Mark (Mallick Brothers 3)

With their approval, I powered ahead. I went ahead and took over the old florist seeing as they had the right setup with fridges for the flowers and shelves for displays. All it needed was a little modernization, and it was ready to open. And thanks to Mark being a badass contractor, that work was all managed in under two months.

Then I had my grand opening.

Within two weeks, I needed to hire help.

Within a month, I felt like an actual success.

Charlie and Ryan were right; I would never get rich. But I was making my own money. I was calling my own shots. I had a normal, stable job where I paid taxes and felt like a productive member of society.

My mother would have been proud.

Not just of me, but all my brothers too.

Through many ups and downs and trial and error, they had all found their way as well.

"Well, well, well," I said as the door opened and in walked Rush. "Did you come to bring me to lunch?" I asked, belly reminding me it was time to eat. In fact, I was a little too hungry, and I was starting to wonder if maybe I was pregnant. We hadn't been planning on it per se, but we also hadn't been as careful as we used to. I may or may not have put my new Ring in on the exact same day and, as the packaging warned, that was the only way it was effective.

"No, I, ah..." he said, looking almost... sheepish. Rush? Looking sheepish? What the hell.

"Are you... here to buy a woman flowers?" I asked, huge smile proving completely unstoppable. "Oh my God! Are you?" I asked when he seemed to go just a little red.

"Okay. Forget it. I don't need this. I'll order online," he said, holding his hands up, walking backward toward the door.

"What? So you can get a broken vase and wilted flowers? No, come on, come pick something out. I won't tease you anymore." Okay, that was a lie, but I was going to wait until he at least picked out the flowers first. Because there was no way I was missing out on teasing him when he had gotten the chance to completely torture Mark with questions. And I wanted to know what kind of woman could get a man like Rush to buy her flowers.

She had to be something special.

"So, she likes lilacs," he said, voice low. "Do you have lilacs?"

"Sure," I said, smiling. "In the backyard at my house. Not for sale."

"Oh," he said, face falling.

"Relax. I will cut some for you and make them pretty. Pick out a vase," I said, waving a hand toward the wall where I kept them lined up on shelves. "Where'd you meet her?"

The look came back, the almost oddly shy one. "At the office."

"At Fee's office?" I asked, knowing most of her women were moms or grandmas. It was a great way to make a buck for women whose schedules didn't allow for a nine-to-five at minimum wage. Plus, Fee offered great benefits. "Aren't they all... wait... no way!" I said, smile going huge.

Because there was one girl, one single girl who worked there. But she wasn't an operator. Oh, no. She was the sweet, kinda mousy, very out of place girl at the front desk.

When Rush's face went red again, I knew.

Oh, boy, I bet that was going to be a good freaking story.Mark - 3 yearsI lost a bet on the gender of my own damn kid.

It was really just par for the course. I had been losing every single bet I made for the past several years, especially in the kid department. Lea popped out three that I was wrong on. Rumor was, she had another on the way that I'd be wrong about as well. And Dusty had just had her first. Again, I was wrong.

But I put almost a grand on my first being a boy.

I think all my brothers bet on a girl for the sole reason that I was in a losing streak and it was smart not to bet the same way I did.

I wasn't disappointed that it was a girl, of course; I was happy no matter what we wanted. But damn, I needed a fucking comeback in the bet department.

Scotti had been a, well, terrible patient during her delivery, something I had fucking delighted in. She was a fighter. She raged at my sisters-in-law when they tried to tell her to breathe through it. She told her brothers to get vasectomies because they should never do this to a woman. She had begged the nurses for the drugs. Unfortunately, she had been too far into labor for the drugs.

So she just screamed and cursed through it all.

And then there was a very tiny, very healthy, very loud baby in her arms.