I think it’s possible I’ve found my future wife.
Chapter 31
Iris
“What’s your favoriteflavor?” I ask Maverick.
We’re standing in line with Mav’s hunky daddy at Orchard Blossom’s only proper ice cream parlor, deciding what to order. Sadly, it’s the last full day of Roman’s stay, and I have no idea what will happen next. If Roman invited me to join him in LA tomorrow, I’d say yes this time. But will he ask? And if he does, for how long would he want me to stay?
“Chocolate,” Maverick says without hesitation. It’s not a surprise. When I took these two to Orchard Blossom’s only bakery earlier this week, Maverick picked a cookie the size of his head that was bursting with chocolate chips.
I’ve spent every day with Roman this week. And it’s been glorious. Sometimes, with Roman alone. Other times, like today, with Roman and his adorable son. Still other times, with Roman’s whole family in tow.
Early in the week, I invited Roman’s entire family to Dad’s house for a reciprocal dinner party. Much to my relief, everyone got along stupendously. In fact, the Maguires were so down-to-earth and easygoing when they arrived, I quickly forgot to feel insecure about our tiny, modest house.
My brother, Atlas, hilariously dropped everything at school to race home for that dinner party, by the way. Apparently, Atlas selects Roman as his fantasy football quarterback every year, so he insisted he’d rather fail the test he should have been studying for than miss the chance to meet and have dinner with his football idol. When Atlas told me that, I wished so badly I could have assured him there’d be other chances for him tomeet Roman in the future. Plenty of them. But since I have no idea what Roman is thinking about in terms of me and what lies ahead, I regrettably couldn’t say that to my brother with any degree of confidence.
Fresh off that delightful dinner party at Dad’s house, I took Roman’s family to a nearby orchard the next morning, where we enjoyed a lovely picnic and some apple picking, as promised, much to Maverick’s delight. The following day, I took everyone on a horseback-riding excursion that was so much fun, Roman, Maverick, and I went out again the next afternoon. And in the days after that, I took Roman and Maverick fishing a couple times and also, once, to Orchard Blossom’s bowling alley.
In terms of alone time with Roman, we’ve taken a relaxed approach. One that allows us to talk a whole lot and really get to know each other. Mostly, we’ve taken romantic walks and hikes. Gone out for dinner at Orchard Blossom’s handful of restaurants. Yesterday, Roman and I finally went on that horse-riding date we’d missed in Kauai and wound up making out like teenagers underneath the shade of a tree in a secluded meadow.
As hot and fun as yesterday’s make-out session in the meadow was, I admit I felt a bit surprised about Roman’s hands remaining firmlyoutsidemy clothes the whole time. The hotter things got between us, the more I kept expecting him to yank down my jeans and take me the way he did, so many times, in Kauai. But he never did. Before that moment, I’d assumed we hadn’t had sex in Orchard Blossom yet due to simple logistics. Roman is staying with his family and I’m living with my dad, after all, so we don’t have an easy place to go. Thanks to those bowling-alley photos of Roman and me that are currently swirling online, it’s not like we can simply skip off to a hotel. If we did that, then the whole world would probably find out about it.
But yesterday underneath that tree, when there was nobodyaround and it felt like we were in our own world, I realized Roman probably wasn’t yanking down my jeans in that meadow on purpose. That, in fact, the old-fashioned courtship vibe Roman’s been laying down this entire week was almost certainly part of an intentional master plan. What other explanation makes any sense? We were alone underneath that tree, and all over each other, and my body language was loudly screaming, “Yes, yes, yes!”
It’s all good, though. As far as I’m concerned, Roman can take the lead on the physical stuff during his visit. After all, he’s the one who showed up in my small hometown unannounced, with his entire family in tow. He’s the one with a decision to make, I’m guessing, since my mind has been made up since he kissed me underneath the stars on night one of his trip. I tried to hold back. Tried to fight it. But the truth is I’m now deeply smitten with Roman and willing to follow him to the ends of the Earth, if he’ll have me. So, if Roman wants to take this courtship at a snail’s pace, in a physical sense, no matter how badly I’m dying to jump his bones like I used to do in Hawaii, I’m going to hang back and let him do exactly that.
“What’syourfavorite flavor, Irish?” Maverick asks, looking up at me with his father’s sparkling brown eyes.
“I love chocolate, too, but I think my all-time favorite is strawberry.” I smile at Roman. “How about you, Daddy-o?”
Roman winks. “I like any flavor I get to enjoy with Maverick and Irish.”
Oh, my heart.He’s been saying sweet stuff like that all week.
“You have to pick,” Maverick insists with a little tap on my forearm.
“Okay, well, in that case, I think I’ll go with vanilla, just to round out our Neapolitan.”
“Nee-nee—Huh?” Maverick says, making Roman and I chuckle at his adorableness.
We reach the front of the line, and the owner of the ice cream parlor, Wanda, gushes over Roman and his son, rather than immediately taking our order. I’m used to it by now. That’s been happening all this week. Even people who’ve never cared about football seem elated to have a superstar of Roman’s caliber in our quaint little town.
“Would you take a photo with me?” the ice cream lady asks Roman. “I’ll get it printed and framed for our wall.”
“You bet.”
“How much longer will you be in town? I could get it printed lightning fast, so you can sign it before you leave.”
“I’m leaving tomorrow, unfortunately. But I promise, the next time I’m in Orchard Blossom, I’ll come in and sign it for you.”
My heart seizes. Does that mean Roman is genuinely planning to come back here, or is he simply being polite with a fan, like I’ve seen him do countless times? And if heisplanning to come back one day, is that a good or bad sign forme? If Roman is contemplating another visit to Orchard Blossom, does that mean he’snotcontemplating taking me with him to LA tomorrow? Does it mean I’m now mere hours away from unwittingly getting my heart smashed into a million pieces? It was one thing to watch this man walking away from me in Kauai, when I barely knew him and hadn’t expected anything from him. But if he walks away from me now, when I’ve got such high hopes about continuing this amazing thing we’ve started here, I don’t know how my heart will survive the crushing blow.
At Wanda’s excited request, I snap a smiling photo of her with Roman, before Wanda finally fills our ice cream orders.
“Don’t break our girlie’s heart, Roman,” Wanda calls out as we walk toward a window booth with our ice cream. “Iris has already had more than her fair share of heartbreak.”
Holy hell.
