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I looked up at Caleb and smiled but he wouldn’t look at me. In fact, he’d lost the easygoing expression altogether and looked rather annoyed.
“Did you find what you went searching for?” I asked as we waited for our coffees.
“Yes,” he answered as he tapped out something on his phone. He put it in his pocket and then gave me his attention. “Why did you check out and pay without me?”
Huh? “I beg your pardon?” I wasn’t letting him pay for my knickers and toothpaste for Christ’s sake.
“It’s a simple question.” He didn’t look annoyed anymore but rather surprised if I had to put a name to it.
“Because I’d finished my shopping and it was time to pay for my things and leave the store. I didn’t think I needed permission to go through the checkout line, Caleb. In fact, I know I don’t.” His concern was confusing. “I texted so you would know where I was. You brought me here. I wasn’t planning on ditching you if you were worried.” I shook my head at him. “Why should you care that I’ve paid for my things?”
He laughed and smiled for me again, his earlier mood restored. “Forget it, beautiful. Let’s just say this is all a new experience for me and leave it at that, okay?”
“Shopping at Target not to your liking?” I asked, hoping he would tell me how he really felt.
He pulled me in closer and pressed his lips to my forehead. I felt his lips move across my skin and heard him whisper softly, “Everything about tonight has been to my liking.”
Thank God he was holding me up because I rather melted into a puddle of goo after that.
Deep. Fucking. Trouble.
Caleb
Isaac texted his reply in the form of a photo scan of her Target receipt because I’d told him to find it when he put our bags in the car. Only $167.44 for all of that shit she just bought? Unbelievable. In fact, just about everything about her was unbelievable. She was completely indifferent about what I could buy for her—she only seemed interested in me, the person. I made a screenshot of her text asking if she could get me something from Starbucks. It rarely happened that anyone offered to buy me anything, and the women I sometimes dated never offered. Not that I ever expected them to, but it was nice to be asked once every six months.
Brooke was so different, so guileless in everything she did. She’d weighed her decision on whether she could stay over with me and then named her condition to make it possible. Understandably she wanted to feel comfortable and have the things she needed with her. Target just got 167 dollars of her money, and she got some peace of mind in return. A good exchange. And the fact the goddamn place was open until midnight on a Monday night was a fucking bonus. I’d seen a sign in the store that said you could shop online and pick up in the store. I could send someone to go get it after I’d shopped from my phone. The place carried just about everything anyone could possibly want. I’d been suitably impressed with the electronics in particular. Lucas’s iInVidiosa was there on an end-cap display, front and center. Being impressed was something that rarely happened for me.
I’d make sure she was reimbursed the amount of the receipt as an out-of-pocket expense on the renovation, but I wasn’t telling her tonight. She would protest the reimbursement no doubt, ergo the reason to shelve the issue for a later time.
I didn’t want to hear protests from her right now.
Because right now I had Brooke close to me in the back of the car as we sipped our coffees and watched the rain still steadily pouring down over the city in a kind of cleansing baptism.
Kind of like how I felt, too.
She’s coming home with me.
“YOUR view is stunning, Caleb. City lights at night are my favorite.” When I brought Brooke into this room, she headed straight for the wall of windows and looked out at the city with the Charles River stretched out in a wide arc.
“I agree; it is stunning.” She was talking about the view. Brooke had no idea my stunning view was her looking out at the city lights reflecting over the river on a rainy night. Those long legs encased in tall sexy boots topped with a short green skirt, her wavy blonde hair spilling down the back of her black velvet jacket, the contrast of colors she chose against her skin and hair—all of it perfection. I needed to feel her hair in my hands. I needed my hands on her.
The moment she’d come into my house, I knew she belonged here. The whole experience was crazy and impulsive for me. Things were moving quickly with her—far too fast in fact, but there was no slowdown in progress on my end that I could tell. I just kept pushing and seeing where it would lead. I knew it was too soon for me to be feeling this way about Brooke, but that didn’t make my feelings go away. If anything, I wanted her even more. I would let her tell me when she was ready, and then the seco
nd that happened, I knew there would be no possibility for me to turn back.
I just knew.
My father was right on the money when he’d said I would know when the right girl came along. I was looking at her right now. I had found her.
“Caleb, I think I know just how to redesign this room to make the view stand out even more.”
Just stay here forever and that’ll do it. “That’s great you’re already getting some good concepts for designs. See, wasn’t this a great idea I had for you to get acquainted with the space?”
She turned her head back to smile at me. “Yes,” she said shyly. “I can’t believe I’ll be working with all of this.” She lifted both hands up. “The interior has marvelous bones, Caleb. I can’t wait to see the rest of it, especially the garden on the rooftop.”
Marvelous bones—marvelous everything. “Hopefully it won’t be raining tomorrow and you can stroll around up there.” I moved behind her where she stood at the window and breathed her in. She smelled like oranges to me. It was an intoxicating scent that drew me in like a moth to a flame, careless of the heat that would eventually incinerate its wings.
Is that what would happen to me? Would the heat of my desire for her incinerate me?
