Chapter 28
Brooke
“Ican’t believe this.” I look over Tobias’s new and improved backyard. “You know this is ridiculous, don’t you?”
He shrugs. “I’ve been called ridiculous by a pretty woman before.
It didn’t bother me then, and it doesn’t bother me now.
” Crouching down, He trails his fingers through the water, sucking in a breath.
“It’s still a little cold. I think we might have to wait for the heater to bring it up a little bit more. ”
“I bet the hot tub can be ready soon.” I waggle my brows, ready to soak in bubbly heat.
It’s been a week.
Hell, it’s been a fucking few months. My parents destroying all my sentimental items and shipping them to Tobias’s doorstep was just the icing on the cake.
Calling me a whore was the candle on top of the icing on the cake. And it’s not even a good cake. Definitely not caramel cake.
So—like my new therapist suggested—I’m trying to focus on the good in my life. And there’s actually plenty of it.
Starting with that hot tub that’s calling my name.
When Tobias first admitted he was putting in a pool, I assumed it was going to be a warm weather sort of upgrade.
I didn’t pay too much attention to exactly how the backyard was dug up.
It just looked like one big, chaotic mess.
Even after work on the actual pool began, I assumed the stone walls lining the perimeter were simply part of the hardscape.
Then the team working twelve-hour days began building walls on top of them.
Because it turns out there’s no way Uncle Tobias would have his beloved nieces and/or nephews only be able to swim in the summer. No, no. He wanted to have a year-round lure drawing them in.
So instead of a pretty, inground, outdoor pool replacing the deck that was once on the back of the house, there’s a fully indoor space, sporting an atrium style ceiling, large glass windows and doors, a fully functional outdoor kitchen, and tumbled travertine flooring.
It genuinely is ridiculous.
And I’ve never seen anything prettier in my whole life.
Tobias saunters to the elevated hot tub situated at one end of the pool. He leans forward, reaching over the wide ledge surrounding it to test the water. The grin on his face tells me all I need to know.
“I’ll be back.” I’ve got so many knots in my shoulders and back from stress and sadness. Imagining soaking in that hot tub gave me life while I watched the tanker trucks keep showing up to fill the pool.
“Where are you going?” Tobias’s steps carry a little swagger as he comes my way.
“I’m going to put on my suit because I want to be in that hot tub.” I’ve been pretty obvious about my excitement. There are probably even nose prints left on the glass separating the great room and the pool room, evidence of how close I was watching the filling process.
Tobias stops right in front of me. “You don’t need a suit to get in that hot tub, Brooklyn Marie.”
A little shiver snakes down my spine at the way he rumbles my name, bringing a healthy dose of anticipation with it. “I’m pretty sure your brothers don’t want to go out for a walk and get an eyefull of my bare ass.”
“That better be true, but it doesn’t matter. They wouldn’t be able to see a thing.” He tips his head toward the windows surrounding us. “It’s one-way glass.”
I snort. “Didn’t want your brothers to know how often the twins are here?”
He shakes his head. “Didn’t want my brothers to know how many times I convince you to get naked in the hot tub with me.”
I laugh as he pulls me close, nosing along my neck. “I’m sure Titus and Mariah would be thrilled to hear of your plans to sully the pool you built for their kids.”
“You know damn well I didn’t build this pool for the twins.
” Tobias’s voice is low in my ear. “I built this pool for you.” He tips his head, bringing his gaze to mine.
“Just like the house. I didn’t know if you would ever see it, but if you did, I wanted it to be a place you’d be willing to call home. ”
Sometimes being with Tobias feels like whiplash. Not because of him, but because of me. What I’ve become conditioned to expect and what he actually offers are so vastly different, there are moments I struggle to move from what my brain thinks is coming, to what really does.
Now is one of those times.
I spent years with a man who bent and twisted and compressed me until I fit into his life exactly the way he wanted.
He did it slowly. Carefully. Made claims he never intended to fulfill.
Promises he knew he wouldn’t keep. Led me down a path that made me smaller and smaller.
By the time I realized what happened, it was too late.
I’d been reduced and distorted into a shadow of myself.
And the only power shadows have is to hide the truth.
But in front of me now is a man who thought of me even when I wasn’t here. Made room for me even though I might never fill the space. He chose me when I wasn’t an option.
