Page 80 of Taking the Pitch
“Why don’t you build it now? I mean, you have the money.”
Wow, rude Millie.
“Sorry, that was rude of me to just assume.”
“No, you’re right. I do have the money to build it now if I wanted to.”
“Then what’s stopping you?” I ask, turning in his arms to face him and linking my hands behind his neck.
He tips his head back and forth. “Well, for one, I’d like to live out near my parents and Kessler and his family. And right now, there’s nothing available near them to buy.”
“You’re really close with them, aren’t you? Not just your parents and Kessler, but Lucy and Hudson, too.”
“I am. Lucy and Hudson were meant to be in our family. I could see that from the moment Kess brought them to the house.” He smirks. “Plus, Lucy is always up to join me in giving Kessler a hard time.”
I smile up at him. “Always the troublemaker, aren’t you?”
He lifts a shoulder. “That’s what little brothers are for.”
“That was reason one. I’m assuming there’s a second reason?”
“There is,” he says, pausing to tuck a piece of my hair behind my ear. “I don’t want to build a house by myself. I want to build ahomewith someone. Plan what the inside will look like. How many rooms we might need for kids. Fight over the color of the kitchen countertop or what color the living room should be.”
My chest squeezes. The passion in his words flowing over me. The look of desire in his eyes, pulling me in.
“Oh,” I whisper.
“Yeah,” he whispers back. “And until my dream girl agrees to that, my dreamhousewill have to wait. Because I can’t have one without the other.”
My heart speeds up, because I know he’s talking about me and as much as my heart screams yes, the logical side of my brain chimes in, telling me no. It’s too soon. He hasn’t seen the worst of you.
“Anyway, enough about that. Do you want to see the rest of my place?” he says casually, like what he just admitted was no big deal.
Maybe it’s not.
I write about this stuff all the time. Why can’t it happen in real life?
Putting that thought away to mull over later, I give him a nod and we exit the library and up the metal staircase across from it.
“There’s just a guest room and ensuite up here,” he says, flipping on the light to a sparse guest room that only has a bed and a nightstand with a lamp on it. I guess you wouldn’t need much if you were just a guest.
“Then out here,” he says, turning the light off and leading me towards another door, “is the rooftop access.” He opens the door, revealing a large, graveled area that we step out onto. There’s a little area right off to our left that has what looks like agrilling station with a counter and barbecue that’s been covered for the winter.
Judd points to an area that’s bare. “I’m going to get furniture for that area next summer, not that I’ll get to enjoy it too much with it being the middle of the season. But it would be nice to sit out here on warm summer nights.”
“The view is amazing from up here,” I say, taking a few steps further into the space. When I turn, I let out a gasp. “Is that ahot tub?”
Judd chuckles. “Yeah, I haven’t really used it much since moving in.”
I look at him in horror. “Why would younotuse it?”
“I’ll show you,” he says, grabbing my hand and pulling me back through the door.
We make our way down the stairs and walk underneath them to a door. Turning the handle, he guides me in and switches on the light, revealing a huge king-sized bed with one of those floating frames. Wood and iron nightstands are on either side of the bed. Across the room is a large TV mounted on the wall. The wall with the bed is the only one in the room that has pitch black paneling, the rest of the room is white besides the thick black curtains that cover the windows. Other than that, there’s really not much in here for decorations.
“How long have you lived here again?”
“I know. It’s not really decorated. It kills my mom, trust me. She’s been chomping at the bit to decorate my place, but I told her not to bother. This is just a place to live. I spend most of my time either at their place, at Kessler’s, or in my library. Now, let me show you the second-best room in the place,” he says, tugging me across the room and to the door to the right of the bed.
