Page 75 of Nothing to Tell

“You did?”

Breathing in, she prepared herself.“At your mom’s… after dinner when… when we argued upstairs… I didn’t want to leave,” she admitted.“I wanted to sink into one of those couches with you… that big TV, the fire… Maybe for a minute we might’ve forgotten everything else, our lives, our business, our families…” Silence.No response.Had they been cut off?“Bastian, are you still there?”

“I have to tell you something,” he said after a longer pause.“I want to tell you, but I don’t want you to get upset.We’ve never argued over the phone before so if you hang up on me…”

Her heart raced, what had she missed this time?“I won’t.”

“I’m saying if you do, I’ll come over there right now.No respectable distance.I’ll be in the car in a minute.”

“You won’t have to come here.”

“If we’re not communicating, I will be at your door,” he said.“Whatever happens with us, with this, whatever we are, we stay in touch, okay, Sweet?”

Maybe sometimes that ruthless edge trickled into his personal life too.

“Okay,” she said, but wasn’t going to let him forget that he’d piqued her curiosity.“What did you want to tell me?”

“The house, my house where you spent the night.”

She stopped doodling as dread crept in.“What about it?”

“That isn’t my bedroom.”It sounded like he braced for… something.“You didn’t sleep in a guest room.”

“I don’t understand what—”

“Technically, we’ve been sleeping in staff quarters.Though I don’t have residential staff at the house anymore.”

“Staff?”

At the top of a staircase that led from the kitchen, yeah, that wasn’t the master suite.She hadn’t been thinking, what a surprise.In her defense, the bedroom she’d used was huge.Except given the size of the kitchen, she probably should’ve figured out it was more than a regular two-bedroom house.

“Don’t get upset,” he said quickly.“Don’t think I was trying to deceive you.After your accident, it was just easier.I didn’t want to overwhelm you.You’d had a tough night and were reluctant to come to mine.I didn’t want you to have an excuse to leave, and—”

“Bastian,” she cut him off, he’d keep going until she forgave him.No need to open old wounds and fight about the same issue over again.“Next time, can I see your bedroom?”

Another silence.Why did he do that?Where was his head?

“Want to see it right now?”She laughed more with him than anyone else.“I can come over there, pick you up.I’ve got some very fast cars and—”

“Do you have a big TV?”

“In the foot of the bed,” he said.“No open fire in the master bedroom, yet.If it’ll get you in there, I’ll build you one.”

“With your own bare hands?”she teased.

“Sure, but that would take longer than writing a check,” he said.“I’m not sure I can wait.I’d have to be trained and—”

“Bastian,” she said.“You can show me tomorrow, after your parents’ party.”

“That a promise?”

“If we have time to watch a movie.”

No better treat than relaxing with Bastian in comfort and forgetting the world for a while.

“We’ll make time,” he said.“That’ll give me something to think about instead of my speech.”

As previously established, he wasn’t worried about talking at his parents’ party.