“Are you okay?” Brody turned, trying to brush the excess liquid off of me, onto the floor.
A lump formed in my throat, and I knew the tears wouldn’t be far behind. “I just want to go, okay? Can we please go? Now?” I begged in a whisper.
“Oh God, she’s fine!” Blaire rolled her eyes as she walked over to her purse on the counter. “Here,” she said, pulling a wad of money out of her wallet. “This should cover the dress, okay?” With that she tossed a twenty-dollar bill across the counter and winked at me.
Brody snapped.
“Listen to me, you miserable bitch…” He took a step forward, shielding me from any more of Blaire’s looks or words. “You can say whatever you want to me or about me, but Kacie is off limits. Got it?”
Her eyes blinked rapidly as she stared at him with a blank expression on her face. He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the door before he turned back one more time.
“And you might want to remember when you’re looking down your fake, plastic nose at her, that it’s her boyfriend’s hockey contract that pays for this fucking house of yours. Your husband will always be my best friend, but that doesn’t mean he has to be my agent. Consider yourself warned.”
The drive home from Andy and Blaire’s was the longest forty minutes of my life. I apologized to Kacie about a thousand times, and while she smiled at me, all she kept saying was, “It’s fine.” Growing up, my mom and dad would occasionally go at it, and every time she told him, “it’s fine,” he either slept on the couch or bought flowers the next day. When it comes to women, “fine” is bad. Very, very bad.
She wasn’t fine; I knew that. I could tell by the way she stared out the window the whole way home but never really focused on anything. She was avoiding eye contact with me, and I didn’t blame her one bit. What the hell had Blaire said to her before I went into the kitchen, and more importantly, what the hell was I thinking taking her over to Blaire’s house in the first place? That was the stupidest thing I had done in a long time. I’d dealt with Blaire and her bitchiness before, why did I think Kacie would be immune?
We pulled into the parking space in my garage, and Kacie picked up her purse off the floor. Just as she was about to reach for the handle, I locked the door.
She spun and looked at me, her brows pulled together, making the cutest little, confused crinkle marks appear on her forehead. “What are you doing?”
“Talk to me,” I pleaded with her.
A fake smile crossed her face and she put her hand on mine. “There’s nothing to talk about, okay?”
“Yes, there is. What did Blaire say to you before I came into the kitchen?”
Her voice was soft as she stared down at her hands. “She basically warned me about you, to stay away. Listen, Brody … I think maybe coming here this weekend was a mistake, like maybe I should just go tonight. Our lives are so different.”
“Don’t say that.” I tried arguing, but she didn’t give me a chance.
“It’s true. My typical Saturday night consists of Disney movies with the girls, maybe an ice cream sundae if we’re feeling adventurous. Tonight was … rough.” She sighed, her eyes bouncing wildly around the car as she started rambling. “But then you look at me like you do, and you kiss me like you do and I think that it’s worth the risk … that you’re worth the risk. A few shitty remarks from Blaire later and not only do I realize I really don’t know you, but now I’m back to questioning what I was already questioning-”
“Wait, wait. Hold on a minute.” I held my hands up in front of me in a desperate attempt to derail the train wreck about to happen in her brain. “First of all, you’re confusing the hell out of me. Second, this car is really fucking uncomfortable. What do you say we go upstairs, put some sweats on, open a bottle of wine and have an ‘Ask Brody Anything’ session? Nothing is off limits, okay?”
She raised a curious eyebrow. “Nothing?”
“Absolutely nothing. For you … I’m an open book.”
She warily looked at me and reached for the door handle again. This time I released the lock, hoping to God she didn’t get out and head straight for her jeep. Even if she did, I wasn’t opposed to lying on the hood to force her to talk to me.
She met me at the back of my car and used my shoulder as a crutch as she pulled one of her sexy legs up and removed her heel. I tried really hard not to drool in her hair as she did it again with the other leg. How can someone make such a simple action so damn sexy? She did that with everything, I’d noticed … making breakfast, reading to her girls, breathing. She was slowly cementing herself into my heart. I’d be damned if Blaire and her big obnoxious mouth were going to ruin any of that for me.
We walked into my condo and Diesel ran to greet us. After giving Kacie a thorough once over with his nose, he rushed over to me and whimpered pitifully.