Page 111 of Housebroke

He smiled and signed the papers, then showed Jennifer out, walking with her to her car as they discussed details.

When a car pulled up alongside Jennifer’s in the driveway, he couldn’t contain his shock.

It was Hazel.

Jennifer looked from the car to him. “I’ll talk to you soon.”

His gaze was fixed on Hazel. “Yeah. Thanks.”

Jennifer left and Hazel got out of her car, walking over to him.

“The house is for sale?” she asked.

“I accepted an offer today, actually.”

“Wow. That’s fast.”

“Yeah. How are the dogs?”

“They’re good. We’ve been at Sandy’s.”

“I called her. She told me to leave you alone until you were ready to talk. So, I tried to respect that.”

“Thanks. I don’t know if that helped when all I really needed was to talk to you.”

Relief washed over him. “I want to talk to you, too. Come inside?”

She nodded. “Okay.”

He wanted to take her hand, but he didn’t, instead followed her as she went through the front door.

Penny greeted her with wild wags and whimpers. Hazel crouched down and gave her copious amounts of love. “Penny. I’ve missed you so much.”

“She’s missed you, too.” So had he.

She got up and looked around. “Oh, wow. The house looks so different with furniture in here.”

He glanced around the house, at how the stagers had putfurniture and decor in all the rooms. Nice furniture, too. It made the house look like a home.

“Yeah, the stagers did a good job.”

“And it’s probably why the house sold so quickly. I hope you got what you wanted out of it.”

“I got three offers, but I chose the family with two kids and a dog because they wrote a sweet note telling me how the place felt like home to them.”

Her eyes welled with tears. “That’s... so nice.”

“You know this place is built for a family—for a family with dogs and kids who’ll love the pool and the yard.”

She looked over at Penny, who lay contentedly at Linc’s feet, then shuddered out an exhale. “Yeah, it’s perfect.”

He could talk bullshit about the house or he could do what was necessary to fix things with her. And maybe it wouldn’t work, but it was up to him to try.

He picked up her hand. “Hazel, I love you. I stupidly forgot to mention the most important thing when I dragged you out to that property. I want to build a life with you because I love you. And I’m so damned sorry I didn’t mention my financial situation to you earlier, because I trust you more than I’ve ever trusted anyone before in my life outside of my family. I can’t make up for how badly I screwed up. I can only hope that someday you’ll forgive me, because I would really like my future to include you. I love you. I need you. I’ve missed you so much I can barely breathe.”

Linc’s apology was everything to Hazel. His admitting fault meant more to her than she could convey. Telling her he loved her? Everything. But still, she needed more.

“I need you to understand that I can’t have you giving me the life of my dreams, Linc. I have to have control over my destiny. And I know you have all this money and, wow, that’s great and all, but I’ve taken some steps forward to be independent, and while not super successful, I’m standing on my own two feet for the first time in a long time.”

---