And those are only a few of the reasons I’ve gone and fallen in love with him.
“Shit.” I suck in a breath as it hits me. Hard and fast and packed with so much truth there's no way I can deny it. “Damn it. You freaking went and made me fall in love with you.”
Tobias goes very still, his brows climbing up his forehead. “I’m gonna be honest. Making you love me was always part of the plan.” He chuckles. “But I didn’t expect you to sound so annoyed by it.”
“It wasn’t supposed to happen.” I give his chest a little poke. “But you had to go and make it impossible not to.” I scoff when I start thinking about it. “I mean, you gave me a puppy the first time I saw you.”
How could I have ever thought I’d be able to keep my feelings in check when faced with a puppy gifter? Anyone would have struggled to maintain lines of separation under those circumstances.
Tobias’s laughter gets louder. “That part wasn’t planned.
” He pulls me closer, smile so wide it’s practically blinding.
“I’m going to have to thank Titus for being a reasonable parent and only taking Betty.
” His head tips to where Bruno and Copper sit on the other side of the glass doors leading inside.
“And Bruno might need a few new toys for his part in the success of Operation Get Brooke to Love Me.”
I snort. “You gave it a name?”
He grabs me around the waist, hauling me up to sit on the elevated edge of the hot tub. “The name is a recent development.” He leans in, lips claiming mine. “Even more recent than your reluctant admission to loving me.”
“It wasn’t reluctant.” I try not to smile, and fail. “It was…begrudging.”
Tobias’s head tips back on a laugh. “Begrudging?” He grabs my feet, spinning me toward the hot tub. “Get naked, and we’ll see how begrudging you are.”
“You poor thing.” Maren drops her container of dessert bars onto the counter and heads straight for where Mariah is sitting in the great room of the house she shares with Titus. “You look miserable.”
I didn’t want to point that out, but she kinda does. Mariah is always radiant and happy and filled with positivity. Tonight she looks really, really uncomfortable. Probably because she has two humans inside her who are getting bigger and bigger every day.
“Thanks so much.” Her tone is sarcastic, but she’s still smiling. “I’m just over it, I think.” She shifts around, wincing at the movement. “I think all the women who claim to love being pregnant are full of shit.”
Maren wrinkles her nose as she takes in Mariah’s swollen ankles and gigantic belly. “Yeah, you definitely aren’t making it look like fun.”
“I’m sure it will be worth it.” Mariah hugs her stomach, the smile on her face turning wistful. “Hopefully once they come out I’ll forget all about this.”
“Don’t say that.” Maren looks horrified. “We all know your husband is going to try to talk you into having more. If you forget how terrible it is, you’re totally going to fall for it.”
“Probably.” Mariah seems to tear up a little, but her smile doesn’t fade. “Because he’s going to be such a good dad.”
“I was thinking mostly because he’s really hot, but sure. Good dad.” Maren plops down onto the couch next to Mariah, watching as her belly starts to move in spots, shifting around like the blobs of wax in a lava lamp. “It’s so freaky.”
Mariah’s face pinches as she presses against a spot on her side, managing to smooth out one of the weird lumps she’s explained is usually a butt or foot. “Is this your way of telling me our kids are never going to play together?”
“I don’t even want to think about having kids.” Maren sinks deeper into the sofa, yawning. “Dealing with my sister is more than enough to keep me occupied.”
“I don’t know how your mom handled having kids so far apart.” Mariah shakes her head. “I can’t imagine doing this again in twenty years.”
“I definitely wouldn’t recommend it.” Maren turns to me, shifting the conversation the way she usually does when her mother or sister come up. “What about you, Brooklyn Marie?” She smirks. “You gonna let Tobias put a baby in you?”
“Eww. Why did you have to say it like that?” Like Maren, I haven’t really thought about having kids. There’s been too much going on. But if I had, hearing her call it ‘having a baby put in me’, would have jerked those thoughts to a quick stop.
“Just answer the question.” Maren stretches out her legs, propping both socked feet up on the coffee table. “Babies, or no babies?”
I purse my lips, pondering. “I don’t know.” I’ve only just started wrapping my head around loving Tobias. Considering procreation isn’t something my brain is capable of tackling just yet.
