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Racing back to the phone, I pulled open the text.
B:
I’m coming over
Olivia? No hotel?
The only response was the sound of my garage door opening. I quickly ran to the door leading to the garage and watched as Brody’s black Expedition pulled in. The second he was in the clear I was shutting the garage door behind him. My body was humming as I watched him exit his S
UV and walk over to me.
“Olivia?”
“She left with her parents for Washington and won’t be home until Monday.”
A smile crossed my lips at the thought of having him to myself for more than a day. “What about the hotel?”
He shook his head once, his dark gray eyes never leaving mine. “I didn’t have the patience to wait any longer.”
Before I could respond, his hands were grabbing around my waist, pulling me to his body, and his lips were pressed firmly against mine. A small giggle bubbled up my throat, and I wrapped my arms around his neck.
“I missed you,” I said against his lips.
“God, I’ve missed you too.” Pulling away from me, a sharp laugh left him when he saw me frown, and his fingers traced my bottom lip. “Don’t pout. There’s something I need to tell you, something I should have told you long before now.”
My forehead scrunched in confusion, but I didn’t say anything, just waited for him to continue.
“I love you, Kamryn.”
Those four words washed over my body, and a shiver ran down my spine. I’d known Brody loved me; it was unmistakable when we were together. What I hadn’t known was that I’d been waiting to hear those words from this man my entire life. A smile broke across my face, and I threw my arms around his neck again as I crushed my mouth to his.
Pulling back just enough to speak, I looked up into his eyes and replied with every fiber of my being: “I’m so in love with you, Brody Saco.”
My body tingled with the truth and rightness of those words, and I wanted to say them over and over again, but Brody’s mouth silenced anything else, and soon he was walking us back toward my bedroom.
“WHAT IS IT?” I asked Brody late the next afternoon after we’d finally left my room to eat something.
Brody turned and looked at me confused, his eyebrows pinching together as he set his mug down. “What is what?”
I took a few calming breaths and forced my hands apart when I started nervously playing with them. “About Olivia? What is it about her that’s kept you together all these years?” Brody’s confused expression turned pained, and I hurried to continue. “I know this will sound horrible coming from me, but I’ve always thought divorce was bad . . . but that’s only because the people around me who I saw getting divorced were doing it because they grew tired of who they were with.” Or the men wanted someone younger and the women wanted someone with more money. That’s just how it was in the racing world. “From what everyone has said, that’s not what’s going on between you and Olivia.”
Brody stayed silent, his body still as stone as he stared down at the granite countertop on the kitchen island.
“I know why you married her, and it’s honorable, Brody, but if you’re so miserable—and if she’s as evil as everyone says she is—why would you stay with her all these years?”
He didn’t answer for a long time, and he never moved. When he did finally speak, his eyes wouldn’t meet mine, and his body seemed to somehow tighten even more. “Because I ruined her,” he said on a breath, the words haunting, matching the torture in his eyes.
When he didn’t say anything else and minutes ticked by, I asked softly, “Ruined her how?” He didn’t respond, but I watched as the torture in his eyes washed over the rest of his features. “Does this have to do with you needing to make sure she’ll be okay?”
Another five minutes passed, and all Brody had done was nod. Knowing he wasn’t comfortable with this conversation, and knowing I wouldn’t get my questions answered, I slid off the stool and walked around the island toward him. Wrapping my arms loosely around his rigid frame, I placed a kiss on his chest and took a step away from him. My chest ached when he didn’t look away from the spot on the island he’d been staring at. Turning, I walked quickly from the kitchen and into the bathroom to clean up.
My movements were slow as I moved to the bedroom to put on some clothes, and while I was hurting for whatever pain Brody was in, I was terrified that I’d just pushed him away somehow. It had felt like he was a thousand miles away in the kitchen, and I couldn’t help but worry that feeling wouldn’t go away. I’d strained to hear the door closing, or the garage opening as he left, but there had been nothing. No sound, no indication that he’d even moved from his spot against the counter.
“I haven’t been in love with Olivia for a long time.”
I jumped at the sound of Brody’s voice and instinctively covered myself with the shirt in my hands as I turned to face him. “I know.” Sliding my arms into the sleeves, I pulled the shirt over my head and went to sit on the end of my bed. Brody wasn’t looking at me again, but if he was going to talk, I wasn’t going to rush him.
“But before meeting you, Kamryn, leaving her seemed like the cowardly thing to do. She’s not a good person. She’s always been manipulative, vindictive, and a person who will do anything to make sure she gets her way. And there’s still that side of her . . . but I—I absolutely destroyed her. And to destroy her that way, and then leave her?” He raked a hand through his hair and kept it there. “I just couldn’t do it. Since meeting you, whenever I see the scheming side of her, I don’t know why I bother trying anymore . . . until I see the broken side again, and I know that I still owe it to her to get her help. Because everything that happened to her was my fault.” Looking at me sadly, Brody shrugged helplessly. “She’s this fucked-up shell of the woman that she’d been before, and it’s all my fault,” he whispered.
