d told her that I loved her and she hadn’t told me the same. And then I’d said those words I wished I could take back. And now our marriage was over, and all that work I’d put in to keep Niamh’s inheritance intact? Down the drain, as soon as old man Gallagher caught wind of things.Lucky for me, though, that Mari had yet to file for divorce. I didn’t know what she was waitin
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: The Flower Shop Sisters Chapter 21
You’d think by now I’d know what to do after a breakup. Buy some Ben and Jerry’s, watch sad movies, cry a while. Feel sorry for myself, definitely. I’d done all of that after I’d found out David was cheating on me.But this? This was a million times worse. This felt like my entire heart had been ripped out, stomped on, and thrown to the crows to eat.Worst of all, the world kept turning. I still had to go to work. I still had to act like I wasn’t completely dead inside, because then I’d have to admit to everyone how much I still loved my husband. Yet I was so angry with him that I wasn’t sure if I’d slap him or hug him if I saw him again.At the moment, I was staying with Dani and Jacob. When I’d shown up at their door that afternoon after my epic fight with Liam, bags in hand and sobbing, Dani hadn’t asked any questions. She’d bustled me inside, made me a cup of tea with a large shot of either brandy or whiskey, and had let me tell my story when I’d been ready.“Have you heard any
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: The Flower Shop Sisters Chapter 20
There are many things in my life that I never expected to happen. Including my almost-husband and my current husband battling it out in the middle of a park like two of the biggest idiots in existence.My morning had started peaceful enough. I’d bought coffee and sat down to wait for David to show up. I’d considered bailing at least five times, though, but the lure of getting my favorite eyeshadow palette back was too much to give up.Besides, if David wanted to grovel and apologize some more, who was I to stop him? It wasn’t like he’d convince me to get back together with him.David showed up ten minutes late. “Were you waiting long?” he said.I sipped my coffee. “Long enough.”He grimaced. “Sorry. Got up late. I’m glad you agreed to meet me, though.” He took in my appearance—old jeans, no makeup, my hair in a messy bun—and said, “You look beautiful.”I glared at him. “I’m not here for compliments.”“I know. But I’m here to give them to you. Or at least tell you why I fucked up
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: The Flower Shop Sisters Chapter 19
“You look beautiful,” I said. I came to stand behind her, both of us gazing at her reflection in the mirror.She did look beautiful, more beautiful than I could’ve ever imagined. When I stroked a finger down her spine, she shivered. I kissed the side of her neck.“I can just see you, a trembling, virgin bride on her wedding night,” I whispered in her ear. “I start unbuttoning your dress, one by one, revealing your body to me inch by inch.”“Liam—”“You’d be shivering, blushing, afraid but also curious. Aroused.” I bit a cord in her neck, which made her moan. “You’d be wet for me by the time I’d stripped you naked.”Seeing Mari in this wedding dress made me half mad with wanting her. After last night, I’d told myself I should let her go. I’d only break her heart. I didn’t need some bloody card reading to remind me of that. Even if a hundred psychics came to tell me that one thing, I wouldn’t need to hear it because I already knew it was the truth.But Jesus Christ, I wanted to pro
