Page 93 of Breaking Emily's Rules
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The next morning,Stone woke up with patches of morning light sifting through the kitchen window. He was on the floor with Winston on his stomach, snoring. One eye open, Stone glanced around and zeroed in on his surroundings. Yep, he was on his kitchen floor where he’d fed Winston a bowl of food the previous night. While he ate, Stone had gulped down a thousand beers. Or so it seemed, if he were to judge by the Grand Canyon–like size of his headache.
He moved Winston off his stomach and pulled himself up, trying to get the brain in gear.Emily.Damn, he was such a pathetic, sad fool. He’d hurt her, lied to her and walked away. A real dickhead move on his part. He’d done a lot of stupid things in his life, but he wasn’t sure he could ever fix this.
The doorbell rang, and Winston rose from his slumber, skittering into the back room like his tail was on fire.
“You know what? I’m not going to make fun of you anymore. So you’re afraid of doorbells. There are worse things.”
Stone glanced at his watch. Nine in the morning.
He opened the door to find Sarah behind it. “Holy hell, what happened to you?”
You should see the other guy, he wanted to say. Instead he went for the truth. “Your kind has done her damage.”
He waved her in, and she stepped inside. “A woman.”
“Good guess.” He walked back to the kitchen and she followed. “Want some coffee?”
“Thanks.” Sarah found a place on one of the stools. “Um, so is this your girlfriend we’re talking about?”
“I’m not talking about it.” He put one heaping tablespoon after another into the coffee filter.
Sarah scowled. “Of course you’re not. I wasn’t sure you had one, that’s all.”
“I don’t.” The coffee would be extra strong today, and he hoped Sarah wouldn’t choke on it or anything.
“Ouch. Sorry.”
“Yeah.”
Sarah shifted in her stool. “ You probably wonder why I’m here.”
“You want to talk about Dad.”
Sarah looked flustered for a minute, shaking her head and throwing up a hand. “No. Here’s the thing. I’ve got an idea, and I don’t want you to just reject it the minute you hear it. Think about it, give it some time. Let it sink in. It’s not such a horrible idea once you get to know it.”
Sarah was apparently working on her word count for the day. “Were you planning on telling me this idea sometime this century?”
“I was thinking, you know, why don’t I just buy the house?”
He didn’t picture Sarah as someone who would want to live in Fortune. “You want to buy Dad’s house? Why the hell would you want that? You’re aware it’s a fixer upper.”
“I talked to my attorney. The way we’d do it is I would buy you out. We’d go with the price we set to sell it, which is fair, considering all the work it needs.”
“You mean you’re going to stay in Fortune?”
“Maybe. At least for a while.”
He didn’t hesitate. “If you’re serious, I think it’s a great idea.”
“You do?” She looked surprised, like she thought he might prefer a stranger to have this house. Why would he want that when his sister could live here? Dad would have loved the idea.
“But you’ll need to keep Winston, too.” He cleared his throat. “He comes with the house.”
“I’m more of a cat person but okay. So we’ll take the house off the market today. I’ll call the Realtor, and we can work out the details.” She pulled a cell phone out of her purse.
“Are you sure you want to live here? Didn’t Mom want you to go back to Fort Collins?”
