Page 96 of The Write Track
Brody nodded absently. “What about you?”
Now I was the one confused. “What about me?”
“What if you want to change something about your house?”
I hadn’t even realized that my mindset had changed until I was already speaking. “I’ll probably end up moving closer to the downtown area.”
Brody’s mouth fell open. “What? You were so excited to move to The Landings.”
“Actually, I wasn’t.” I held out my hands. “I was excited to have a golf cart and a place to call home. Rentals suck. It’s fine for now. It’s not going to be a forever home, though.”
“Because Bella likes the downtown area?”
I could have lied to save face, but I hated lying to my best friend. “She’s in a rental now. She wants to be close to downtown. She finds real joy there. I would never take that away from her.”
“What do you find real joy in, though?”
“Her.” I laughed at how sappy I sounded and rubbed my cheek. “I never thought this would happen to me. My greatest joy was giving you a hard time about it happening to you.”
“Oh, I remember.” Brody was the solemn sort, and that was on full display as he studied me. “You said I was being ridiculous.”
“You were. I stand by that. The thing is, there’s something I didn’t understand at the time.” I had to search my heart for the right words. “When it’s the right person, you don’t care aboutbeing ridiculous. You only care when you don’t know what it feels like.”
“You’re already in love with her, aren’t you?” There was no judgement in his tone.
I shook my head. “I don’t know about that. I think I’ll know when it’s time to use that word, and honestly, she is the most amazing person I’ve ever met. I’m totally infatuated with her. Love is still to come, though.”
“Oh.” Brody looked disappointed. “Okay.”
I gave him an exasperated look. “Dude, do you know how much I’m looking forward to that part? I want to savor every moment. It’s better that we’re not there yet.”
“You sound pretty sure of yourself.”
“I am.”
“What if Bella isn’t as sure of herself?”
He wasn’t asking to be a jerk. He was concerned about my feelings, afraid something might happen that had the potential to crush me. I was grateful he was my friend.
“Bella’s feelings for me are legitimate,” I started, believing every word. “I feel it.” I tapped the spot above my heart. “She’s still scarred by what happened with Preston, however, and I don’t think she realizes how much.”
“How are you going to fix that?”
“I suppose hiring somebody to kill Preston isn’t an option.”
Brody looked alarmed.
“I’m joking,” I assured him. “Killing Preston would scar her more. She would always blame herself.”
“Oh, well, if that’s the only reason.”
I laughed. “I don’t know what I’m going to do about Preston. He needs to be removed from her life. He cannot be a constant shadow haunting her for the rest of her days.”
“You could go to the police,” Brody suggested. “He’s technically stalking her.”
“He is, but we can’t prove that. He has plausible deniability. He didn’tknowthat Bella was a published author because she wasn’t in contact with him.”
“All he had to do was google her name.”
