29. Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Twenty-Nine
brOOKE: Thank you for completing the purchase of the building and working with Danny at Quinn Construction to get a project manager in place immediately.
CODY: Hi
CODY: How are you?
CODY: I’m excited the building is yours and renovations are starting. You’re on your way!
She ignored the first two texts and stuck to business.
brOOKE: I need the project manager’s number so I can make some priority changes.
CODY: You signed off on the project, including completion dates for each stage of the renovation.
brOOKE: I know. But I need one of the apartments upstairs completed by May instead of the end of July.
CODY: Why?
Why do you think? She wanted to scream at him.
brOOKE: Because I need a place to live when school ends and I want to have time to furnish and decorate before I officially move in, come June.
CODY: You have a place. Here. On the ranch you own.
brOOKE: I don't belong there anymore.
CODY: You will always belong here.
CODY: Please Brooke. Don’t do this.
brOOKE: It’s already done. I own the building. I want the three-bedroom place.
CODY: You’d get more rent for it than the two-bedroom units.
brOOKE: I need an office, so I can work from home, and a guest room so my friends can visit.
Lie. She needed the spare room for the baby.
Mindy Sue would happily bunk on the couch or even with her. They’d done it a lot over the years.
CODY: Is that what you really want?
I can’t have what I really want.
brOOKE: Yes.
CODY: I will make it happen.
brOOKE: Just give me the guy’s number and I’ll call him and do all the follow up.
CODY: I’ll take care of it.
She knew what he was doing. He wanted her to go through him for updates and changes and whatever came up on the project. He was still protecting and taking care of her.
She appreciated it, but at some point, he needed to let her fly on her own, because he had someone else who depended on him now.
brOOKE: I can take care of myself.
CODY: I know. Just let me do this.
brOOKE: Don’t you have enough to do?
CODY: I always have time for you. That hasn’t changed. It never will.
CODY: I wish you’d come home so we can figure this out.
brOOKE: You already did and put a ring on it.
CODY: It doesn’t have to be like this.
brOOKE: For now, it does. But I’ll be back in town in June and it will be different again.
CODY: What do you mean?
brOOKE: We can’t be what we were, so we’ll have to be different.
brOOKE: See you later
She wondered if he’d remember that he’d said goodbye to her in August and she’d reminded him that they were friends, so it was never goodbye, only see you later.
Cody stared at the final message from Brooke as he sat in his office downtown and a tear slipped down his cheek. This was the first real conversation they’d had since she left after Christmas.
She wanted him to know though things looked dire, they were still friends.
Those simple three words meant so much to him. His heart ached with longing for her and what they’d shared in the past.
Was she still seeing whoever she was having the relationship with?
None of his business. Even if it killed him to think of her with someone else.
He didn’t want to think about how different things would be going forward, both of them with someone else. That was too heartbreaking to imagine. He could only hope that one day soon they’d find their way and things would be okay again between them.