Chapter 22 #2
How does he know what I’m thinking? Can he read my damn mind ?
Mom looks back at Nick, seeming confused, then notices everyone else giving her that same look. Seriously, how do they all know what I’m going to do?
‘Fine, dear,’ Mom says to me. ‘Go ahead.’ She goes back to peeling potatoes. ‘Oh, and there’s room at the table for one more if you decide to come back with a guest.’
I get out of there before they all start teasing me about Kate. I wish they didn’t know what I’m about to do. I’m going to feel like an idiot if she turns me down, and there’s a good chance she will. We already talked about this and decided it wouldn’t work, so why am I even doing this?
Her parents’ condo is downtown and finding a parking spot is nearly impossible.
I finally find one, but it’s four blocks away.
As I’m walking to the building, I almost turn back, deciding this is a bad idea, but I’m already here, so what the hell?
If she tells me to leave, at least I’ll know that I tried. I won’t have regrets.
A security guard stops me at the entrance of the building.
I tell him I’m there to see Kate and he makes me sign in and show him ID.
It’s a fancy building and I’m sure the condos are nice, but I wouldn’t want to grow up here.
I can’t imagine being a kid growing up in a high-rise building like this in the middle of a big city.
It’d be too dangerous to go outside to play.
Even if you could, there’s no open space, no fields of grass to kick a ball around.
Now I get why Kate never did stuff like play in the snow.
I take the elevator up to her floor and walk down the long hallway until I reach her parents’ condo. I ring the bell and Kate’s dad answers. Shit. This isn’t going to go well. The guy hates me.
‘I’m here to see Kate,’ I tell him .
He laughs, and not in a funny way, but in a way that says he thinks I’m stupid for coming here. ‘You can’t be serious. This infatuation you have with my daughter needs to end. If you don’t get out of here, I’m calling the police.’
‘Who is it, dear?’ Kate’s mom says, coming up beside her dad.
‘It seems the boy Kate was staying with has decided to stalk her.’
‘I’m not stalking her,’ I say, getting angry. ‘I just want to talk to her.’
‘Kate doesn’t want to see you,’ her mom says. ‘She’s trying to get her life back on track and doesn’t need you interfering.’
‘She told you that?’ I ask. ‘That she doesn’t want to see me?’
‘She told us both that,’ Kate’s dad says. ‘She said if you stopped by, to tell you to leave.’
I’m not sure I believe him. I can’t imagine Kate telling her parents she never wanted to see me again, but maybe she did.
‘I want to see her,’ I say. ‘I want her to tell me this herself.’
‘She’s not home,’ Kate’s dad says. ‘She left over an hour ago. If you don’t believe me, go ask the doorman. She always waves at him on her way out.’
‘You need to leave her alone,’ Kate’s mom says. ‘Kate told us she made it clear to you that whatever was going on with you two was over.’
It’s true. It’s what we decided, but I didn’t think she’d tell her parents that. The fact that she did makes me think this really is over, that I don’t have a second chance with her.
‘Okay, well, I guess I’ll be going.’ I take off, down the hall to the elevator .
Now I feel like an idiot. I never should’ve come here. Kate doesn’t want a guy like me. Even the new me who’s getting his shit together isn’t good enough for a girl like her. What the hell was I thinking?
When I’m in the truck, I call up Nick.
‘Hey, how’d it go?’ he answers.
‘She wasn’t home, and she told her parents she didn’t want to see me.’
He sighs. ‘Brody, I’m sorry.’
‘It’s okay. I should’ve known better than to go over there. She needs to move on. Find someone else. I’m going back to Haydon Falls. I don’t feel like being around everyone right now.’
‘I understand. I’ll talk to Mom and let her know.’
‘Thanks. I’ll talk to you later.’
‘Hey, be careful driving back. I just heard we’re under a winter storm warning. It’s already snowing just north of here.’
‘Yeah, I’ll be careful. Bye, Nick.’
I’m in a daze as I drive back, thinking about the weeks I spent with Kate, knowing I wasn’t the only one who felt something. So why is she giving up on us? I know we told each other it was over, but it’s not what either of us wanted.
As I cross into Wisconsin, the light snow that was falling gets heavier and the wind picks up. The snow is actually good. I’ll make money plowing driveways and it’ll give me something to do so I’m not thinking about Kate.
The storm gets worse the closer I get to Haydon Falls. The wind is whipping the snow around, making it hard to see.
