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I waved it off. “Trust me, I’m used to garages.”
“Higher tech than mine.”
“Don’t know about that. Yours looks pretty impressive.” Yeah, it wasn’t shiny and camera ready, but clearly, it was a high-end operation. “Flip mentioned your place. Also, told me about the condos. I might be interested. I know I don’t have an appointment—”
Now, he waved off my words. “You don’t need an appointment. Just give me a minute to clean up, and I’ll show you the places we have available. My wife will kill me if I smudge up the walls.”
“Your wife?”
“Yeah, got married last summer.” He grinned wide. “Lots of changes around here. Petra’s at school—she goes to Michigan Valley—or she’d show you around with me. She has a better grasp of the whole aesthetics aspect.”
“I’m sure my wife does, too.”
“Wife?” he asked, echoing my question of him. “Since when are you married? I gotta admit, I follow your career and watch the races. Everything out there indicates you’re unattached.”
“Not so unattached. News is gonna get out pretty fast, but I’ve been married to my high school sweetheart since, well, high school.”
“Badass. And you’re looking for a place?”
“We have a tiny apartment—emphasis on tiny.”
“I think we can get you hooked up. Be right back.” He headed to a sink off to the side of the garage and scrubbed up his hands and forearms. Grabbing a clean towel, he dried off. “Hey, AJ, you’re solo for a few. I’ll be back.”
“Take your time,” the other man yelled as he kept his head down over a bike engine he worked on.
“So, we’ve got several layouts,” Bare said as we cut through a side door toward the shiny lobby of the new building. “There are eight floors, and the top two are filled. We have openings on two to six, ranging in size. Are you looking for a one bedroom? Two? Larger?”
“We need someplace where we can spread out and won’t have to move right away when the kids come along.”
He raised a brow at me, probably thinking I’d been hiding a whole lot from the world. I chuckled.
“Not yet,” I clarified. “Eventually, we’ll have some. Soon, I hope. I just have to convince my girl first.” Though I didn’t think there was actually any convincing needed. We were well on the way to getting knocked up. But Bare didn’t need to know that.
“We have a couple three-bedrooms. Anything bigger would have to wait until the other buildings are ready.”
“A three-bedroom is good.”
He nodded and ducked behind the guard’s desk to grab paperwork. He punched a code into a nearby wall panel then pulled out a ring of keys.
Forty-five minutes later, I was sold on a three-bedroom condo that overlooked Lake Michigan. I’d put down a deposit to hold it and made an appointment to bring Bristol to see it that evening. I wasn’t dumb enough to think this was a decision I’d make without her, or else, I might find myself living there alone.
* * *
Bristol rested her head on my chest while we recovered our breath from loving each other. I absently played with her hair and pressed occasional kisses to the top of her head while we just enjoyed the quiet aftermath of sex by cuddling together. The sheets were tangled around us, at least one of the pillows on the floor. Neither of us cared; we could share.
She trailed her finger along my hip, tracing my birthmark she’d always said looked like a fierce lion, a spirit animal to match my driving. I’d always hated the mark until she came along. In fact, I’d been nervous to let her see it the first time we’d gotten naked together. She never said a word, and it wasn’t until I tossed out an off-hand comment weeks later, that she’d told me it was something she loved about me. In her mind, I had a tattoo of a lion without me ever having to go under a needle, and it was a secret between the two of us. She loved to trace it, and I loved her touching me.
She sighed, her breath warming my skin. “I guess my worry about you leaving again was pointless. I kept telling myself not to get reattached to you because you were only here temporarily, but my heart and body weren’t listening.”
“I would have asked you to come with me. Not just asked—begged. There’s no way I could have left you. I’ve missed you so fucking much. I knew I shouldn’t put that choice on your shoulders, that you have dreams I can’t ask you to give up, but being with you again, even just being around you, showed me how much I still love you and need you. I’ve been miserable, Brisk.”
“Idohave lots of dreams, like opening a bookstore and writing the history of Cherish Cove book. Those can wait. Other things can shift. Isn’t that how life is? I also have dreams about us having a family, us being together, me supporting you in your career. You wouldn’t have been asking me to give up something in favor of you. I know that’s not a very modern thing to say, but being with you is most important to me.Youand the life we’ll make together are a big part of what I want in life.”
“Baby…”
“Aren’t you going to be miserable without racing, though?”
I shrugged, letting out a long breath. “I’ll miss it; I can’t lie about that. It’s been my whole life for as long as I can remember. I wasn’t even in grade school the first time my dad stuck me in a kart. As soon as I got behind that wheel, it was all over. My entire focus was the race. But I still chose wrong when I was eighteen.”
