Room for You (20 page)

After dinner, I noticed people started clearing out quickly, partially due to Blaire’s escalating tone. I could hear her getting louder and louder in her storytelling, and that witch cackle she had was impossible to ignore. Twice I saw Andy whisper something in her ear while trying to take her wine glass, to which she objected by pushing him off and laughing.

Before I knew it Andy, Blaire, Chelsea, her husband Tom, Brody and myself were the only ones there. While the guys were talking in the den, Chelsea and I moved to the kitchen and were standing at the island, chatting and sipping coffee when Blaire came clomping up.

“What are you two blabbing about?” She slurred as she swished her wine glass around.

“Books … and kids.” Chelsea looked my way and smiled sweetly, then turned back to Blaire. “We both have twins—how cool is that?”

Blaire’s jaw dropped as she focused on me. “
You
have
kids
?”

My whole body tensed, my heart raced around in circles inside my chest as I silently begged for Brody to come in and tell me it was time to go.

“Yep,” I squeaked out, my voice shakier than I meant for it to be. I cleared my throat and continued, “My twins are 5. Both girls.”

“Where’s their father?” she demanded boldly.

“Uh, not sure.”

“You’re not sure?” Her voice raised in accusatory disbelief. “What the fuck does
that
mean?”

Oh God, Brody, where are you?

“Oh … I get it.” Her eyes grew wide as a smirk crawled slowly across her face. “Single mom hits the jackpot with professional athlete.”

Chelsea interrupted. “Come on, Blaire, that’s not fair.”

“Oh shut it, Chels,” Blaire snapped. “You know nothing about this girl, neither do I—other than she has terrible taste in men.”

“Blaire…” Chelsea continued half-heartedly, while I stood wishing I could morph myself into one of the flat slate tiles beneath our feet and disappear forever.

“It’s a good idea, I don’t completely blame you…” Blaire walked over to the bar and topped off her wine glass, continuing her onslaught. “But seriously, you couldn’t find a better guy? Did you just grab the first one you found, or what? If it were me, I would have picked one that hasn’t fucked half of Minneapolis.”

Her words punched me in the chest like a champion boxer forcing me to hold onto the counter to keep from reeling backwards toward the ropes. What was she talking about? Brody said he’d never really ever done the girlfriend thing.

She seemed to notice my panic and fed off of it. “Did you know that? You’re not the first girl he’s taken somewhere, honey. Did you think you were special? It’ll be someone else next week.” She took a long swig of her wine, her eyes locked on me. “Hell, it was someone else just a couple weeks ago. He’s been screwing my friend Kendall on and off for years. She told me she texted him this weekend, but he didn’t answer … guess now we know why, huh?” She cocked an eyebrow and raised her glass at me.

Chelsea reached behind the counter and apologetically squeezed my hand as she called into the den. “Tom, think we better get going!”

Please, Brody, follow him in here
.
Please.

I should have said something. I
know
I should have said something, but the fact of the matter was that I
didn’t
know Brody that well yet, so defending him was pointless. I had nothing to argue back. Plus, a little part of me still wanted to win Andy over and screaming at his wife wouldn’t earn me any points.

“Oh, don’t leave because of me, Chelsea. I’ll stop. I just thought she should know who she’s getting involved with. Crawling into bed with a rattlesnake might be safer.” She laughed to herself, looking down at her drink as she swirled it around.

The guys came in the room and Brody looked at me curiously, instantly sensing something was wrong. I quickly shook my head to prevent him from asking anything and tilted my head toward the door. He pulled his brows together in a frown and walked over, pulling me in close.

“You okay?” he asked quietly in my ear.

I couldn’t answer; I just nodded.

“So, Brody … how’s Kendall?” Blaire cackled.

Brody’s face reddened with anger. “What the hell’s going on here?” he said, looking back and forth between Blaire and me.

“Nothing,” I pleaded, laying my hand on his heaving chest. “Can we just go, please?”

Blaire hiccupped. “I was just having a nice little chat here with Katie, or whatever her name is, about what and
who
you like to do in the off season. Thought she might want to know all that before she and her little darlings get too involved.”

“Okay, that’s enough,” Andy ordered, lunging for her glass, but before he could grab it, she snapped her hand back fast, sending the burgundy liquid dripping down the front of my ice blue dress.

“Oh no!” Chelsea gasped as she ran to the counter for paper towels.

“Are you okay?” Brody turned, trying to brush the excess liquid off of me, onto the floor.

A lump formed in my throat, and I knew the tears wouldn’t be far behind. “I just want to go, okay? Can we please go? Now?” I begged in a whisper.

“Oh God, she’s fine!” Blaire rolled her eyes as she walked over to her purse on the counter. “Here,” she said, pulling a wad of money out of her wallet. “This should cover the dress, okay?” With that she tossed a twenty-dollar bill across the counter and winked at me.

Brody snapped.

“Listen to me, you miserable bitch…” He took a step forward, shielding me from any more of Blaire’s looks or words. “You can say whatever you want
to
me or
about
me, but
Kacie
is off limits. Got it?”

Her eyes blinked rapidly as she stared at him with a blank expression on her face. He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the door before he turned back one more time.

“And you might want to remember when you’re looking down your fake, plastic nose at her, that it’s
her
boyfriend’s hockey contract that pays for this fucking house of yours. Your husband will always be my best friend, but that doesn’t mean he has to be my agent. Consider yourself warned.”

The drive home from Andy and Blaire’s was the longest forty minutes of my life. I apologized to Kacie about a thousand times, and while she smiled at me, all she kept saying was, “It’s fine.” Growing up, my mom and dad would occasionally go at it, and every time she told him, “it’s fine,” he either slept on the couch or bought flowers the next day. When it comes to women, “fine” is bad. Very, very bad.

