When I finally found Chris, I learned that neither Grey nor Teddy had ever bothered him. Chris couldn’t believe what had happened to Libby. He brought a vase of flowers and a plate of chicken wings to her hospital room when he found out. Ever since she had been discharged, Chris called every Tuesday night to see how we were doing. At first I thought it was a little eerie, but it was his way of letting Libby and me know he was thinking about us. When he called last Tuesday, he told me that Bank Shot had a new policy in place to walk female customers to their cars in the evening. It didn’t sound like a big deal since Libby hadn’t been attacked in the parking lot, but Chris said he had recommended it at an employee meeting, and it was now a new policy at the bar.
All of these people seemed like bystanders, yet one dreadful evening proved that they were much more than decorations in our lives.
Libby was staring at me, waiting for an answer. “I dunno. He was there for you when you needed him. Up until your nap at the hospital,” nap was the word I used instead of coma whenever we talked about her stay at the hospital, “he always seemed a little too happy to be breathing.”
“He’s still pretty upbeat.”
“I know. It’s not as annoying now.”
The front door sailed open as a strong spring gust nearly pulled it out of Dave’s hand. His smile was so brilliant it could have morphed the sun. With his long strides, he came directly to me, lifted me off the floor, and swung me in a circle. “It’s official. Finished the papers. Should be able to open it in thirty days.”
I beamed back at him, “Was Kravitz with you?”
“Yeah, he tried to bail out at the last minute, but Emily helped me convince him to go.”
Kravitz had told me that Dave had outgrown the shop he was renting. A place just a few blocks from my house came up for sale while Libby was still in the hospital. It had six large rollup doors and was ten thousand square feet with a fenced-in area for jobs waiting to be started. Kravitz and I both prodded Dave to take a look, but it was Mark who told Dave he needed to think bigger. Mark had stopped by Dave’s shop a week or so after they reconnected and saw several of Dave’s restorations.
Mark still lived in Kansas City. He blew through town a couple of times per month on business. He didn’t share with either of us what his business was. It bothered me because I was sure whatever he did was illegal, but Dave didn’t care. He had his brother back.
I had always had an active imagination, so I envisioned everything from him being a drug mule to working directly for a drug cartel, possibly even as a hired hit man. It still nagged at me inside, but after a few visits and angry glares from him, I stopped asking. He had saved my life, he probably saved Libby’s life, and he assembled Dave’s missing pieces. Whatever he was to the rest of the world, to me he was Dave’s only family. Maybe we’d find out the truth someday, or maybe we wouldn’t – regardless, Mark was a regular visitor and I had never seen Dave happier.
Dave and Mr. Kravitz came to an agreement on the expanded Bodies by Brewer, where students with promise would have part time jobs on the weekends learning from both of them. The two were even talking about establishing a co-op program with the school. Dave had given up his studio apartment and moved in with Libby and me over a month ago. It wasn’t as convenient for him to walk down the steps for work in the morning, but there is something to be said for closets.
To Mark’s credit, Teddy and Grey left town. Occasionally I would see Tony, but he never said a word to me about where either had gone. The few times I had seen him had nothing to do with bars: once at the grocery store, once at McDonald’s, and once while Dave and I were on a walk on Windham Street. Dave didn’t know who Tony was and seemed oblivious to the fear Tony wore when he saw the two of us strolling toward him. I didn’t bother to do introductions, so I was sure Tony believed I was walking with Mark, the same guy who had tossed Tony’s brother out of town.
“So, thirty days from today?” I clarified.
Dave, still holding me in a tight hug, nuzzled my neck with his lips. “Looks that way.” He reached over to the stove and stirred the pot in front of me, then looked at Libby, “Hey, can you watch this for a few minutes? I need to talk to Candy upstairs.”
Libby took the spoon from him, “Sure.”
