by Emma Hart
“Meet you there.” Zeke salutes us and pulls his own keys out of his pocket.
“Where are we going?” I get into the passenger side seat.
Cain shuts the door and grins at me. “You’ll see.”
I narrow my eyes at him. His are sparkling with excitement, and I can’t help but smile right back at him. The last time he was this excited was when his football team got to the Super Bowl. I think. Or was it baseball at the World Series?
Never mind. Not important.
“Okay…Why are you so excited?” I ask slowly as we pull away.
“Because it’s something exciting.”
“Why can’t you tell me?”
He flashes me another happy smile. “It’s a surprise.”
“Um…I’m scared.” I shuffle back against the door. “Why can’t you tell me?”
“Because.”
Ugh. Like that’s an answer.
I stare at him instead of replying. How do I reply to ‘because?’ Because what? Because why? Because where why what when? Because how? Because, because?
Oy, too many becauses.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he warns me, green eyes darting my way. “I mean it, B. This is fun, I promise. And really important to me.”
“Oh god. We’re not eloping to Vegas already are we?”
He chuckles. “I said fun.”
“Marrying me would be fun.”
“Only if I want a direct line to the mental hospital.”
“I don’t think I want to date you anymore. Or be friends with you.”
He laughs, and at a red light, leans over and kisses me on the corner of the mouth. A shiver tickles across my skin where his lips just were.
Damn it.
“All right,” I mutter, peering through my hair at him. “Shut up.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Your smug smile is yelling at me. Make it stop.”
He laughs and rests his hand on my leg. “God, you’re so awkward. It’s funny.”
“I’m not awkward!” I sit up straight. “This,”—I wave my hand between us— “is awkward. I can be awkward about it but that doesn’t make me awkward.”
“You have got to stop saying awkward fifty times a day, B.” He swallows back another laugh, squeezing my leg. “Or I’m going to make you.”
“That would be more of a threat if you punched me in the mouth to shut me up instead of kissing me.”
He balls his fist and lightly lifts it, touching his knuckles to my mouth with the lightest brush. “There. Better?”
“Oh, shit, I’m terrified,” I say dryly. “Look. I’m shaking.” I hold my hands out in front of me.
“So bad,” he drawls in response.
The Barley Cross town sign comes into view, and just when I’m opening my mouth to ask him where we’re going, Cain takes a sharp right. My lips still when they’re parted, and I feel his eyes on me a few times as he takes another turn, and then moves onto a dirt road.
The road is lined by tall trees, and the early evening sun is dancing through the leaves and branches in bright orange streams. We drive along it for a couple of minutes before we go left at a mini crossroads. The dirt road continues along here, and we drive for another two minutes until the road comes to an end.
“Uh…” I stop.
Cain kills the engine and gets out.
I do the same thing. “Cain?” I ask, walking toward him. “What is this?”
He shoves his hands in the pockets of his shorts and looks out at the open field. “This is…mine.”
I look from him to the field. And back again. And again. And again, and again. “This is yours?”
He nods slowly. His shoulders heave as he takes a deep breath in and lets it out again. “Yep. I bought it. This afternoon, actually.”
“For…wait. You bought this for your house?” I stop again, but this time, I look around the field. It’s huge—bigger than one person needs. Hell, you could build three houses on this thing if the fences are the guidelines.
“Lawrence Hooper is selling off some of his land. This is one of the fields, so I sought planning permission. He held it until my plans were accepted this morning.”
I turn and shove him. “Why didn’t you tell me you were doing all this?”
He shrugs and looks at me, one hand buried in his hair. “I don’t know. I guess if they rejected my proposal for the house I would have hated having to tell anyone what I was doing. Only Zeke and Dad knew and that’s because they worked on the proposal with me.”
“I thought you weren’t going to do it yet.”
“I wasn’t. But Dad heard about the land from Lawrence and reminded me that I can build the house for cheap because I won’t have to pay him and Zeke labor, so I took a chance.”
“I…wow.” I rub my palms together in front of me. “That’s amazing.”
He looks at me and smiles. “It’s gonna take a while, but the plans are incredible. Look, let me show you.” He goes back to the car and reaches into the backseat. There, he pulls out a large folder and removes two sheets of paper. “Here.” He grabs my hand and pulls me forward. “We’re walking along where the driveway will be built. There’ll be enough room to park three cars. And here’s where the double garage will go. Above it will be like an office, man cave type thing.”
“Of course,” I concede with a smile. Even though my stomach is turning horribly.
He shows me the plans. “This will be the front door. From here, we walk into the hallway,” he says, fully sliding his fingers between mine and pulling me along with him. “Immediately to the left will be the guest bedroom. Then into the living room, which opens out into the kitchen and diner. Oh, and back this way…” He turns us around and tugs me more. “Is another spare room I don’t have a use for yet and a shower room. Just off the kitchen will be a utility and mudroom.”
“Sounds awesome.”
“The stairs will be here.” He stops us exactly where it is and looks up into the golden sky as if he’s looking upstairs. “Three bedrooms. The master will have a master bath and walk-in closet with access to the man cave via the closet. The other two bedrooms will be connected via a smaller bathroom and have built-in closets instead of walk-in ones.”
