Page 117 of Take My Heart
‘Again?’ I shake my head. ‘We need to get you some snow tires.’
When we’re in the truck, I carefully pull back onto the road.
‘Brody, talk to me. You’re not saying anything. Does that mean—’
‘It means I’m trying to get us home safely. The snow is mixing with freezing rain. The road’s a sheet of ice.’
We both remain quiet until I pull off the highway to the road that goes into town.
‘We should be good now,’ I say. ‘Just a few more miles.’ I glance at her. ‘I went to see you.’
Kate looks at me. ‘When?’
‘This morning. I went to your parents’ condo, but they said you weren’t there.’
‘Why were you there? Did I leave something at your house?’
‘Yeah, reminders of you that were driving me fucking crazy. Everywhere I looked made me think of you. I couldn’t take it.’
‘So you drove to Chicago to see me?’
‘I drove there to see Nash’s kid. Callie had the baby.’
‘She did?’ Kate turns to me, getting all excited, something I love about her. ‘Was it a girl? A boy?’
‘A girl. Addison Rose.’
‘Rose? That’s my middle name.’
‘Yeah, I know. I thought of you when they told me.’ I’m at my house now and pull into the garage and shut the truck off. ‘Kate, I’m just going to say this, and if it’s not what you want, I get it. I probably shouldn’t even ask, but what the hell? The worse that can happen is you tell me no.’
She takes off her seatbelt and turns to me. ‘What is it?’
I rest my head back on the seat, not looking at her because if I do, I’m not sure I’ll have the guts to say this. I’m asking for a lot here and there’s a good chance she’ll turn me down.
‘Matt has someone interested in the house. It’s not officially on the market yet, but he told them about it and showed them the pictureshe took when he stopped over and it sounds like they’re going to buy it.’
‘That’s great!’
‘Yeah, I guess.’
‘You’re not happy about it?’
‘I am, but I kind of got attached to the place after we fixed it up, but then you left and it didn’t feel the same. And then I got to thinking, maybe I should do this again. Buy a house. Fix it up.’
‘You told me you were done fixing up houses. That it was too much work.’
‘It’s not that bad if I have someone helping me.’ I finally look at her. ‘What would you think about going into business with me? We buy a house together, fix it up, and split the profits on the sale. Or maybe, if we really like it, we keep it.’
She stares at me, not saying anything.
‘It was a stupid idea.’ I open the door to get out. ‘Forget it.’
‘No! Brody wait!’ She grabs my arm.
I sit back in the truck, sighing. ‘Yeah, I know, you live in Chicago. It wouldn’t work. I just thought maybe .?.?.’ My voice trails off. It’s no use telling her. I already have her answer.
‘You thought what? Just say it.’
