Page 22 of My Mistake To Make

‘Until we get in there, and you tell me what can be saved, repaired, or replaced, I don’t know my longer-term plans for the house. I would like to be able to move in there as soon as possible, even if it’s still a work in progress.’

‘But why here?’ I need to know. It’s burning me up inside, not understanding why a woman like her would choose here.

‘Not your bloody business, Doug. You don’t own the town, and you don’t have the final say on who gets to live here. This ismyhouse, andIwant to fix it up. Are you going to take the job or not? Because I have a very nice amount of money sitting in my bank account, ready to pay for the work. If you don’t want it, I’m sure I can find someone else who does.’

She glares at me, demanding an answer, and it would be bullshit to say the fierceness in her expression doesn’t make my dick twitch. How can I be so irritated and so attracted to someone at once?

‘I have jet lag, Doug, so I do not have the patience for this. Do you want the job or not?’

I remember my motivation. My love for this house is a huge part of it, but Bowie is the real reason I need to do this. I have to suck it up and prioritize. This house isn’t mine, never was, never will be. My girl though will be all mine, and I need to do everything I can to make it happen.

‘I want it.’

‘Good. Now can we get inside and actually figure all this out, because I don’t want to waste any more of my day arguing with you when I don’t even understand why we’re arguing?’

She holds out the key to me and nodding, I take it and let us both inside.

Doug The Dick

Cara

He may be niceto look at, but he is ridiculously infuriating. Part of being as risk-averse as I am is avoiding confrontation, but he pissed me off with his high and mighty attitude. I have never in my whole life been pushed so far as to snap at someone the way I just did. I’m very much a rollover and accept defeat kind of girl, but this man, thisbloodyman, apparently, brings something else out in me.

We walk through the house, room by room. Some of it’s worse than I thought, some better than I expected. Doug talks me through what he can save, what will need repairs, and what is going to have to be ripped out and replaced. I listen to him talk, confident in his ability and experience, and his smooth southern drawl lulls me into a weird headspace. This ismyhouse. This might be the place where I grow old. This is the house where my mum grew up.

I stop dead still at the realization, and reach up my hand to my throat, the lump there too big to swallow.

‘You okay?’

Doug touches my arm softly to get my attention, and I raise my gaze up to meet his.

‘Yeah,’ I breathe. ‘I just can’t believe this is really mine.’

‘It’s a beautiful house. Even in the state it’s in now, you’re very lucky to call this place home.’

I know. I know I am, but it’s more than the five bedrooms, the two bathrooms, and the huge potential for the massive space downstairs. It’s not just the fireplaces in every room, complete with the original mantels. It’s not just the beautiful wraparound porch or the balcony to the front on the first floor overlooking the beautiful view. It’s so much more than the heart pine construction and original metal shingles that Doug credits for keeping the house in better shape than it should be. This house is not just part of the history of this town—it’s part of my history.

It's where my mum was born and raised, where she learned to be the wonderful mum I treasured. Where she learned to cook up a storm and where she met and fell in love with my dad while he worked here. Without this old house, I wouldn’t be here, and for the first time in my whole life, I feel safe in my surroundings. I belong here. I don’t know how when I’ve only been here a day, but I know this is where I’m supposed to be.

‘Can we go upstairs?’ I ask quietly, trying so hard not to cry in front of this man who already thinks I’m an idiot.

‘Of course.’ He nods toward the main hallway and steps onto the bottom step.

‘Oh, wait. Are they, I mean, can we go up them?’

‘Of course, we can.’ He steps up another one, and I hesitate. ‘Look, I’ll go first.’

‘Yeah, but you’re a big guy. What’s to say you’re not going to be the stick that breaks the camel’s back?’

‘Jesus Christ.’ He looks up to the heavens and then back to me. ‘Cara, they’re safe, I swear. I wouldn’t put you in danger.’

He holds out a hand to me, and for some reason, a reason I cannot fathom, no matter how hard I search, I trust that he’s telling the truth. Nobody, not a single person in my life, not my parents, not Jamie, has ever been able to completely convince me that I’m safe, but his strong arms, his big hands, the sincerity in his voice and his eyes, and maybe the fact that I know he doesn’t like me, so he has no reason to lie, all makes me believe him, it makes me trust him, and without another thought, I place my hand in his and take the first safe step of my life.

Stepping out of myhouse, I see the sun starting to lower over the town I’m hoping to call home. I inhale deeply and release it as a sigh.

The house is perfect. All I saw amongst the cobwebs and broken floorboards was perfection. I saw a bedroom that I knew was my mum’s. I felt her there—her silliness, her huge heart. Itall came from here, from this town, this house. That woman I knew so well, this is where her story began.

‘I was conceived here,’ I say softly before dropping to sit on the sturdier-than-expected porch steps. Doug takes a moment, I assume to process my confession, then sits next to me. ‘I didn’t just pluck Forest Falls from thin air, and I didn’t stumble on this old house and decide it was the one. I inherited it from my grandmother.’

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