Page 94 of Beautiful Broken Love

FORTY-NINE

DEKE

I don’t know what came over me when I saw Davina at that door. For a second there, I thought she wouldn’t come.

I came to the lake house that morning to mentally prepare myself for her arrival. I missed her, and I didn’t want to waste a single second, but as the clock ticked and the sun made its descent, I figured she wouldn’t show.

I tried swallowing my pride and accepting the loss before the night could end ... but then I heard that doorbell ring, and I’d never jumped up so quickly. My heart was hammering, and I was as giddy as a kid on Christmas morning.

When I saw her, I wanted to cry, I shit you not. I’d never felt such relief, such joy.

After I finally cleaned my mess on the kitchen floor and helped her find her clothes, Davina went for a shower while I ordered dinner. When she came back down, the pizza boxes were set up in a row on the countertop, with a wine bottle freshly removed from the fridge and two cool bottles of water right next to it. She wore white shorts that I wouldn’t have exactly called shorts and a teal cropped tank top with no bra.

I fought a smile and cleared my throat as I grabbed two plates from the cabinet.

“What?” she asked, meeting me in the kitchen.

“Nothing.” I laughed anyway, like a dumbass.

“Deke, seriously? What’s funny?” she asked, her smile melting a bit.

“Nothing,” I tried again, placing the plates on the counter. “It just hit me how it was a waste of time for you to take a shower when those clothes are gonna come off again.”

She sunk her teeth into her bottom lip and leaned over the counter. “We’ll see about that.”

I jerked a thumb over my shoulder, pointing to the deck. “I’ve got a fire going if you wanna eat outside.”

“Ooohhh.Yes, please.”

I filled two wineglasses while she grabbed one of the boxes of pizza and a roll of paper towels. I eyed the fancy plates from the cabinet, realizing they were kinda pointless. I was trying so hard to impress her.

When we were on the deck, she shivered as she placed the pizza box on the four-top table.

“Yeah, it got cool out here. Let me grab a blanket.” I collected one from the basket full of blankets Whitney had handpicked herself and brought it outside, wrapping it around Davina’s shoulders as she sat.

“Thanks.” She looked up at me with a coy smile, a hand on one shoulder to keep the blanket in place.

I grabbed a slice of pizza after she did and listened to the fire crackle, sinking into my chair and basking in the moment. It was too dark to see much of anything beyond the water flowing beneath a swollen crescent moon and the silhouette of mountains.

When she took a bite of her pizza and some of the cheese drooped onto her chin, I ripped off a paper towel and handed it to her.

“What made you come?” I asked as she wiped grease from her chin.

Her eyes connected to mine, and the bright embers of the fire reflected in them. “It felt like something I needed to do.”

I nodded, biting into my pizza. “I think it was the right choice.”

She laughed. “Of course you’d think so.”

“I’m sorry about Giselle,” I said, studying her face. Her features softened as she placed her pizza on a loose paper towel.

“What did you do for her to talk that way about you?”

“I didn’t do anything,” I returned. “I just saw her for who she really was.”

“And that is?”

“A selfish person.”

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