“You wore that?” I ask.
Did my voice just squeak?
She looks at me like I just said my name is really George Washington. “Yes. Why?”
“It’s a dress.” A very beautiful dress on an even more beautiful woman . How on earth was she allowed to leave the house like that?
She crosses her arms. “Thanks for noticing. You know my date told me I looked pretty.”
“You do.” I try to fix the damage I’ve done by being a territorial caveman. “Look pretty.”
Her cheeks turn ever so slightly pink and she looks away. “Thank you.”
She looks gorgeous. I want to tell her how gorgeous she looks even when she wears that unicorn onesie thing she got for Christmas last year. But there’s a problem in the way of me confessing my feelings for her. A big, mountain-sized problem. I’m not about to stop Lennox from being happy, even if it means she doesn’t end up with me.
“So you’re dating that Noa guy?” I ask.
She turns back to me, her eyes widen, and she starts picking at her thumbnail. “Yes.”
No, that's so much worse than I thought. “Why?”
She narrows her eyes at me. “Because that’s usually what people do when they like someone. They date them.”
Her words suck the air from my lungs. She likes him? It’s happening. I’m losing her.
My throat hurts and the room spins.
“Not always.” I shake my head.
Her brows furrow. “What?”
“Sometimes when you care about someone, you stay away. Even if it’s the last thing you want to do.”
Her lips part, but I turn and walk away before she can speak. Because I can’t explain that one to her. Not when the woman I love is falling for someone else.
***
Lennox hasn’t been around for the last two days. She’s been off taking finals, and while I’m glad I don’t have to explain what I meant the other night, it’s not helping me win her over.
Every time she’s gone, I picture her snuggled up with Noa. And then I want to gag.
It’s just my luck that the second I get the green light from Micheal, I find out she’s dating someone else.
I told myself I wouldn’t interfere in her relationship, but when I’m around her, I can’t stop myself from wanting to get closer, pester her, and flirt with her. I’m a grade schoolboy with a crush on a girl but all I can do is pull her pigtails. And if she happens to fall for me instead of the big kid on the playground, who am I to judge?
When I get back from work, I go for a run and then use the Bentleys WiFi to look for an apartment.
I’ve been looking every day, but the rental market is crazy right now, and I hate every available option.
I lean back on my bed frame. I’m sick of wasting my money on a crappy apartment. I don’t want to go home to an empty apartment anymore. I want a house. A home. And a hope that I’ll find someone to share it with me. I want a yard where I play soccer with my kids and a kitchen where I turn on soft music and dance with my wife after dinner.
For the fun of it, I change my search setting from renting to buying. I add four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a half acre lot size.
I click submit. The first five are way out of my price range. But the next one… there’s a big open living space, with two double doors onto the back patio. The cabinets are dated, and the rooms need some touching up, but I can do that.
I sit up straighter and click through all the information in the listing. It’s only twenty minutes from the shop. And ten minutes from the Bentleys.
This is it. This is my house.