She wasn’t fine; I knew that. I could tell by the way she stared out the window the whole way home but never really focused on anything. She was avoiding eye contact with me, and I didn’t blame her one bit. What the hell had Blaire said to her
before
I went into the kitchen, and more importantly, what the hell was I thinking taking her over to Blaire’s house in the first place? That was the stupidest thing I had done in a long time. I’d dealt with Blaire and her bitchiness before, why did I think Kacie would be immune?

We pulled into the parking space in my garage, and Kacie picked up her purse off the floor. Just as she was about to reach for the handle, I locked the door.

She spun and looked at me, her brows pulled together, making the cutest little, confused crinkle marks appear on her forehead. “What are you doing?”

“Talk to me,” I pleaded with her.

A fake smile crossed her face and she put her hand on mine. “There’s nothing to talk about, okay?”

“Yes, there is. What did Blaire say to you before I came into the kitchen?”

Her voice was soft as she stared down at her hands. “She basically warned me about you, to stay away. Listen, Brody … I think maybe coming here this weekend was a mistake, like maybe I should just go tonight. Our lives are
so
different.”

“Don’t say that.” I tried arguing, but she didn’t give me a chance.

“It’s true. My typical Saturday night consists of Disney movies with the girls, maybe an ice cream sundae if we’re feeling adventurous. Tonight was … rough.” She sighed, her eyes bouncing wildly around the car as she started rambling. “But then you look at me like you do, and you kiss me like you do and I think that it’s worth the risk … that
you’re
worth the risk. A few shitty remarks from Blaire later and not only do I realize I really
don’t
know you, but now I’m back to questioning what I was already questioning-”

“Wait, wait. Hold on a minute.” I held my hands up in front of me in a desperate attempt to derail the train wreck about to happen in her brain. “First of all, you’re confusing the hell out of me. Second, this car is really fucking uncomfortable. What do you say we go upstairs, put some sweats on, open a bottle of wine and have an ‘Ask Brody Anything’ session? Nothing is off limits, okay?”

She raised a curious eyebrow. “Nothing?”

“Absolutely nothing. For you … I’m an open book.”

She warily looked at me and reached for the door handle again. This time I released the lock, hoping to God she didn’t get out and head straight for her jeep. Even if she did, I wasn’t opposed to lying on the hood to force her to talk to me.

She met me at the back of my car and used my shoulder as a crutch as she pulled one of her sexy legs up and removed her heel. I tried really hard not to drool in her hair as she did it again with the other leg. How can someone make such a simple action so damn sexy? She did that with everything, I’d noticed … making breakfast, reading to her girls, breathing. She was slowly cementing herself into my heart. I’d be damned if Blaire and her big obnoxious mouth were going to ruin any of that for me.

We walked into my condo and Diesel ran to greet us. After giving Kacie a thorough once over with his nose, he rushed over to me and whimpered pitifully.

“I’m gonna take him out before he embarrasses himself and makes a mess for me to clean. Wanna go with us?”

“Yeah,” she replied quickly. “Can I just change real quick?”

No, please leave that dress on every damn day for the rest of your life.

“Sure,” I replied as she turned and headed down the hall. “Need help?” I called out after her.

She glanced back at me and rolled her eyes, continuing down the hall.

A few minutes later, I left my room and walked to the family room. Kacie was squatted down playing with Diesel, her hair falling down around her face. She looked adorable, even just in jeans and a hoodie.

“Ready?” I asked as I grabbed his leash from the closet.

She stood, giving me that crinkle-nose grin that brings me to my knees.

“Yep, let’s go.”

The sharpness of the evening air slapped us in the face as we stepped out onto the street. Kacie hugged herself. Mid-June was pleasant in Minnesota during the day, but the nights were hit or miss. Tonight’s chilly weather gave me an excuse to put my arm around Kacie, so I wasn’t going to complain.

“Okay … ready when you are,” I said, wanting her to know that I hadn’t forgotten what I promised her in the car, because I meant it. Anything she wanted to know, I would tell her, good or bad. Some things would probably be tough to talk about, but if she wanted to know, I’d tell her.

She sighed and I thought maybe she’d changed her mind about wanting to have the conversation, but then she jumped right in. “Who’s Kendall?”

“Kendall is a friend,” I answered truthfully, without hesitation.

She eyed me for a second and then looked away. “Just a friend?”

“I’m telling the truth, I promise. We’ve been out a handful of times, but it was never more than a friend thing. We never put any label on it. I wasn’t interested.”

“Did she text you while I was here?”

Shit.

“Yes. I didn’t answer her; I didn’t even read them. I just deleted them.”

She looked at me out of the corner of her eye, gauging my honesty. “When was the last time you hung out with her?”

“Um…” I had to think about this one, my time with Kendall never really stuck out to me. “About a month ago, I think.”

Kacie bit her lip, looking at the different storefronts as we walked. I could tell she was nervous and her brain was spinning.

“Did you sleep with her?”

I didn’t want to answer this, but I promised honesty.

“Yes.”

“Here…” I motioned toward the wrought iron bench behind her. “Let’s sit for a minute and I’ll explain.” I hooked Diesel’s leash around the armrest and faced Kacie. She sat as far away as possible, her arms folded in front of her, completely closed off from me.

“Remember a couple weeks ago when I told you that all through high school and college I never really dated?”

She nodded, her beautiful green eyes staring straight ahead, digesting everything I was saying. I wanted nothing more than to pull her in my arms, relax back on this bench and just let life happen around us, but that wasn’t an option … yet.

“That was the truth. High school, college, up until now, I haven’t had a girlfriend. Someone I would take home to meet my parents, someone I would drive an hour and a half just to see her cute smile and freckles.”

She pressed her lips together tight, trying to hide her grin when she realized I was talking about her.