Secured Secret by Charity Parkerson

staring at her with glassy eyes.
    “What do you think I should do?”
    Flower continued to stare straight ahead as if not hearing the question, forcing Genie to clear her throat. “Um, Flower?”
    Flower shook her head as if she were shaking away cobwebs. “So you managed to snag two of the three sexy security men?”
    At Genie’s nod, Flower seemed to lose focus again and Genie snapped her fingers in front of her face. “Oh sorry,” Flower blushed. “I was picturing a Shannon-Weave sandwich and it was making me hungry.”
    At Flower’s words, an image floated before her eyes and she put her hand to her stomach to quell the butterflies. “I like you a lot more than I ever thought I would. That sounded different in my head,” she added as she realized how it sounded out loud.
    Flower tilted her head to one side, assessing Genie with her eyes. “I should have made more of an effort to get to know you since you are Bradley’s partner, but I admit to being slightly intimidated by you, since you seem so very capable, and I’m a bit of a flake.”
    “Bradley doesn’t seem to think you’re a flake. He’s completely enamored by you.”
    “Hmm,” Flower said thoughtfully. “You have noticed that Bradley is a bit strange too, right?”
    Genie snorted into her coffee then covered her mouth to hide the sound, and Flower laughed before sobering. “I almost missed out on the best thing that has ever happened to me because I thought things were either right or wrong. Bradley lied to me, hid things from me, tricked me, but if those things never happened I would never have realized I was in love with him. Friends are nice to have, but someone to love—that’s priceless, and Shannon is a wonderful person who deserves to be loved. I don’t know Weave, but he didn’t want to be with you or he would have been, no matter the personal cost to himself, because that’s what it’s like to love someone. If he is really Shannon’s friend, he will want him to be happy and it will all work out in the end.”
    “They’ve been friends their whole lives. I don’t want Shannon to have to choose.”
    “Oh sweetie, he already made his choice long before he clued you in.”
    Genie stared off into space, shocked into silence. It was true; at any time over the past months he could’ve walked away from her. They lived in different states. It wouldn’t have been that hard to ignore her, and he did reach out to her just as often as she reached out to him.
    Flower sat quietly waiting for Genie to work out her own thoughts. “Bradley is lucky to have you,” Genie said finally.
    “Luck has nothing to do with it. It’s pure skill.”
    ***
    Shannon made it exactly three days before he found himself standing outside Genie’s door. As soon as he cleared the door, he admitted. “I couldn’t stay away.”
    Lowering his head, he touched his lips to hers and couldn’t resist pulling her body to his. She was so perfect for him that he knew he was a goner. “You belong with me,” he whispered against her skin before pulling away. He held her gaze so that she would never doubt his sincerity in this. “You have to be with me because I don’t think I could stand for you not to be. I can’t get enough of being with you. I find every excuse I can think up to come see you every chance I get, and when you’re not around, I think about you nonstop and plot the next way I’m going to make you smile. I stand closer to you than I should so I can steal a whiff of your skin, a brush of your fingers, for a chance at touching you with mine, and I don’t think that I’m capable of not doing those things because I’m in love with you. My love is pretty well settled in too, so I’m afraid you’re stuck with me.”
    “That’s good, since I love you too.”
    Shannon was still trying to think up a stronger argument so it took a minute for her words to sink in. “You do?” he asked skeptically.
    Genie rolled her eyes. “Well, wow,” he said