AllFreeNovel
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“Oh, I’m well aware.” I dump some orange chicken on my plate and take a bite. After I swallow, I gear up my courage to share with her my crazy idea. “Listen, I didn’t bring you food as a bribe, but I do have a favor to ask.”
“Uh oh, you look serious.”
“My mom called me and asked if you would come out to the farm.”
Brie nods. “I understand. My mom wants you to come to our family Christmas party.”
I forget my well-crafted argument for a moment. “Really? I’ve never been invited to the exclusive Holland family party before.”
“It’s nothing to brag home to your friends about, but it is a high compliment from my mom. But back to you. What did you tell your mom?”
“I was hoping to tell her you would come.”
Brie chews on her lip. “Wouldn’t it give her the wrong idea about us?”
“That’s why I was hoping you would go there alone.”
She waves her chopsticks at me. “No way. That feels mean.”
“I had a lot of time to think on my drive today. My mom is obsessed with you. I mean it. She’s talked about you for years. What do you think about persuading her to move to LA with me?”
Brie stares at me for a moment before finally setting down the carton of food. She wipes her hand on a napkin, taking way too long to answer me. “What if . . . what if I don’t agree with your plan?”
I lean back against my hands and stretch out my legs. “What’s not to agree with?”
Brie tucks her hair behind her ear. “Bearwood has been her home for her entire life. She wouldn’t be happy in a big city.”
“Happiness is a choice.”
Brie shrugs. “Yes, but some happiness comes from familiarity. She shouldn’t have to make a conscious choice every morning when she wakes up. Sometimes happiness is as natural as breathing, especially when you’re surrounded by your loved ones and the home you’ve spent decades building.”
I stare at her because the beautiful world she lives in inside her mind is part of what makes Brie so refreshing to me. She wouldn’t agree with me, but she’s always embodied the word hope. Which is one of the reasons I’ve tried so hard to put several hundred miles between us until now. I don’t hope for the same things she does. I work in facts, not fantasies. “I know it would be an adjustment, but I plan to build her a vertical garden on my balcony, and she already gets along well with my neighbors when she visits. They’re around her age, so she wouldn’t be lonely.”
“Why are you really doing this?”
“Isn’t it obvious? She needs to be closer to doctors. The risk of a second stroke is high. Especially with all the stress of running a farm. I hired her a fantastic manager a few years back, but she’s still too involved. She has to lighten her load.”
Brie pokes at her rice beside her. “Would you really build her a vertical garden?”
“I’ve already drawn up a couple of variations.”
Brie looks impressed. “I didn’t know a businessman had time for woodworking projects.”
I scoff. “I usually don’t. I tend to take on more projects at work than I should.”
She sighs. “I don’t know, Rocky—er, Rockwell. I don’t want to intrude.”
Her slip of her nickname for me feels right, and I wonder why she corrected herself. I guess the past will always be a barrier between us. In the good old days, if I wanted to convince Brie to do something for me, there was only one solution. I wondered if it would work now. I am desperate. “Wrestle for it?”
Brie decided that moment to put a bite in her mouth, and she coughed into her hand. “What? No!”
“Leg or arm? Come on, let’s do this.” I rub my hands together. The idea of easily creaming Brie and getting my way paints an extremely appealing picture for me. I’ll even have an excuse to touch Brie without committing to anything too. I don’t want to analyze how messed up my last thought is.
“What is with you and wrestling?” She groans and pushes her food away. “And what do I get out of this?”
“You tell me? I’m willing to drive a couple hours for more Chinese.”
She shakes her head. “It has to be bigger than that.”
