Her Best Friend's Proposal #SYTYCW15 #Special Edition Suzanne Swartz

Chapter 3 #SYTYCW15 #Specialedition

"Delivery!"

Looking up, Tess's eyes widened as Penny set the huge bouquet of wildflowers on the corner of the teakwood desk. It had to be the biggest arrangement of flowers she'd ever seen in her life. Who in the world?

"The card." With a flourish, Penny handed Tess the tiny white envelope.

Tess took the card, trying to imagine who on earth was sending her flowers. It wasn't her birthday. And the date didn't have any special meaning. So why was anyone sending her flowers?

"Aren't you going to open it to see who sent them?"

Brow creased, Tess's eyes skittered to the front of the envelope where her name was neatly typed in the center. No clue there. With a half shrug, she pulled out the tiny embossed blue card.

ANSWER THE PHONE

As if on cue, the cell phone at her elbow vibrated, followed by the Addam's Family ringtone. Snatching the device, Tess swiped the screen. "How'd you do that?"

A deep, familiar chuckle reverberated in her ear, and her stomach felt like it did a twenty story dive. "Just one of my many talents," Jack answered and Tess could picture his dark eyes twinkling devilishly. "I take it you received the flowers."

Tess shifted her eyes to the humongous bouquet, and she couldn't keep her own lips from tilting upward. "Yes, I did. They're beautiful," she replied as Penny discreetly closed the door on her way out.

"I'm glad you like them."

"Why so many?"

"I couldn't make up my mind, so I just went with a conglomeration."

Relaxing a smidge, Tess leaned into the buttery softness of her chair. "Why did you send them?"

"Because you love flowers."

"You've never sent me flowers before."

"I never proposed to you before, but I have sent you flowers."

She didn't remember ever getting flowers from Jack, and it wasn't something she'd have likely forgotten. "When?"

"On your sixteenth birthday. I sent you pink sweetheart roses."

Tess's thoughts skipped back fourteen years, and she remembered. They'd been delivered while she'd been at school. A card had been attached, but hadn't been signed. She had never suspected they were from Jack. "You sent those flowers?"

"I did."

"But I always thought they were from..."

"Colton Burke," Jack finished for her.

"It seemed logical at the time. We'd been tiptoeing around getting together for months. I just assumed he'd taken advantage of my birthday and sent them."

"What did the card say?"

Tess thought back. "'Sweet sixteen and never been kissed...yet."

"How would Colton have known that? And even if he had, he couldn't have come up with anything as clever for the card."

"Well, I certainly would have expected the soon to be best-selling author, JD Blackwood, to have come up with something a bit more original," Tess teased.

"'Yet,'" Jack reminded her in mock indignation.

Tess laughed. "Oh, of course. Did you put that on your resume when you sent in your first manuscript?"

"No, I didn't want to wow them with all my talent at once." She could hear the grin in his voice.

Her own cheeks dimpled. "Good idea," she agreed as her body continued to relax. "Why didn't you sign the card?"