“That’s impressive.”
“And the yard…”
“My god, you’re organized.”
He smiles at me as he pulls me into the ‘yard.’ Aka, the field. “There’ll be a massive back porch here. I might add a sun room too. But from here, there’ll be a patio area with a built-in grill, seating, and maybe a pool.”
“Are you secretly Bill Gates or something?” I look around at the vast area. “That’s a lot.”
“I know.” He shrugs, but his grin is too wide, too infectious. “That’ll all take a long time. The important thing is building. I got a little carried away.”
“Perhaps.” I smile.
“But that’s not the best bit.” He pulls me further across the field, almost to the very back. “Right there, I have permission to build a massive brick shed. Two, actually. Well, they’ll be attached together and connected by a door.”
“Wow.” I look around at where I imagine he’s picturing the shed. “How long is that going to take to build? Too long?”
He laughs, looking down. He folds up the plans he just showed me and shoves them roughly into his pocket.
Man, I hope he has spares of those…
“Sorry,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck. Slowly, he looks back up at me. “I guess I’m just excited. We’ve been doing this for a while now and I can’t believe it’s going to be built right here.”
I turn and look around the field. Somehow, his car seems miles away, although I know it isn’t. The area is so vast and open, it seems crazy that an actual house is going to be built here.
“That is crazy,” I agree, linking my fingers together before pressing my hands flat against the top of my tummy. “When are you starting?”
“I don’t—hey, what’s up?” He steps in front of me, blocking my view of the field, and captures my gaze with his green eyes. “Brooke?”
“You’re building a house and I can’t even unpack an apartment after three weeks.” The words escape me before I can stop them.
Guilt punches me hard almost as soon as the final word has died on my tongue. It twists at my gut and squeezes my heart, making me slap my hand against my mouth.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper through my fingers. “I just ruined this. I didn’t mean to.”
Cain gently cups my cheek, his fingertips brushing my hairline. His pinky finger curves beneath my jaw, and using that, tilts my chin up. With that one simple move, he forces me to look at him.
Where I should see annoyance, I see mild amusement. Where I should see frustration, I see tenderness.
“B…” His lips twitch the tiniest amount. He wraps his fingers around my wrist and pulls my hand away from my face. Then he kisses me. Softly and slowly, his lips moves across mine until all the guilt has seeped out of me. “Remember,” he says quietly, “When we were in Italia’s? On the roof? And I said I always imagined I’d end up with someone like you or Carly?”
I swallow hard and nod.
“I lied.” He brings his other face to my hand and steps into me. “I didn’t imagine I’d end up with someone like you. A part of me imagined I would end up with you.”
“But—”
“I. Don’t. Care. Okay?” he says firmly. “I don’t care about whatever excuse you’re about to give me. You’re chaos, Brooke Barker. Luckily for you, I happen to love chaos.”
I stare up at him for a long moment.
“You don’t scare me. Your crazy doesn’t scare me. Do we have to work past being friends? Sure. But I can’t see any way that can make this harder for us. If anything, it’s already easier. Being your best friend before your boyfriend means I already know when not to argue back at you and when to agree that you’re right.”
That might be the hottest thing anyone’s ever said to me.
“Wait…agree that I’m right? Don’t you mean admit that I’m right?”
Cain blinks at me, his expression not changing. “Of course. You’re right.”
“Thank yo—wait. I see what you did there.”
His stoic expression morphs into a cocky, sexy smile that lights up his whole face. “See? I told you. I know when not to argue with you.”
“That is kinda hot,” I agree. Agree. Not admit. See? Difference.
“And I know all your favorite things so I’m never going to order you a meal you don’t like or buy you the wrong wine.”
“True.”
“And,” he continues, sliding his hands down my body to my waist. He pulls me flush against him. “I know what sports you do and don’t like, so you won’t have to watch hours of them unless I have to watch your stupid, girly movies.”
“Hey.” I press my fingertip to his lips. “They’re not stupid, girly movies. They’re hilarious, heart-warming stories of love.”
“You’re right. My mistake.”
“Stop doing that.”
He laughs quietly, bringing his face to mine. The tips of our noses touch. “No. Then I’d be arguing with you.”
“By declining to argue with me, you’re arguing with me.”
“Brooke? Shut up.” He brushes his lips over mine again.
“Boy, I hope that won’t be a requirement,” I mutter, my eyes focused on his mouth. “I’m not great at the shutting up.”
“I know,” he groans, kissing me one more time before stepping back. “There’s actually a reason I brought you here. You know, if you’re done with your freakout.”
“I am, but I have a question.”
He raises his eyebrows expectantly.
“Where are Carly and Zeke?”
He grins. “He directed her to home. Because there’s a reason I brought you here.”
“Oh.” I tilt my head to the side. “Okay. What’s the reason?”
He bites the inside of his lower lip, his teeth just showing slightly. “I want you to help me build the house.”
Now my eyebrows go up. I think they’re halfway to the moon. “I can’t build a house out of Lego, let alone real bricks. Believe me. I tried the Lego. I’m awful.”
