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“I don’t think this is all that much of a mystery right now, do you?” she said. But her voice sounded a little unsure, like she too was surprised at the intensity of this, at how fast they’d catapulted into it.
“You hated me when I first arrived,” he said, more to himself than to her, trying to make sense of this sudden turn that his life was taking before his eyes. “Thought I was a complete idiot — and you weren’t wrong. And you’ll be so calm one minute, and then the next you’ve got that scowl on your face like you wanna go out and fight the whole world…”
“Brendan,” Nicole interrupted, looking up at him with those clear blue eyes. “You think too much.”
Their mouths were together before Brendan had a chance to take a breath. Not long after she was in his arms again and, letting that particular thought take over, he carried her up the stairs.
CHAPTER14
NICOLE
It seemed that Nicole was an expert at adding complications to her own life. She couldn’t exactly bring herself to regret kissing Brendan the night before, nor everything that had come after. Not when she woke up with him still in her bed, fast asleep beside her.
Nicole had spent a ridiculous amount of energy over the weeks trying to ignore how attractive Brendan actually was, especially when she had hated him at first and then grown to respect him as a colleague, it had been too messy to even acknowledge it. But now, lying on her side, the lamp in the corner still on and bathing the bedroom in warm orange light, she let herself have the small luxury of watching him sleep.
His skin had grown more tanned over the weeks he’d spent here, working outside in the fresh air and sunshine. There were even a few freckles that had developed on his cheekbones under the tan, and she’d taken great pleasure last night in tracing her fingertips over them again and again, memorizing their exact placement on his face. His beard was now a proper beard as well, not the designer stubble he’d shown up with. He’d been handsome either way, but now it was in an effortless sort of way, a soft way that didn’t need maintenance every morning to achieve. His hair, too, had grown out enough from that neat style he’d first had so that his curls were starting to show. Curls that were now splayed across her pillow with no rhyme or reason.
Maybe it wasn’t even the physical changes that had him looking even more handsome now; maybe it was the fact that he was just so much more relaxed, happier even. Knowing what she did now about his heart attack and the amount of pressure he’d always put on himself, which ultimately led to that attack, it was a nice feeling to know that Brendan was happy here. She wouldn’t have thought so a few short weeks ago, but he deserved to be happy. And maybe this move to the country hadn’t been so ridiculous after all.
It dawned on her that she was lucky that it was Brendan who had bought the place. If some other crazy billionaire had come along and bought it, there was basically no way that she would have been offered the same chance to stay on the farm and keep working. Especially not for the salary Brendan had been kind enough to give her — so she was glad that it had beenthiscrazy billionaire.
Nicole snuggled down deeper into the blankets, not wanting to get up, even though her thoughts were spinning faster than a hamster wheel and there was no chance of her going back to sleep now.
There was the small matter of her contract with him having a set end date that stopped the good feelings from growing any stronger, putting the brakes on the hope that she had unconsciously been starting to build. But contracts could be negotiated, couldn’t they? Extended? Nothing was set in stone; surely she’d learned that by now.
Despite not wanting to leave the coziness of the bed, the warmth of Brendan beside her, she forced herself out from the covers and dashed across the hall to the bathroom. She turned on the water, which rushed out of the shower head like a small tsunami, and waited for it to get scalding-hot before daring to enter the shower.
It helped to clear her mind, for a little bit at least, as she scrubbed her skin, the goose bumps fading with the warmth, and her whole body turning pink.
She would just have to suck it up and talk to Brendan, just sit down and have a grown-up conversation about the whole thing. She didn’t want to leave — not that she hadeverwanted to leave, but now Brendan was also something that she didn’t want to lose. A few weeks ago, she had been actively trying to push him out, hoping and praying that he would be magically gone the next morning. Now here she was figuring out how to stay near him for as long as possible. The universe really did love screwing with her, didn’t it?
But either way, after last night, Nicole figured a conversation was inevitable. She might as well bring up the whole idea of her staying on longer than the agreed-upon few months just to get him settled. She began to relax now that a plan had formed in her mind. She would talk to Brendan this morning, and they would go from there. It was settled.
Nicole had spent longer than usual in the shower, using the time to unravel her thoughts, and got out and dried herself as best as she could with a towel before racing back to the bedroom to put some warm clothes on. Maybe she could bring it up with Brendan now,curled up in bed together, and get the whole awkward part oftalkingout of the way, just like that.
It had seemed like the perfect opportunity. But when she entered the bedroom, the bed was empty and Brendan was gone.
CHAPTER15
BRENDAN
Brendan woke to the sounds of the bathroom pipes rattling across the hall and the shower bursting into life. He was alone in Nicole’s bed, but it was fairly obvious where she had gone. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and shivered a little in the morning cold, still not wearing anything under the blankets.
Well, that had certainly taken an unexpected turn. Not that he was complaining, but now there was a whole new layer to things he had been thinking about for the last week or so — namely what exactly his relationship with Nicole could be classified as.Colleagueswas out the window, andfriendswasn’t exactly fitting right now either. This could be just a fling; people had flings,hehad had flings… The problem was he didn’t want it to be just a fling. So, even after running through all the possibilities in his head, Brendan wasn’t exactly sure he had an answer even now.
He rolled onto his back, trying to reevaluate his life, when he heard a buzzing from his jeans on the floor. Brendan flung out an arm and found his phone in one of the pockets to find Tina’s name flashing at him from the screen and at least a dozen texts that had gone unanswered from the previous night when he’d been… busy.
“Hello?” His voice sounded terrible, like a frog after a bender, but Tina didn’t seem to notice, or didn’t seem to care, as she plowed straight into the conversation.
“Hi,” she said, sounding very much awake. “So, I know it’s like crazy early but, oh, my God has some stuff gone down here in the last twenty-four hours that I need to talk to you about.”
Brendan would have normally been worried at such an early phone call and a sentence like that, but Tina didn’t sound distressed or even anxious — she sounded excited.
“Hang on, just give me a minute.”
Pulling on pants and a shirt, he stumbled out into the hall, the shower still going strong in the bathroom, and padded downstairs and out onto the porch. The frigid air was enough to slap him awake, the sky still dim and fresh.
“All right, I’m alive,” he said, pacing back and forth across the porch to try and focus. “What’s going on?”
