Page 107 of Take My Heart
Brody laughs. ‘You’re going to have teenage girls asking you to dance.’
‘Yeah, I know,’ Jason mutters.
‘All the girls have a crush on him,’ Brody tells me.
‘I’ll see you guys later,’ Matt says, walking to the door. ‘Great job on the house. I’ll get back to you next week with the appraisal.’
‘Okay, thanks,’ Brody says.
‘You guys have a good night,’ Jason says as we walk him to the door.
‘You too,’ Brody says. ‘When the girls ask you to dance, let them down easy. Their hearts are fragile at that age.’
He sighs. ‘Believe me, I know. I’m dreading this.’ His phone rings and he checks it. ‘It’s Mom. Hold on.’ He answers it. ‘Hey, Mom.’ He nods, then smiles. ‘That’s great! Yeah, I’m with Brody. I’ll let him know. Bye, Mom.’
‘What’d she say?’ Brody asks.
‘Nash just took Callie to the hospital. She’s having the baby. Mom and Dad are on their way down there.’
‘Are Nick and Lyndsay going?’
‘I don’t know. She didn’t say.’ Jason looks at me. ‘See ya, Kate. Have a safe trip back.’
‘Thanks.’
I feel sad saying goodbye, knowing I’ll probably never see him again. I’ll never see any of these people again. Brody’s brothers. His parents. Gina and Lyndsay. The people I’ve met and become friends with in town. I feel like I have a whole other life here and tomorrow it’ll all just be a memory.
Chapter 21
Kate
‘You okay?’ Brody asks, putting his hand on my shoulder.
I shake my head. ‘I’m not ready to say goodbye. To your family. This town. You. It’s too rushed. I need more time.’
‘We’re not going anywhere. You can always come back and visit.’
‘I can’t.’ I look up at him. ‘It’d be too hard.’
‘Why?’
I don’t answer him. He knows why.
He pulls me in for a hug. ‘It’ll get better with time. We’ll get back to work, back to our old routines, and the memories from the past few weeks will start to fade.’
‘You really believe that?’
This time,hedoesn’t answer.
I could try to forget the time Brody and I spent together, but I won’t. I’ll never have an experience like this again. Stranded in a storm and moving in with a complete stranger? It’s crazy, butwhat’s even crazier is having that stranger become your best friend, and then falling in love with him.
I can’t imagine ever finding another guy like Brody. I can’t say goodbye to him. I know I have to, but I don’t know how. How do you say goodbye to the guy you love, knowing you’ll probably never see him again?
For dinner, Brody takes me to a nice restaurant downtown. It costs way too much money for him and it’s not at all his type of place with its white tablecloths and fancy food. But he thought I’d like it so he took me there. He’s such a great guy, so considerate and selfless. He’s the complete opposite of Cam. It makes me realize how much I’ve changed. The Kate I am now would never date a guy like Cam, but the old Kate was going to marry him.
‘I’ll be right back,’ I say to Brody when we get home from dinner.
‘You want the champagne?’ he yells as I go into his room.
