Page 115 of I Choose You

It was Thursday, so she would have had a spin class today. My thoughts veered toward worrying if she’d harmed herself on the bike. Or pulled a muscle.

Stop. Just stop. I had to force myself to dismiss it. But I hadn’t. I couldn’t. All day, the same auto-reply box hovered over her work contact, and before I left the office, I gave in and called Sandra. She was charming and perhaps too loose to share information about her coworker, but her reply was innocuous.

“Oh, she just needed a girl’s day.”

How? I frowned. I thought Rena just left for her trip.

“I swear,” Sandra crooned. “Brooke is such a sweetheart.”

I bit my lip and held back a sigh. Yeah, a sweetheart with a side of revenge—almost.

“The way she dotes on her mother is just so precious. She sent me a picture of them at lunch before catching a matinee. I wish my daughters could visit more often.”

I hung up, feeling marginally saner. Knowing she wasn’t wounded or hurt made me feel better.

Fuck. I had to stop thinking about her.

“Hey.”

I jerked my head up, finding Kody at the door to my office.

We hadn’t really shared many words today at the office, but things seemed to be smoother between us. Even Pamela had commented in passing, “Oh, good, the boys aren’t trying to strangle each other again.”

“Do you want to ride together to this wedding house?” he asked.

“Manor.”

“Same thing. I’ve got someone I want to meet up with later, so the sooner we can get this over with, the better.”

“Gee, tone down your enthusiasm.”

“It’d be faster if you drive.”

“So you can race back for what?”

He made a crude gesture of humping something. “What do you think?”

I closed one eye and tilted my head to the side. “Do you really want an answer to that?”

“No. So, we’ll ride together?”

I shrugged. “May as well.”

He nodded.

Many years ago, we’d both lamented that we had to share one truck. Out at the estate, away from the city, driving was relaxing. When I finally got my first car, we’d both cruised around with no care about wasting gas or time.

Unlike me, Kody hated driving in the city. I didn’t mind.

On the way to Colette’s manor, Kody broke the silence again. I didn’t have the heart to speak up first, and I was curious what he’d say since we were alone in my SUV with time to kill.

“So Brooke,” he said.

I glanced at him but said nothing.

“You’re done with all that?”

I shook my head. “She’ll come to the wedding stuff. And the deal with Halden Inc. is too good to consider aborting it.”