Page 17 of Lost In Someone

“I promise to be nothing but enthusiastic.” I follow him into the kitchen.

“Bodie,” Willow shrieks, and we all wince at the decibels. “My make cakes!”

“I can see. Did you do all the icing?”

“I don’t think Mary Berry needs to worry just yet,” Merrick whispers to me. “Coffee?”

“Yes, please.” We take our coffees into the living room, and Willow wanders off to her toy box, leaving us alone. “So spill. What’s so secret I have to come here?”

“It’s not a secret,” Drew says. “I’ve finally given in, and I’ll be moving in after Christmas.”

Merrick is grinning from ear to ear. “He’s so stubborn.”

“That’s great. You’re here most of the time anyway.” What has this to do with me? Why had I to be here?

They share a glance and a soft smile. “We thought you might be interested in renting my house.”

Oh! I wasn’t expecting that. I’ve only been to it once. It’s a nice house, not too big but has much more space than the cottage. What will he do with all his furniture? I’ll have plenty of my own back once my house is sold.

“I’d love that. How much is the rent? And what about furniture? I’ve started to get offers on my house, so as soon as I sell, I’ll have my own.”

“You’ve had an offer? That’s great. But you’ve turned it down?” Merrick asks.

“There were two, neither of them good enough, though. The agent says to hold on because he expects they will come back with higher offers.”

“You could end up with a bidding war.” Merrick chuckles. “It’s like me and you, Drew.”

“I don’t think I’m going to fall in love with the buyer. Can we go and see it?”

Drew nods. “Let’s go.”

“I’m going to stay here with Willow. It’s too cold to take her out.” Merrick looks over at his daughter, who’s happily building with bright blocks.

“See you later, mate.”

We get into Drew’s truck, and he drives away. He expertly manoeuvres down the long drive toward the town. “You can keep my furniture until you get yours. I’ll decide what to do with it when I need to. As for rent, I don’t want to charge you too much. We can do mates rates, and say six hundred a month. How does that sound?”

That’s way below what he could get, but I don’t want to have him out of pocket. “That seems a bit too low.”

“Nope, that’s enough for around here, especially at this time of year. When you work out where you want to live, I’ll redo it and rent it out as another holiday house. You’re doing me a favour by keeping it occupied.”

“I’m glad you finally got your head out of your arse and agreed to live with Merrick. He’s a good guy and deserves a happy life. No one knows what’s around the corner. He knows that more than others. He wants to live life to the full—with you, Drew.”

“Yeah, I know. I didn’t want the whole town gossiping about me getting to live in the house I’ve always wanted. I know you and Ivan both thought the same. I wanted to stop the nosy busybodies from questioning Merrick.”

“It wasn’t because I thought you were a bad person, but Merrick was very fragile for a long, long time. Being hurt could’ve broken him.”

When we drive past the road Ivan lives on, I can’t help but look at his house.

“So, you and Ivan?” His lips quirk at the edges.

“He’s nice. I like him. We have a fun time together. I don’t want to hear anything negative. Not because I don’t want to believe it, but because he’s already told me.”

“He told you about Kate?”

I inhale sharply.

When he glances at me, he must see the confusion on my face. “Fuck!”

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