“I have no doubt,” he replies wryly. “But I don’t mean the things that might collapse on my head. I mean the other things. Like flooring and carpets and painting…and stuff.”
“And stuff.” My voice is quiet. “Why?”
“Because I can build a house but not make it look like somebody lives in it?” he answers, laughing nervously and rubbing the back of his neck.
I stare at him flatly. “Now I’m a bad liar, but that was just awful. Even if I have seen the inside of your apartment and know there’s a thread of truth to it.”
“Maybe, one day…” He looks almost embarrassed. “You know this is my dream house. Maybe, one day…it might be yours too.”
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
“One day,” he says again quickly, stepping half-forward before taking a full one back. “When it’s ready and you’re ready and we’re ready.”
My heart is beating quickly, but I manage to control my breathing enough to close the distance between us he just created. I mean to say something, but the words get lodged in my throat. So I wrap my arms around his neck and hug him tightly.
He tenses for a second, but quickly relaxes and circles his arms around my waist. He presses his face into my hair and holds me close to him.
“Do you honestly think we’ll ever reach that point?” I ask, my voice scratchy. “Because that seems like it’s really far away right now. Especially when just being together scares me.”
“Yes,” he says simply—and confidently. “It doesn’t have to happen tomorrow, B. Being together isn’t going to be easy. It’s going to be harder than being friends, but I know we can make it work. I want you enough to make this work.”
I hug him even tighter. “Me too. Okay. I’ll do your flooring and carpets and painting and…stuff.”
“I just unleashed a monster, didn’t I?”
Grinning widely, I dance out of his arms and walk backward to his car. “You have no idea.”
TWENTY-TWO
LIFE TIP #22: If people don’t listen to you, scream.
THREE WEEKS LATER
“She’s going to lose her mind.”
“I’m a little afraid.”
“Should we ask if she’s okay?”
“I don’t know. I’ve seen her use that frosting squirter thingy.”
“You’re right.”
“Should we hand her wine?”
“That’s a good idea.”
“Food?”
“I don’t know. Maybe we should just…”
“Get out of the kitchen?” I yell, brandishing my frosting pipe as a weapon as I turn to my sister and Carly. “Are you helping? No! Are you annoying me? Yes! Why are you even here?”
“It’s my kitchen?” Billie offers, albeit hesitantly.
“Are you frosting?” I shout back.
“I…no. You told me to fuck off.”
“Yet you haven’t done it!”
Carly leans in to my sister and says in a quiet voice, “Bills, I’m scared.”
“And you should be!” I point the frosting pipe in her direction. “I have thirty minutes to finish icing this goddamn monster of a cake and if I don’t get it done I’m never going to be hired again and my dream will be in tatters and everyone will know how horrible I am!”
“Yeah, I’m just gonna…” Carly cocks her thumb over her shoulder and quickly runs out of the kitchen.
“Do you need anything?” Billie asks, slowly edging away. “Wine? Vodka? A Valium?”
I point toward the door.
She disappears quickly.
Silence rings out around the spacious kitchen, and I take a deep breath when I hear the kitchen door shut. I carefully put
down the frosting pipe onto the island and pull out the nearest stool. My ass hits it way too hard as I drop down, but I don’t much care.
I’m exhausted. I’ve been doing this for hours. Over a day, actually. The past thirty-six hours have been nothing but crazy, crazy, crazy. I’m more than ready to drop dead on my feet and go to sleep.
I don’t know what I expected when I agreed to take on three hundred cupcakes and a three-tier birthday cake, but I’m not sure it was this.
In fact, I’m sure it wasn’t this.
Not to mention Carly was right—my boss refused to pay me for the two days I’ve had to take off. If Penelope wasn’t paying me more for this than I’d have earned in the past two days, I’d be really annoyed. Then again, on the brighter side, this could be everything for me.
I’d be lying if I didn’t say I’ve enjoyed all this. I’ve loved making the cakes and decorating them. It’s just…despite my usual insanity, I’m so afraid I’ll mess this up, and it’s so scary. I don’t want to get this wrong. I want every cake to be perfect for Annabelle’s party.
Two hands gently land on my shoulders, and familiar, rough fingers move across my skin. “You’re shouting at everyone.”
I sigh as Cain’s voice sends goosebumps across my skin. “I know, but they’re all in my way.”
His thumbs dig into my shoulder muscles in the best kind of way.
I moan.
He chuckles as he massages my tight shoulders. “You can’t make people get out of your way, B.”
“Do you see them here right now?”
“No.”
“Now tell me I can’t make them get out of my way.”
Cain smirks. “Okay, you win that one. Why aren’t you shouting at me?”
“Because you’re rubbing my shoulders and it feels really good.” I moan again.
“Don’t you have to finish the cake?” He stills, looking at the three-tier monstrosity that still needs tiny flowers added to it.
“Yes.” I sigh and stand back up. “Only fifty, but still. It needs to rest for a little before we leave.”
“Do you want me to help you?”
I spin on the balls of my feet and spear him with my gaze.
“That’ll be a no.” He takes a step back. “Do you need anything?”