As he led me by the hand, I noticed his palms were sweating. He must have still been freaking out about the big real estate purchase. Dave internalized everything. Over the past two months he had opened up a great deal, but anytime someone got on his last nerve, or he was frustrated, he would keep it inside and stew about whatever was bothering him. I had finally gotten him to the point that he might vent to me, but that was a pretty tall order for someone who had spent most of his life hiding himself from the rest of the world.
He led me into our room and closed the door. Dave looked nervous, and I was prepared to give him the same pep talk Kravitz and I had offered multiple times for the last month. For a man with so much talent, he was reluctant to expand.
Dave backed me up against the closed door. He took me by surprise when he stepped closer to me, placed both his hands on either side of my face and gently kissed my lips – not one of the impassioned kisses I always hungered for, but a sweet one that lingered.
Dave could melt me into a puddle of goo with no effort whatsoever. I slid my arms on either side of him, reaching up underneath the back of his shirt, allowing my fingers to lightly caress the smooth skin underneath his t-shirt until I elicited his “happy moan.” He let go of my face, sliding his hands down to my hips and rested his head on my shoulder. I could spend hours like this with Dave.
The more I learned about Dave, the luckier I felt to be a part of his life. The first week when we reconnected, Dave had told me about the foster kid he was helping. The kid’s name was Byron, and he wanted to sign up for Kravitz’s class, but didn’t have money for a car or the parts to fix it. I thought it was great that Dave bought the stuff for him so he could be in the class. Dave was going through classes to become a foster parent. Once he had completed the training, he would be one of the youngest foster parents the state had ever had.
His voice came out raspy, full of emotion. “You know I love you, right?”
I did know. Initially, it was hard for him to say the words. It wasn’t that he didn’t feel them, he just had difficulty saying them. “Yeah, I love you, too.”
His head still rested on my shoulder when he confessed, “But I don’t want to be your roommate or your boyfriend anymore.” My heart stopped. My fingers froze where they were. My whole body tensed. When he saw my reaction, he quickly added, “Shit. I don’t want to break-up with you, either.”
Defensively, I let my hands that had been pulling him toward me go limp. I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. What was he saying? I knew we had fast-tracked our relationship. Was it too much, too soon? I had opened my heart so completely that the thought of him pulling away now would shred me. He took my limp hands in his, looked directly into my eyes and confessed, “I want this to be permanent.”
Permanent what? “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying I didn’t know how lonely I was until you came into my life. Before you I had a frozen heart, and you were like a nitro charge. I never wanted a big life. I never hoped for anything more than surviving. You’ve changed everything. You’ve owned me since before I had this heart drawn on my chest. I’m saying I want to own you the same way.”
Confused, I still didn’t know what he was saying, but at least I was sure he wasn’t breaking up with me. “You want me to get your name tattooed on my chest?”
Dave’s serious expression transformed to a smile as he eased down in front of me onto one knee, “I’m saying I want you to be my wife.” He produced a diamond solitaire in a platinum setting. The design was simply elegant, the diamond dazzling, and his proposal took my breath away.
It had only been two months, was this too soon? I loved him. I craved quiet moments alone and relished waking up in his arms each morning. My s
ister’s warning played in my head about relationships fizzling out when they were based on intense circumstances. What did Kim know? She’d never known Dave. She had never thawed a man’s heart. Holding out my hand to him, I said, “Yes.”
He slid the ring on my finger.
I hope you enjoyed His Frozen Heart! This is the first book in my Brewer Brothers Series. The second book, Fractured Karma, is available for pre-sale now. If you enjoyed my writing, I would love for you to check out my other books.
I’m an independent author, which means I don’t have an agent, a publicist, or a publishing company backing me up. I DEPEND on word-of-mouth advertising. If you enjoyed His Frozen Heart, it would mean the world to me for you to recommend it to a friend (or ten friends!).
Independent Authors live and die by reviews from readers. Before I became an author, I believed reviews were written by professionals. I didn’t know that my opinion mattered. If you are in this category, PLEASE know that your opinion does matter!! If you could take a few minutes and write a review of His Frozen Heart and post it to the store where you purchased it, I would be very grateful!!
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Happy Reading,
Nancy
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