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there.
I pushed away from my desk and started for the kitchen. This entire fucking thing was turning into a damn mess. And to top it all off, Brooke was acting weird. Distant. Like she didn’t want to be around me. She wasn’t making eye contact or smiling at me and she was clearly doing everything in her power to put space between us, like going straight to bed after we put the kids down and having breakfast apart from me and the kids the next morning.
I had to talk with her.
I had to figure out what was going on.
“Brooke?”
“Yep?”
“Could I talk to you for a second?” I asked.
She pushed up from the floor where they were all playing with Legos and came walking toward me. But she still wouldn’t make eye contact. She stood in front of me with her arms crossed and her eyes trained on the kids, clearly doing everything in her power to close herself off to me.
I didn’t like it.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
“Yeah. Why do you ask?”
“Because you’ve been distant and generally off.”
She looked at me like I was off my rocker.
“Did you have a bad day with the kids?” I tried again.
“No.”
“Okay. Is there something you want to talk about?”
“Nope,” she said coolly.
“So we’re simply going to act like nothing’s wrong when something clearly is?”
She flashed her gaze up to me and I knew that look. I recognized it—the same white-hot look she used to give me when I had stood her up. Whatever had happened, I’d really pissed her off.
Fuck. Did it have anything to do with us waking up together that one morning?
Had sneaking around somehow scared her off?
“Look, you’ve been with the kids quite a bit, and I admit, I’ve worked more than I should have on this trip,” I said.
“You don’t have to apologize to me for it. Your kids, on the other hand, might deserve one.”
I furrowed my brow at her statement as I reached out for her hand. But she yanked it away, leaving me with the ghostly sensation of her skin against mine without the reward of her heat.
“Let me take you out tonight,” I said. “An adult night. Just you and me.”
“Who’s going to watch the kids?” Brooke asked.
“There’s a nanny service on the island. I’ll have them send over their highest-rated caretaker. The kids will be okay. But I think you could use a night out with an adult.”
She just continued to stare at me.
Wow. She was really fucking angry. “Just say yes and the night is ours. Come on, an adult night, with no kids, plus wine, good food, and conversation. Or no talking, if that’s what you want. Let me do this for you. Please?”
She quirked an eyebrow up at me and I knew why. I never said please. I never begged. It wasn't in my nature. But I wasn’t leaving things like this between us. I would do whatever it took to get her alone, away from the chaos of my twins, the tension in the house, and all the bullshit work had brought down on my shoulders.
