“Do you love her?” his sister challenged.
“Back off, Katie,” he growled.
“That’s a yes,” Chad said. “And I’m betting you told her. So what happened, bro?”
“I told her. Kat spent her entire life alone. I can’t imagine what that is like because I’ve always had you,” Brody said, looking around the table at his siblings. “I just wanted her to know that I cared.”
“And then what happened?” Kat asked, her expression serious.
“She left,” he said.
“You let her go?” Chad demanded. “Just like that?”
“What would you have done?” Brody said, not bothering to mask his frustration. “Follow her and demand that she love me back?”
Chad frowned. “When you put it that way, it sounds a little creepy, you’re right.”
“And it wouldn’t work. Making demands,” Lena said. “Give her time. And just keep loving her. Without asking for anything in return.”
Brody swore he saw Chad grasp Lena’s hand under the table and give it a squeeze.
“Lena’s right,” Katie said. “You need to prove that you’re going to stay in her life. No one else ever has. You need to show her that you will.”
“Yeah, man, what the hell are we doing here talking about my memory with the sun barely peeking over the mountains when the woman you love is upstairs?” Josh said, pushing back from the table. “For all I know, I might forget everything again tomorrow. My short-term memory isn’t important.”
“Yes, it is.” Katie stood and wrapped her arms around her brother. “I didn’t want to start planning my wedding until we knew if there was a chance you’d get your memory back. I’d hoped you would remember the day.”
“No guarantees,” Josh said.
Brody watched his family exchange hugs and then head for the door. He’d do anything for these people. He’d known that for a long time. And he wanted to add Kat to that group. But he couldn’t push her to feel something when she wasn’t ready. His family was right. He needed to give her time. And even then there were no guarantees.
But waiting didn’t mean he had to avoid her. He could go to her now. And heck, maybe find out her favorite color before she flew across the country.
After taking the stairs two at a time, Brody reached the door to his little sister’s childhood room and paused. Inside, he heard Kat’s voice. He picked out the words “I understand” and “good-bye.” There was a beat of silence and he raised his hand to knock.
And then sobbing.
He froze, recognizing the choked-up gasping for air that accompanied free flowing tears. He’d held his sister while she wept after their father died. In the aftermath of Josh’s accident, he’d stood on the other side of the hospital door waiting for his brother’s tears to fade, knowing Josh wouldn’t want an audience while he cried.
Brody knew the sounds. But he didn’t know if Kat wanted comfort or if crying in front of others embarrassed her.
You don’t know enough about me to love me.
In the moment, he’d wanted to tell her that love didn’t have strict standards. There wasn’t a numbered checklist floating around that demanded he know X, Y, and Z before offering his heart. He knew that her compassion drove him nearly as wild as her Miss Perfect looks. And he was in awe of her drive to succeed.
Standing out here, listening to her cry, he had to admit there were things he didn’t know. But he knew she’d stood by him when he was feeling ripped apart by a lost kid on a mountain. She didn’t need to know his favorite color before offering comfort.
Taking a chance, he raised his hand and knocked. “Kat, it’s Brody. Can I—”
“Just a minute,” she called, her voice wavering. He heard a deep breath, as if she was struggling to hold back tears.
The door opened. With one hand on the knob, Kat faced him, tears still flowing over her cheeks. But apart from her red eyes, she looked damn near perfect. Wearing the same shirt he’d used to bind her hands that first night in the hotel, a skirt that hugged her curves, and boots, every inch of her screamed “City doctor.”
“Just the person I needed to see.” Kat forced a smile, her eyes brimming with tears.
“Kat,” he said gently, wishing he could wrap his arms around her. But the tension flowing from her, filling the space between them like an imaginary barricade, sent a clear message. Stand Back! He had a feeling if he reached for her, she’d break away.
“What happened?” he asked.
“I didn’t get her,” she said. “Brianna, the little girl who asked me if I would adopt her.”
“They said no? To you?” Shock filled his voice. “You would be a great parent. And you know better than anyone what she is going through. I thought the goal was to get kids out of foster care.”
“It is. And Brianna is getting a forever home. Just not with me. The family who adopted Brianna’s younger sister found out about her and offered to take Brianna too. The state always tries to keep siblings together when they can. And it’s the best thing for her.” Her voice wavered over the words. “But I had already started to think about her as mine.”
Kat’s grip tightening on the doorknob, she sucked in a deep, shaky breath. “I was going to make the second bedroom hers. Paint the walls her favorite color. I thought we could turn my apartment into a home. Together.”
He reached out and took her hand, his heart breaking for her. “You can still do that. There are a lot of children out there who need a home.”
“I know.” Kat closed her eyes, tipping her head back. “Logically, it makes sense. But I wanted quiet, sullen Briana. I thought . . . I thought we could help each other.”
One more person ripped out of her life. She’d taken a risk, opening herself to the idea of caring for that little girl. And it had been taken away from her.
Part of him wanted to shout, I want to build a home with you. And heck, I want to love you.
