It was as Mac returned from lunch when she found not one but two roses in the center of her desk. This time, the flowers were a pale pink cinched together by a pink ribbon wrapped around the stem. There was another card as undescript as the day before with similar etching.
'Pink for gratitude and happiness.' She read the note outloud and promptly glanced through her open office door to find Harriet starting with an amused expression. "Do you know something about these, Lieutenant?"
The younger woman's grin was instantly wiped away by Mac's tone. "No, ma'am. But, they are beautiful, who left them?"
"I don't know. Yesterday it was one white rose. Today, two pink." She held the card out to Harriet who read the note and then handed it back to Mac.
"A secret admirer? How exciting!" Harriet practically beamed and it was all Mac could do to not roll her eyes. "The Colonel seems to have a secret Admirer." She said to Bud and Harm as they crossed into the bullpen.
Harm noted the two flowers in Mac's hands. "More roses and no clues, huh? Why pink?" He asked curiously. "Lemme guess, romance?"
"The card says: gratitude and happiness." She turned away from her friends and sauntered into her office only to have Harm on her heels. Mac placed the flowers in the same bottle where the white rose still was. "Gonna need a vase if this is a regular thing."
"Surprised you don't get more tokens of adoration." He said with a grin and then pointed his thumb out to the bullpen. "Everyone loves you and I'm sure there is more than one guy out there who would take a bullet date you."
'All but one.' Mac thought to herself, raising an annoyed brow as his flyboy grin widened. He was enjoying this way too much. "I prefer a guy to want me for me than my looks...I'm really not that special."
Her comment made the grin wash off his face replaced by a pensive expression that Mac couldn't quite read. It was as if he sobered for a moment, even Harm's eyes changed to an almost stormy grey. "You're a pretty special lady to me, Sarah."
Despite starting over and rebuilding their friendship, there were lines they silently decided not to cross. She wouldn't put her heart out on the line for him to crush again. But, the way he said her given name made an uncontrollable blush spread across her cheeks. And then there were his eyes which changed again, darkened to the same colour they had that night he kissed her on the Admiral's porch.
Harm was staring at her lips and just when Mac believed he would kiss her, he took a step back. "I ah… I'll get… uh...out of your hair." He stammered quickly retreating to his office.
Mac reminded herself that it was better to have him as a friend than nothing at all even though it hurt like hell.