‘Shit,’ I mutter as my truck hits a slick spot and swerves into the other lane. Luckily, nobody was over there. I slow down and notice something in the distance. It looks like a red flag blowing around, but it’s hard to tell in the blinding snow.
‘What the hell is that?’ I get my wipers going faster so I can see.
Someone’s standing on the side of the highway, holding a red scarf in the air and waving it around. I slow down and carefully pull over onto the shoulder. I check behind me before getting out.
I run over to the person, who’s bundled up so much I can only see their eyes. ‘Need some help?’
‘Brody?’
‘Yeah. Do I know you?’
‘It’s me.’ The person lowers the scarf from around their face and my heart takes off when I see that beautiful smile, the one I never thought I’d see again.
‘Kate? What the hell are you doing out here?’
‘Coming to see you,’ she says, her teeth chattering.
She drove up here to see me? When I was down in Chicago to see her?
We need to talk about this, but not now, not when she’s freezing and we’re on the side of the highway where a car could slide into us.
‘Let’s go.’ I take her hand and head to my truck.
‘My car.’ She points to a silver sedan in the ditch.
‘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 pictures he 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.’
I turn to her. ‘I was going to ask you to move here. I was going to ask you to buy a house with me and we’d live there together while we fix it up.
I’m not ready to give up on us, Kate. I know we’re nothing alike, but somehow we work.
And I like who I am when I’m with you. You make me want to try harder and do better.
I’ll never be a neat freak and I can’t promise you I’ll stop eating sandwiches off the counter, but I’m a better man than I was before I met you.
And I don’t want to just end this if there’s even the slightest chance we could make this work.
’ I take a breath. ‘Anyway, that was it. That’s what I wanted to say. ’
‘When can we start looking?’
‘What are you talking about?’
She sits up straighter. ‘I accept your offer to be business partners.’
‘Wait—what are you saying?’ I ask, not believing she might actually do this.
She smiles. ‘I’m saying I’d love to work on another house with you. Remodeling this house is the most fun I’ve ever had.’
‘But what about your job? And Chicago?’
‘I’m tired of the city. In the time I spent here, I fell in love with Haydon Falls.
It’s quiet. Scenic. The people are nice.
And there’s no traffic. As for my job, I was dreading going back.
I used to think it was okay, but then I got a taste of what it’s like to do something I really love and decided I can’t go back and sit in an office all day, making spreadsheets. ’
‘You love making spreadsheets.’
‘For us, yes, but not for other people, and not all day.’
‘Us?’ I smile. ‘So we’re really doing this? We’re going into business together?’
‘We are.’ She holds out her hand. ‘Let’s shake on it until we can make it official.’
I shake her hand. ‘And don’t worry about the money. I know you’re broke from the lawsuit. I’ll use the profits from this house to buy the next one.’
‘There’s no lawsuit. Cam’s parents dropped it. It’s a long story. I’ll tell you later. The point is, I have money to invest in the house.’ She shivers. ‘Can we go inside? It’s freezing out here.’
‘Yeah, let’s go.’
When we’re in the house, it instantly feels like home again with Kate there. I pull her into my arms. ‘This place wasn’t the same without you.’
I kiss her, but she pushes me back. ‘Wait.’
‘Why? What’s wrong?’
‘What does this mean? Us going into business together. Are we just business partners?’
‘We’ll be living together, so I guess we’ll also be roommates.’
She looks down. ‘Oh. Okay.’
‘Kate, that was a joke.’ I tilt her face up and wait for her to look at me.
‘The reason I went to see you today was to ask you to be my girlfriend. To see if you wanted to try and make this work. If you’d told me you didn’t want to move here, I still wouldn’t have given up on us.
I was prepared to drive my ass to Chicago every weekend to see you. ’
‘Really?’ She smiles. ‘You’d really do that?’
‘I’m in love with you, Kate, and that’s not something you just give up.’
‘I love you too,’ she says, still smiling, but she’s tearing up. She holds her hand out to me. ‘The answer is yes. I accept your offer to be your girlfriend.’
‘I need more than a handshake.’ I hold her face in my hands and kiss her, which leads to us going to my room. Actually, it’s our room now. Kate’s moving in.
I’m shocked she agreed to this, and even more shocked she was driving up here to see me.
She’s giving up a lot to move to Haydon Falls, but it was her decision.
I was never going to pressure her. She’s had enough pressure from her family always telling her what to do.
Now she’s finally doing what she wants, which apparently is to be with me.
How did I get so lucky? I get to be with the girl I love and get another chance to fix up a house and maybe turn this house-flipping thing into a business. And I get to do it with Kate, which is even better.