Page 38 of Wreck Me

He shook his head. “Let’s not. This has been a big morning for her, and she ate a lot of lemon bars.”

They ate lunch in the kitchen, keeping their voices low and making small talk about the dogs and things in the news. When Ginny had finished off the last bite of the most delicious pasta she had ever eaten, she said, “I guess your motherwaspretty tired.”

“I guess so. There’s no particular time I’m supposed to have her back. Do you mind if we let her sleep a bit longer?”

“Fine with me,” Ginny said, but her insides were squirming. What were they supposed to do together till his mother woke up? The day before they’d been busy prepping for his mother’s visit. Now, it was just them and a quiet house. An idea came to her. “I was…uh…watching that movie,Up, when I was outside. I'm only about halfway through though. Want to finish watching it with me?”

He agreed and they moved to the living room.

“I don’t have the greatest seating,” Ginny said, looking at the sad facsimiles she’d found in place of the magnificent orange floral wingbacks in the photo album. “I haven’t been able to find anything like the chairs your mom had.”

“That’s because she still has them,” Nico said, his smile broad. “They’re in her nursing home room as we speak.”

Ginny brightened. “Really? I’m so glad. I was worried they’d been left on a street corner somewhere.”

They each sat in one of Ginny’s embarrassingly uncomfortable chairs, but when she pulled out her phone, it was clear they weren’t going to be able to watch such a small screen together that way.

“Do you have a TV or laptop?” he asked.

She grimaced. “Just a desktop, and its right across the hall from where she’s sleeping.”

“Uh…how about we sit over there?” He pointed to Ginny’s love seat, barely big enough for two.

Ginny swallowed. “Okay.”

She moved to the loveseat, and he squeezed in beside her. She had a sudden sensation that he might throw his arm around her, but he kept his hands crossed over his lap. The warmth of him against her right side—from her shoulder to her knee—disoriented her.

The movie started up right where she’d left off. He pointed at the screen. “Why do I have an urge to smash your phone into the bed of a rented Ford 150?”

She forced a giggle. “Sorry about that. I was a little upset.” She mentally braced for him to rattle off how much it had cost him or let her know in some passive aggressive way how rude she had been.

He pressed his hands into the tops of his thighs. “It was an expensive lesson for me, but I deserved it. I was trying to manipulate you. I’m the one who’s sorry.”

Shoved up so close to him, Ginny had to lean left and crane her neck to look at Nico after he said that.This man was sorry?Was he pulling her leg?But his eyes blinked earnestly at her, and his full lips were slack in expectation of how she might reply. She remembered how he hadn’t teased her about being afraid of pain and how thoughtful he was toward the dogs. Themental reel of him kneeling before his mother played through her thoughts again too. She couldn’t avoid it now; the evidence was stacking up. She had totally misread this man from the start. An actual heartbeat beneath his expensive silk suits.

The realization left Ginny speechless for a moment, but, on the screen, an old man and a young boy walked a floating house to its new location. She took advantage of the diversion. “If only we could attach balloons to this house and float it somewhere else.”

Beside her, she felt Nico’s muscles tense. “Wait. You’d do that?”

She shrugged. “If physics weren’t physics, I’d love a balloon ride to Venezuela. I’m not sure I want to know what Jack would say if he could talk, but Mick and Annie would be a hoot to chat with.”

“No, I mean, you’d be okay with movingthishouse somewhere else?”

She paused the movie. “Sure. It’s not like I love living between an empty lot and a tear down. This street is depressing. It’s the house I love.”

Nico jumped up from the love seat so forcefully the floorboards creaked. “But I can do that!” His long arms gesticulated with kinetic energy. “What kind of location would you like? Cute neighborhood? Wide open spaces?”

Her lips pursed with doubt. “You really think you could move this house without damaging it? It’s pretty old.”

“People do it all the time with bigger and older houses than this. I promise you we can move it safely. And it will be a lot cheaper than a million dollars.”

She blinked up at him, still not quite believing. “Okay, then.”

He clapped his hands loudly, then brought a finger to his lips, remembering too late his sleeping mother. “So, what would youwant?” he said more quietly. “I already have a few lots here and there zoned residential.”

“I’d go for the wide-open spaces one. Ocean view if a girl is allowed to dream.”

Nico buried his hands in his hair and rolled his eyes to the ceiling as he let out an exasperated breath “Why didn’t we think of this sooner?”

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