“And then he apologized and they worked it out!” she countered. “Now they’re happily married with a baby on the way!”
“But don’t you get it? Relationships are not guaranteed to be smooth sailing. There are always going to be issues–bumps in the road, misunderstandings, and whatnot!”
“I get that, but…”
“No! No buts! You can keep going exactly as you are with Brody right now for a while–weeks, months, hell, you can probably keep the status quo for years. But eventually, you are going to have to have this talk. And wouldn’t you rather know now that it’s not going to end the way you want than invest weeks, months, or years before finding out? You say you want to get married and have kids someday, but if that’s something that Brody is never going to want, why are you wasting your time?”
Why indeed?
When she didn’t respond, Josie moved back and sat down on the corner of the desk. “I get that you’re in love with him and you’re hoping he’s going to feel the same,” she said softly. “And believe me, I hope he does too. But if it were me, I’d want to know sooner rather than later. If he’s never going to give you what you want, then you need to move on.”
“Maybe he doesn’t know it yet because it’s been too soon,” she offered weakly.
“Or maybe he just wants to have his cake and eat it too.”
“Wrong metaphor, but I get what you’re saying. Dang it.”
“Look, only you know when the time is right to say something. Think about it.”
Leanna had a feeling it was going to be the only thing she thought about today.
It was late.
Much later than he intended and now he felt like a complete jackass for giving Leanna so much grief this morning about being there for him when he got home.
Eleven o’clock.
Muttering a curse, he pulled into the driveway and parked beside her car but noticed the house was mostly dark. Climbing from the car, he could only imagine how annoyed she was going to be with him.
He had texted her that he was leaving at seven. And at the time, he was truly packed up and ready to leave. The legal team at King Hospitality were handling the rest of the call to Japan after Brody spent an hour negotiating everything they wanted. But when he was at the elevator, Donald Prince, the head of their legal team, asked him to come back in to go over a few of the finer points in the contract. It should have only taken an hour, but time got away from him. By the time he pulled out his phone to tell Leanna he was on his way, over three hours had passed.
If their roles were reversed, he knew he’d be pissed.
Stepping into the house, he quietly shut the door. There was one small lamp on in the living room and he saw a small tower of cupcakes on the kitchen island. And even if he didn’t see them, all he had to do was inhale to know she’d been baking.
He put his satchel down on the counter and threw his jacket on top of it. Silently, he walked back toward his bedroom and found Leanna sound asleep in his bed. With a weary sigh, he raked a hand through his hair as he leaned against the doorjamb and simply watched her for a moment. Because of all the glass along the back wall, she was bathed in moonlight and looked both peaceful and beautiful.
And he’d left her here all by herself even after she shared with him how uncomfortable it made her.
God, I’m such a bastard…
He’d seriously been trying to change and he knew he had in so many ways. No one else had ever gotten him to do the things Leanna did, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t screwed this up.
The selfish part of him wanted to strip and crawl into bed and slowly wake her up by kissing his way down her body, but he had a feeling she might not be particularly receptive to that. So he walked over and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead and turned and left the room. He wasn’t ready to go to sleep and there was no way he wanted to disturb her.
Padding back out to the kitchen, he grabbed himself a bottle of water before searching for something to eat. They had ordered dinner in for the Japan call–ironically, Chinese food–but he’d barely touched his food and now he was hungry. There were leftovers from the last few nights–some Mexican from last night and some barbecue from Monday–but neither were appealing. He had a full refrigerator drawer full of fruit, but that wasn’t what he wanted either. With a sigh, he shut the refrigerator door and started to walk toward the pantry to see what he could find there.
But he never made it.
Cupcakes.
Those damn tempting cupcakes.
Why was he torturing himself? Hell, why was he denying himself? Obviously he had enough self-control that he wasn’t going to eat the entire dozen sitting here in front of him. The last one he ate was two months ago for crying out loud. Surely he could have one and move on, right? Maybe if he just ate one, then he could find something else to eat without being distracted.
So he took the one at the top of the tower. It was yellow cake with chocolate icing and a few sprinkles on top. Nothing too crazy. Nothing so over the top that he felt bad about taking it without asking first.
Carefully, he peeled the paper liner away and took a bite.
Flavor exploded on his tongue; it was so damn good that his knees threatened to buckle and he moaned with pleasure. Dear Lord, they were better than he remembered. They were smaller than he remembered too, because it was gone in two bites.
He looked over his shoulder as if he were afraid Leanna was going to come out and hit him with a rolling pin before grabbing a second one. After the first bite, he went and poured himself a glass of milk because water simply wouldn’t do. Finishing the cupcake, he guzzled the milk and felt like he could relax.
After one more cupcake.
It didn’t occur to him that maybe he was overdoing it–or that maybe she had baked these for a reason–because all he could think about was how nothing else in this house would be nearly as satisfying as these sweet cupcakes.
Well, tasting Leanna would, but that wasn’t an option right now.
Halfway through the fourth cupcake, he heard Leanna clear her throat behind him.
Busted!
Brody shoved the rest of the cupcake in his mouth and quickly chewed it before turning to face her. “Sorry, did I wake you?”
Her hair was tousled, her movements were a little slow, and her eyes were half closed, but somehow even in the dim light of the kitchen, she managed to come close and brush all of the crumbs off of him.
And there were a lot.
Placing a hand over hers, he held it over his heart. “Hey,” he said softly before leaning in and kissing her. “I’m sorry I was so late.”
“It’s okay,” she replied, yawning. “I got worried that something happened to you–you know, before you texted that last time. I was tired and figured I’d just rest my eyes for a little bit and the next thing I knew…” she shrugged.
“You should be asleep. It’s late and I know you have an early day tomorrow.” He remembered Leanna saying how Thursday mornings were usually her earliest of the week because that’s when all the preparations for the weekend events really kicked into gear.
“I’m glad I’m not,” she said, pulling back slightly with a sleepy smile.
“Really?”
“Mm-hmm.” She reached up and wiped away something else from his face as her smile grew. “If I were still asleep, I would have missed this.” Holding up her thumb, she showed him the dollop of frosting she just took off of his face. “You have no idea how happy this makes me.”