Page 25 of Harboring Secrets
“Go ahead.”
Brodie popped the box open and took a slice out. “Is this your car? It’s nice.”
“It’s mine until I return it. I’ve rented it from a car service. It could have come with a driver if I wanted, but I like driving.”
“I hate it,” Brodie said after swallowing. “I know how, and I’m decent at it. I just prefer to be a passenger. I guess now that I’m staying, I’ll have to get a car again. I sold my rust bucket when I started to travel. There was no point in paying storage fees on it or having it sit in my brother’s driveway collecting dust.”
“Or you could keep me around and I’ll be your personal driver.” I shot Brodie a look to let him know that despite the light tone of my voice, I wasn’t joking.
“You would, wouldn’t you?”
“There’s not a lot I wouldn’t do for you, Brodie. I know I’ve done a shit job of convincing you of that, but maybe one day you’ll believe me.”
From my peripheral, I was aware of his gaze on me, but I drove as though I were oblivious to it. Unaffected. As though my heart didn’t beat faster whenever he looked at me. As if oxygen didn’t get thinner and my head didn’t swim whenever he was near.
“Take a right,” Brodie said before going back to his pizza.
We turned onto a street that was lined with trees. In a few weeks, when the leaves had turned fully, it was going to be a gorgeous sight.
“Pull in there.” He pointed to the driveway of a startling yellow house. I wasn’t sure what the style was called, but one side of the house was remarkably taller than the other, giving the flat roof quite a slant. The paved driveway led to a detached garage that was done in the same style as the house.
Brodie unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed out of the car, leaving me no choice but to follow him. He stood in front of my car and I followed him as he slowly walked toward the house.
“What do you think?” Brodie asked.
“Of the house? It’s very yellow.”
Another megawatt smile flashed my way. “Yeah, I know. It’s great, right?”
In my head, tires squealed as my brain came to a stop. “Wait. Is this yours?”
“The paperwork wrapped up a couple hours ago.” Brodie pulled a set of keys out of his pocket and gave them a jingle. “Want to see?”
“Yeah, I do.”
He went to the front door and slid the key in. “I realize that not everyone can close on a house in a few days, but when you’re paying up front and bypassing all the loans and shit, it gets a bit easier.”
“I wouldn’t know. I inherited my condo.”
Brodie unlocked the door and stepped inside. He toed his sneakers off by the door and I followed suit.
The inside was as bright as the outside. The kitchen was on the shorter side of the house, but it was open to the living room that had a twenty-five foot ceiling and a wall of windows. The interior was painted in sunset colors. Oranges and pinks and little splashes of yellow.
“It suits you,” I told him. “From that first moment I met you, it was like looking at the sun.”
“The owner wouldn’t budge on the price and he wouldn’t let the agent paint the house in neutral colors. This house was his artistic vision and even though he was selling it, he wanted to at least believe it would remain unchanged.”
“It’s like living in a sunset. I can see why you love it.”
Brodie looked at me, his expression soft around the eyes. He licked his lips and stuffed his hands in his pockets like he wanted to keep them away from me.
“I figured I should bring you here, you know, so you stalk the proper house.”
“Is it stalking if you invited me to do it?”
He lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “I don’t know. Is it stalking if I say you can come knock on the door?”
“I don’t think that qualifies as stalking.” The distance between us made me long to close it. I wanted to kiss him in his sunshine house. I wanted to strip him bare and watch the light bounce off his skin as he bathed in the sunlight from the wall of windows.
