Page 63 of Chasing Forever
She laughs. “Good job, guys. Want me to come in there and explain how you could have gone faster?”
“No. Open the door.”
The door clicks when it unlocks, and I don’t wait for Jennie. I grab Brooks’s hand and pull him down the hall.
“Hey, wait,” Jennie says.
“Screw you, Jennie.” I walk us out the door. At Brooks’s truck, I swing him around, surprised he’s letting me guide him like a ragdoll. “What are you keeping from me?”
He stares at me, and for a moment, I don’t think he’s going to tell me. He looks tortured, his eyes filled with uncertainty and longing. “I love you, Lottie. I always have.”
Whoosh.
The ground drops out from under me. My heart leaps into my throat and every sarcastic comeback that wants to launch out locks in my throat. But instead, I wait for him to explain further, trying to keep my feet planted on the ground.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Brooks
“Will you come back to my house?” I’m not going to put my heart on the line while standing in the parking lot of a strip mall after we were basically held hostage by a teenager.
But Lottie isn’t a patient person. She pushes when she wants answers. And one day, yeah, it might drive me insane. But I wouldn’t change that part of her for anything. It just means right now, I need to be ready for her to push back.
“Okay,” she says simply.
Surprise and relief hit me. I’ve bought myself a little time to figure out how to say all this without scaring her off.
I open the passenger side door, and she climbs up, buckling her seat belt.
Once we’re on the road back to my house, I keep the radio louder than normal because I worry that if we start talking, I’ll spill it all and freak her out so badly she’ll ask me to drive her home.
But as we get closer to my place, she broaches the subject of the weather and the softball season starting. We both complain about Walker Matthews and the Wild Bull Ranch team. How they’re always competing with Plain Daisy Ranch and how one day I might be arresting Scarlett on murder charges if things don’t change.
Finally, we pull into my drive, and I turn off my truck.
Every step toward the house feels like walking into a storm made from my own emotional turmoil. We’ve come so far since Vegas, and there’s a good chance this will set us back. That she’ll go back to talking about annulment, and I’ll lose hope of ever making us more.
I open the truck door, and she accepts my hand to help her down. Mack is at the door, waiting for us, and she bends, as always, hugging him as if he’s hers.
“Mack, we met a crazy lady today. If you thought your grandma was crazy, this girl was ten times worse. I know, hard to believe.” She talks to him like a person, and I fall a little more in love with her.
“Want some beer or wine?” I ask, making my way into the kitchen.
She stands and Mack follows her, running his body along hers with every stride.
“You have wine?”
“Just in case.” I open my fridge and pull out a bottle of white wine.
“Just in case you bring a woman home?” She sits on the stool at my counter and folds her hands together, lips turned down.
I put the bottle on the countertop, and her mouth drops open. Might as well just start putting it all out there.
“This is my favorite,” she says.
“I know.”
I watch her reaction. There’s a small smile before she lifts her gaze to mine.