“There’s more,” she said. “When the social worker called, I was on the other line with Dr. Westbury.”
“Josh is out, isn’t he?”
She nodded. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. We had a family meeting this morning. We’re all so damn grateful his memory is coming back that it doesn’t matter if he’s part of the trial. I’ll make sure he stays on the meds and follows your instructions—”
“I’m leaving, Brody.”
Leaving. That one word cut into him. The thought of her alone and hurting on the other side of the country . . .
His jaw tightened. One more tear and he’d scoop her up, carrying her back to his room.
I want to take care of you. Erase your pain.
“Kat.” But what could he say that would make her stay? He’d told her how he felt about her last night. And the words had pushed her away. She needed proof. He had to show her, dammit.
“I called a cab company in Salem,” she said, stepping back into the room.
“I can drive you,” he said, the words straddling the line between command and straight up begging to spend more time with her.
“The driver is on his way.” Her green eyes locked with his and he saw a flash of wanting so heartbreaking it tore at him. It was as if he was staring into the eyes of the little girl who’d walking into the Falls Hotel and had her hopes crushed.
And now she was leaving again. Alone. He’d never felt so powerless to help someone he cared about.
“Stay. One more day, Kat. Don’t leave like this,” he said. “Let me help you.”
“You don’t need to worry about me. I’ll be fine, Brody.” She drew the door closed, disappearing behind the wooden barrier.
Brody rested one hand on the wood. “Yes, I do need to worry about you. I love you, Kat,” he murmured. “And I’m going to do whatever it takes to prove it to you.”
KAT
STARED OUT the window, watching the familiar sights of Independence Falls slip away. The driver stopped at a red light in front of A Slice of Independence, and a pang of regret joined her in the cab’s backseat. There were so many new places along Main Street that she hadn’t explored yet. She’d walked into town determined to hold the past against this place. She’d opened up to the people—more than she’d planned. But she stopped short of looking around this quaint small town set against breathtaking mountains and acknowledging that Independence Falls had changed.
The light turned green and the cab sped down the two-lane road, leaving the downtown in the background. It might be beautiful and new in many ways, but she still couldn’t escape the feeling that this place hated her. And today it felt as if Independence Falls was determined to prove it, saddling her with one rejection after another.
Well screw you Oregon, she thought. This time I’m not coming back.
Kat closed her eyes, and a mental image of Brody holding the cab door open, leaning down and looking her in the eyes, appeared. His last words—I meant what I said last night, Kat. I’m in love with you and I want you in my life—echoed in her mind. The regret snuggled in, wrapping around her like an old friend.
Opening her eyes, she stared out at wide-open spaces sprinkled with farmhouses. After all these years, she should feel at home with loneliness. But knowing that she was moving farther and farther away from Brody, that Brianna wasn’t part of her future in New York . . . For the first time since she’d left for college, her vision of her future appeared bleak.
I wonder what Brody’s looks like?
Filled with family and work he loved. Her bottom lip trembled. It was like driving away from every home she’d ever lived in growing up. The people who stayed still had each other. And she was alone.
Except this time the choice was hers.
What if she’d made the wrong one? What if her one chance at love and family was behind her in a dilapidated farmhouse on the outskirts of Independence Falls?
Impossible. The numbers didn’t add up. It took more than a few days to find a love that would last forever. And she’d already had her fill of fleeting feelings.
Chapter 20
TWENTY-FOUR HOURS LATER Kat stared at her bedroom ceiling wishing for jet lag. She wanted to disappear into sleep, leaving her empty apartment behind. This space—her space—had never felt so lonely.
It’s your own fault for picturing Brianna in the spare bedroom.
Pushing that thought away before the tears started flowing again, she closed her eyes and focused on the familiar sounds outside her window. Taxicabs honked and sirens echoed against the tall buildings. But the noise felt distant, so unlike the warm, bustling feeling of the Summers family farmhouse. There was always someone coming or going, the door slamming behind the siblings as they moved through the large kitchen.
“I don’t miss the noise,” she said, throwing back the bedding in disgust. When she’d first moved to this apartment, she had loved the quiet, empty space. And the fact that it was all hers. After sharing other people’s bedrooms and living in dorms during her long years in school, she’d craved space.
She’d wanted this life. She’d worked so hard to build it.
And now it felt empty.
The wall-mounted phone in the hall rang, interrupting her pity party. Grateful for the interruption, even if it was the doorman mistakenly calling her apartment to let her know the neighbors’ food delivery had arrived, she raced to the hall.
“Dr. Arnold?” the doorman said. “Brody Summers is here.”
“What?” Kat leaned her back against the wall, the phone cord wrapping around her front. “Brody is here?”
“Yes.” The doorman hesitated. “Should I send him up?”
Her back ran against the wall as she sank to the ground, still clutching the phone. It wasn’t possible. No one had ever come after her. Foster parents, friends, the men she’d casually dated—they’d all let her go, allowing her to gather her fears and run away.
