Page 35 of I Choose You

At the door, she paused. “Technically, yes. But still. It just shows that doing what’s not expected doesn’t have to be a bad thing. You’re counting on him to be the guy he was in high school. Consider that he might not be. Deviate from the norm.”

I saluted her as she blew me a kiss good-bye and exited, leaving me full of so much to think about as I closed my eyes again.

Nap first. Then I’ll think about what I want from him.

13

KADEN

Between the third and fourth rep of my curls, I heard my phone ring with an incoming message. Not a missed call. Not an email. Not one of those annoying fucking push notifications for apps I could have sworn I’d disabled several times already.

A text.

All day I wondered if I’d get one in particular. I had no doubt Brooke would be suffering this morning. I hoped the aspirin and water gave her a head start on hydrating and dealing with her hangover.

I set the dumbbell down in the gym and passed Kody as he did his reps.

“Expecting a message?” he teased.

I raised my brows at him as I crossed the shock-absorption mats of the gym where we had memberships.

“You’ve been glancing at your phone the whole time we’ve been here.”

I should’ve just kept it in my pocket and waited to feel it buzz. We’d started on the treadmills though, and I knew better. My twin had once busted a brand-new iPhone when it fell out of his pocket on a run, and I’d been scared to pull a Kody ever since.

If there was even the slightest chance Brooke might contact me after our dinner last night, I didn’t want a broken phone to be the reason I’d missed it.

“You meet someone?” he guessed when I didn’t reply.

Fifteen years ago, yeah. But the Brooke I’d eaten with last night hardly seemed like the classmate we’d both known so long ago.

I picked it up and read the text. Resisting a wide smile, I debated how to reply to her simple words. Simple? They were anything but, and I needed another minute to pick at them.

Brooke: I’m sorry for what I did last night.

What she did? I replayed the highlights in my mind.

Brooke showing up well past what could have been considered “fashionably late” to the point I figured she was ghosting me.

I wouldn’t have blamed her, though. And she didn’t. That was forgivable. As my brother would claim, I was too nice to ever hold a grudge.

She’d strolled in there looking so fine, so edgy. I recalled the teases of her tattoos she’d revealed. At the Halden Inc. office, she covered most of them, but in that low-cut blouse with short sleeves, I’d gotten more of an eyeful of the art she’d decided to wear forever.

In my mind’s eyes, I saw her smiling, giggling, and drinking.

Is she sorry for drinking too much? It wasn’t like she chugged anything to get wasted. If I had to guess, she’d simply overestimated her tolerance. It made me suspect she might not drink often, and that was nothing to judge—or I wouldn’t be the one to judge her for it.

Kaden: Sorry for what?

Three dots hovered as she replied. Or not. The bubble with the trio of periods disappeared. Then reappeared. Gone again. Then they remained.

I smiled, enjoying the fact I had her riled up and she didn’t know what to say.

I decided to put her out of her misery.

Kaden: Nothing happened. You have nothing to be sorry for.

Brooke: I feel like I did something.