Page 44 of Inevitable

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Saturday, September 2nd

Claire stood in Brady’s kitchen and made deviled eggs for the tailgate party they were going to later. Today marked the start of Ragin’ Cajun Football season and she was beside herself with excitement. They had a couple of hours before they had to be at Cajun Field and she wondered if his brothers were coming here or if they were going to meet at the game.

She hoped to have enough time to start moving her things back to her house. She’d been staying with Brady since she got out of the hospital, and now that she’d mostly recovered, it was time to go home and get back to her regular routine.

Brady had been beyond generous and the last thing she wanted to do was overstay her welcome. And, if she was being honest, she needed to be independent again. If, for nothing else, just to prove to herself that she could. The last thing she wanted to happen was to let the shooting affect her life any more than it had.

Wiggling her fingers, she silently thanked the PT she’d been working with for being so relentless. If she was lucky, the nerve damage the bullets had caused would be minimal. Hearing Brady’s footsteps, she wished the same was true for him. Bracing herself, she got ready for Nurse Brady to begin his fussing. Which was about all he had to offer lately.

Another reason for her to move back to her house and get a break. Maybe if he saw her back to her old self, he would start acting like his old self, and they could get their relationship back on track. Because, as far as she was concerned, what they had going wasn’t very appealing.

She wanted relaxed, sexy Brady back, because the uptight, boring one wasn’t all that much fun to be around. They barely had been intimate in the last couple of weeks since she’d been cleared for activity and it made her incredibly sad. Maybe he wasn’t attracted to her in the same way he had been before and didn’t know how to tell her.

If there was a reset button for relationships, she sure would like to find it, because they were in need of one desperately.

A small basket slid across the counter and Claire looked up to see a thunderous expression on Brady’s face. “Why are you about to spit venom?”

“What the hell is that?” he roared.

She carefully filled the last egg and then wiped her hands on a towel. Looking into the basket, she shrugged. “My stuff that was littering your bathroom counters. I’m getting ready to go back home.”

“You are home.” He crossed his arms and ground his teeth. “No way you are going anywhere.”

She opened the box of Saran Wrap, pulled out a sheet, and hoped to God she got control of herself by the time she covered the plate of eggs. When the sheet got stuck together, she let out a little growl of frustration. “I’d like to meet the damn person who invented this. It never comes out easily. It’s like it was made to test our patience.” Raising her eyes, she looked at Brady and smirked. “Kind of like you.”

He walked over, pulled the crumpled piece of plastic out of her hands, and threw it in the trash. “That’s why there’s foil. It works much better.” He pulled the box out of the drawer and handed it to her. “Why are you trying to leave me?”

Setting the box down, she studied him. No way could he think that she was trying to leave him. She was just moving back home. Did Brady see this as her abandoning him? “Brady, I don’t want to overstay my welcome.”

“There is no damn welcome. You are home, where you should be. With me. In the house. Together.”

“Not to put too fine a point on it…but, what the hell are you talking about?” Seeing his expression made her wonder if he’d lost his mind. Did he think that when she came here after being released from the hospital, it was a permanent thing?

Because she’d never thought that.

For her, this was temporary. But seeing his expression made her believe that he was on a much different page than she was. Or perhaps a whole different book in another library, in a different city.

Brady ran his hand over his jaw and then looked up. “I thought we were moving forward in our relationship, and living together was the next logical step. I never guessed that you’d want to move out. I’d hoped it was permanent.”

Seeing his earnest expression made her feel like she had missed a whole conversation. Like the one that outlined what they were and where they were going and what all this meant. Maybe they’d had it and she was heavily medicated and forgot the whole thing. Kind of like when she drank tequila. Whole hours had disappeared from her life and maybe this was sort of like that. “Did we ever actually discuss this?”

He looked down at his feet and shrugged. “Not specifically…in so many words. It was just sort of…assumed.”

“In an alternate universe where I do not reside,” she replied. Sweet baby Jesus, this man was making plans in his mind and not letting anyone know. For a hot second, she’d actually thought she had agreed to something and had totally forgotten. But, in fact, Brady was making his plan and keeping it to his own damn self.

“Are you saying that you don’t want to live with me? Because if you are, that really sucks. You are my exact perfect other half. I don’t know about you, but I’m never going to find someone to fit me as perfectly as you. I love you, Claire.”

Pressing her hand to her heart, she felt all the protests in her brain disappear. Those were the finest words that anyone had ever spoken to her. Heartfelt and true. A tear slipped down her cheek as she stood in the middle of Brady’s kitchen and felt her heart tip into his hands. Without any effort on her part. It was as though it voluntarily moved out of her body and decided that it would be safe in his care.

For the first time in her life, she was completely vulnerable to another human being. And what that would ultimately mean, she had no idea. On a beautiful Saturday morning in September, Brady Landry stole her heart. How or what that meant, she couldn’t say. “Well…”

“I know this is a lot to take in. Just tell me that you’ll unpack that stupid plastic basket and put all your stuff back in the bathroom where it belongs. Think about it, Claire. That’s all I ask.”

Opening her arms, she waited for him so she could envelop him. It had always been the other way around and she felt like it was time to open herself to him. To make some small gesture that showed him he had her heart. God willing, he’d know what to do with it.

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