“Okay.” Maren wiggles her brows at me. “You gonna marry him?”
I drop into one of the comfy chairs where I spend every girls’ night. “Why? You looking for another opportunity to smash cake in Trevor’s face?”
“That would actually be great, because I feel like it’s been too long since I’ve been able to show him exactly how I feel.” Maren smiles. “Though I do take great pleasure in waving at him every time I walk past his office.”
Maren is taking full advantage of the safety being my assistant offers her.
There’s no way Trevor will ever come after me the way he would have gone after his brothers if it had been one of them who hired her.
Thanks to his help navigating the lawsuit, he knows more of what I’ve been through than anyone besides Tobias, and is a little protective of me because of it.
So, for the most part, his attitude toward Maren has become mostly neutral.
And that seems to annoy her.
I laugh, shaking my head. “You’re a menace.”
“I’m a menace he can’t fire.” She points at me. “And you’re avoiding the question.”
“How come you’re the one always asking questions and never answering them?” Even though I work with Maren every day, and have a girls’ night with her and Mariah every other Saturday, I still know very little of her life outside of work. “It doesn’t really seem fair.”
“Trust me, your lives are way more interesting than mine.” She raises her brows, lifting them till they disappear under the heavy fall of her bangs.
“Do I need to start shopping for another fancy dress, or are you just going to live in sin forever?” She lifts up both hands, palms toward me. “No judgment. I’m all for sinning.”
This question is actually a little easier to answer than the last one, but I don’t feel entirely ready to tackle it just yet. “I’m not entirely opposed to getting married.”
Definitely not a collection of words I would have expected to be saying after the way my last attempt at marriage unfolded. But I didn’t really want to marry Matt. I was simply trapped with no other options.
“What about you?” Mariah turns to Maren. “You think you will ever get married?”
Maren snorts. “Let’s be real. Do you think there’s a man who can handle me?”
Mariah looks at me, and somehow I know we’re both thinking the same thing.
It would take someone with a pretty strong personality to handle Maren.
Somebody who isn’t afraid of her and is willing to stand up to her when she’s wrong.
Who respects a backbone and is a little turned on by snark and attitude.
Someone who can be an asshole when he needs to be, but deep down is a good person.
Anything less, and she’ll plow over him like a runaway train.
A man like that exists, but I’m not pointing it out. I don’t know where Mariah keeps her cake knife, but Maren might, and I don’t want to be the one who gets shanked with it.
Mariah looks over the coffee table, her lower lip pushing out. “I thought you guys were bringing snacks.”
“We did. We just got so distracted by your current state, we forgot about them.” Maren jumps to her feet, going straight to the kitchen to collect the treats she brought. “In related news, if you want to induce labor, I heard walking can help.”
I force myself up even though I’m already crazy comfortable. “What if we just feed her jalapenos instead?” I pad to the kitchen to get the bag of goodies I brought. “Walking sounds like so much work.”
I might have spent too much time in the pool today, and my muscles are feeling it.
I’m still gonna spend too much time in it again tomorrow though.
The salt water feels so good against my skin, and there’s just something so calming about floating around, listening to the waterfall built into the area where the hot tub and pool meet.
“Good point.” Maren carries in her portion of the food while I follow behind with mine. “What if we just stuff our faces and then pass out instead?”
“I think that sounds amazing.” Mariah reaches up, wiggling her fingers when she sees what Maren has. “Gimme.”
Maren hands off the special crunchy, caramelly bar things she makes as she sits back on the couch. Her eyes move over Mariah’s belly as our friend digs into her favorite salty-sweet treat. “What are we gonna do once you have those babies? Girls’ night isn’t going to be the same.”
Mariah shrugs. “Guess you’re just gonna have to have pool parties at Brooke’s house.”
She says it so casually. Brooke’s house. Like I have some real claim to the place.
It’s weird. On paper, I don’t actually have that much more control over my life here than I did in California. I live in Tobias’s house. I drive his SUV. I don’t pay a single bill, and I work for his company. But never once have I felt controlled. Like my voice didn’t matter. Like I was trapped.
A hostage.
A smile takes over my face as I look at Maren, the love I have for the man waiting for me at home growing just a little more. “We can totally have pool parties at my house.”