Page 23 of I Knew You
I wanted to slap myself for having any reaction that wasn’t indifference. I didn’t want him ever to know how much I had cared for him and how much he’d hurt me. To think of him as anything other than a friend from my childhood wasn’t an option.
I would never let myself go down that path again.
“You’d be surprised how long it takes for a nickname to die around here. I hear it all the time,” he replied, that deep voice I loved so much washing over me. “Been here long?”
“No.” I fiddled with my loose shirt, unwilling to meet his gaze. “I pulled in about an hour ago. This place, it’s…beautiful. I can’t believe this is the same house we grew up in. It doesn’t feel the same at all.”
He shuffled his feet a tad.
“I tried to get Whit not to do so much to it. It felt like erasing her,” he said, his eyes wandering. “But I think he wanted you to have the best.”
“Huh?” My head whipped up, and my eyes locked with his fully for the first time.
“The house. I remodeled it for Whit. Well, for you. It took me a couple of years because I could only work on it here and there, but I got it done.”
I gasped. That was twice in less than two minutes that my mouth had dropped in shock.
“Since when have you known how to remodel anything?” I argued, feeling affronted by the shock. “Doesn’t matter. I’m only staying here for a little while. I’m here for?—”
“I know why you’re here,” he said, interrupting. “Listen, I think I’m stepping into things and making assumptions?—”
“No. Let’s circle back,” I demanded. I stepped toward him, forcing him to look me in the eye. I would not let him charm his way out of explaining. “Whit bought this house forme? I thought he bought it for himself, so he’d have a place to stay when he was in town, or maybe because he couldn’t forget our childhood. But for me? No way.”
Bram shook his head. “I thought you knew. I shouldn’t have said it.”
I could tell he was shaken by the change in his eyes, but I wasn’t worried about Bram or his loose lips. I couldn’t believe my brother. For him to plan to give me a whole house, Grams’ house, and in Mill Creek, no less? Why? What was he thinking?
“Ridiculous.” I turned around and walked away from the door. “Why would he do it? He knows how I feel about him and his money.”
Bram let himself inside since I had lost all sense of hospitality and hadn’t invited him in. “I’m sure Whit has your best interests at heart. He thought if you ever wanted to come back to Mill Creek —”
I scoffed. “Come back to Mill Creek? For what? Why would I come back here?”
His brow furrowed. We hadn’t been together for more thanfive minutes after fifteen years, and I’d already made it awkward.
Our eyes met again. I could swim in their depths as he studied me underneath the brim of his cap.
He wasn’t what I imagined. He was rugged and outdoorsy, and I didn’t expect him to look like he’d been working outside with his hands. I’d expected him to look like he’d come from wealth. I expected him to dress like the last time I’d seen him, when he wore blue slacks and a white button-up, the day of Grams’ funeral. He’d looked so grown up as he’d entered my hospital room. The memories sobered me.
“I’ve never had anything to return here for,” I said, keeping my tone as even as possible.
Whit would never return to Mill Creek permanently, and Grams couldn’t. Bram was here, but he was an enigma. Sometimes, as much as he was a part of my childhood, I thought maybe I’d made him up in my head.
Seconds that felt like minutes passed by.
“Everyone always comes home, eventually,” he shrugged, as if what I had said held no weight. “Besides, you know the best dating pools exist in small towns. That’s what I think, anyway.”
He winked and took a few steps toward me. I took a few steps back, creating distance. I couldn’t be too close to him.
Yet it was the closest to home I’d felt since driving into Mill Creek. I loathed it and loved it at the same time.
“Presumptuous much? How do you know I’m not taken or married?” I asked, a little breathless. How much did he know about me? How muchcouldhe know? Had he asked Whit?
“Honestly, I don’t know, but my guess is you aren’t.” His eyes held a certain irresistible twinkle. Was he goading me? My face turned hard as steel with all trace of wonder gone.
“Why? Because I’m not relationship material, like you said before? Am I just a sister to every man I meet?” The ice in mytone could’ve frozen an ocean. From the narrowing of his eyes, I knew I’d struck something within him.
He remembered what he’d said that day at the hospital.
