Page 113 of Break My Heart
‘No, but I told her I’d loan her the money.’
Nash smiles a little. ‘You really told her that?’
‘Yeah. Why?’
‘Just asking.’
‘I have the money, and it’s kind of my fault this happened to her.’
‘It’s not your fault some guy went crazy and destroyed the place.’
‘You don’t know Tom. The guy’s been trying to be my friend since high school. He probably thought doing this was helping me and would make me want to hang out with him.’
‘It’s still not your fault.’
‘Maybe not, but Gina doesn’t have the money and maybe if I help her fix this place up she’ll—’ I stop before I say it.
‘She’ll what? Stay in town?’
‘Maybe.’
‘So that’s why you’re doing this. You don’t want her to leave.’
‘I’m doing it to be nice. She didn’t deserve this. The shit online. The vandalism. I don’t want her thinking this is what people are like in Haydon Falls.’
We go back outside.
Nash walks up to Gina. ‘It’s not that bad. Once the materials come in, I’ll have the place fixed up within a few weeks.’
Gina eyes get huge. ‘Are you serious? I thought it would take months.’
‘I work fast.’ He glances at Callie. ‘I only work slow when I’m trying to get a girl who’s stubborn as hell to go out with me.’
‘Wait—that’s why you took so long?’ Callie asks.
Nash took an entire summer to fix up a house he inherited in a small town south of Chicago. Callie was his neighbor. He knew right away that he liked her, but Callie kept telling him to go away. It took forever before she agreed to go out with him.
‘How much will it cost?’ Gina asks Nash.
‘Don’t worry about that. We’ll work it out when you get the insurance money.’
‘Nash, I have to pay you something. The insurance check could take months to come in.’
‘Then until it does, I’ll take free beer. And keeping my pregnant wife company while I’m here working would be good too.’
Gina smiles. ‘I could do that.’
‘You called me your wife,’ Callie says, smiling at Nash. ‘I’m not your wife until Saturday.’
‘Close enough.’
A cold gust of wind blows and Gina shivers.
‘Let’s get you out of here,’ Mom says to Gina. ‘We need to get you in a warm house in front of a fire.’
‘That sounds wonderful,’ Gina says, sighing.
‘We’ll see you back at the house,’ Dad says, getting in the truck.