Everyone except Brody Summers.
Kat stared at her bare legs in shock. Brody Summers had flown across the country to see her.
“Dr. Arnold?” the doorman said, his tone uneasy. “I can send him away—”
“No.” Kat scrambled to her feet, picturing her sixty-something doorman eyeing tall, broad-shouldered Brody and wondering how he was going to get him out of the building lobby. “Send him up.”
“He’s on his way.”
Of course. Brody had probably headed for the elevators the moment her doorman revealed her floor number. Kat dropped the phone and raced to her front door. Hand on the knob, she glanced down at her gray tank top and underwear.
A knock sounded on the door. “Kat?” Brody’s deep voice reached through metal barrier. She turned the dead bolt and cracked the door open.
Brody. Seeing him standing in her hall, filling her doorway with his I-can-save-you muscles, her hope rose up, thrusting her fears aside. His intense brown eyes met hers through the narrowing opening.
“You’re here,” she said, unable to mask the awe in her voice. “In New York.”
“I took the red-eye.” He smiled, but the intensity in his brown eyes didn’t falter. Not for a second. She saw the wanting, and the relief, as if he’d been counting down the minutes until he could see her again.
He rested one hand on her door frame. The other held a small duffel. “Are you going to let me in?”
“I don’t have any pants on,” she said.
“Good,” he said. “I’ve been picturing you without them for the last six hours. It made the flight damn uncomfortable.”
“I can imagine.”
“Let me in, Kat.”
Stepping back, she opened the door. Brody stepped into her narrow hallway, dropped his duffel on the floor and gathered her in his arms. And just like that the loneliness that had permeated her apartment since she’d arrived home slipped away.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” she murmured, her hands wrapping around his powerful biceps as if she needed solid proof that he wasn’t a figment of her imagination. “Why are you here?”
“I missed you.”
She blinked, her mind quickly calculating the hours. “But it has only been—”
His mouth claimed hers, momentarily silencing the internal calculations.
Brody drew back, his forehead touching hers. “I missed you, Kat.”
“So you flew across the country?” The disbelief seeped back in as the shock faded. “Just to see me? How long are you staying?”
Lowering his mouth, he glided his tongue over her, tasting her. “I don’t know yet. A few nights. I couldn’t escape the thought of you here alone.”
Her body stiffened, her back pressing against the door. “You flew across the country to save me from being lonely?”
Brody stepped back, offering space as if he could sense her old fears rushing in from all sides. But he kept his gaze fixed on hers. “After you left, I got called out to rescue a hiker with a sprained ankle. The entire time I was out there doing the work I love, carrying that woman down the trail, I thought of you.”
Kat crossed her arms in front of her chest, wishing she’d told the doorman to keep Brody downstairs while she put on pants. She wanted to tell him that she hadn’t been wallowing in loneliness. But that would be a lie.
“You don’t need to save me, Brody.” And that was the truth. She would have found a way through on her own. She always did.
“No, I don’t,” he said. “I didn’t drop everything and race to the airport as soon as the hiker was on her way to the hospital because I thought you needed someone. I came because I love you, Kat. And I’ll do whatever it takes to prove it to you.”
You’re here. Kat pressed her lips together. She wished she could say that was enoug
h. But she’d spent years building her defenses. Even if she wanted to let him in, even if she wanted to love him, she couldn’t tear the walls down just like that.
“I’m glad you came,” she said, lowering her arms and taking a step back.
Brody smiled. “Straight from one helluva long hike. I drew a few stares when I landed in New York wearing muddy work boots and dirty jeans.”
She let out a laugh, allowing the weighed emotions, the ones that pushed her toward panic and a flashing, neon exit sign, to fade into the background. For now. “It wasn’t your boots, Brody. It’s you. But before I take you out and show you the sights, I know just what you need.”
He closed the space between them, placing one hand on either side of her head. “Tell me.”
“Right now I’m picturing you in my shower, water rushing down your back as I wash every inch of you.” Kat ducked under his arm and headed for the hall. Glancing over her shoulder, she smiled back at him. “Does that line up with you mental image?”
“No, Kat,” he said, his voice a low growl. “It’s better.”
BRODY TRIED NEVER to make the same mistake twice. And walking away from a naked woman he’d fallen in love with, a second time, was flat out dumb. He had a plan to prove his feelings for her. As far as he was concerned, it started here, in her shower.
Stripping off his clothes and dropping them beside the panties and shirt she’d abandoned the minute they’d walked into the bathroom, Brody pulled aside the curtain. Little Miss Perfect stood under the shower’s warm spray, her head tipped back. Long wet blond hair ran down her back. Her hands moved over her body leaving a trail of bubbles over her breasts. The blood abandoned his brain, racing to his lower body. But he remembered his questions.
“Before I get in, I need to know your favorite color,” he said.
Kat stepped out from under the water and wiped her eyes, blinking them open. Her gaze roamed over his naked body, her lips curling up in a soft smile.
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