Pep talk over, she walked over to the door, rehearsing possible smiles and ways to say Hello once she opened the door.
A big, cheery smile with a Hey there!? Or would that be too cheesy?
Or a demure smile and a soft hello—would that be too fake?
Oh, good grief. She was not turning into that girl. If he didn’t like how she opened the door, then he was the one with issues.
Reaching for the knob, she took a breath, put on what she hoped was a normal, medium smile, and opened the door.
Brandon stood on the basement patio, his arm leaned against the doorjamb, a rugged smile on his lips and of all things, a cowboy hat on his head. He winked at her and touched the rim of his hat. “Howdy, Ma’am. You ready?”
And just like that, the nervous butterflies in her belly vanished. “I just need to grab my purse. Nice hat there, cowboy.”
He hooked his thumbs through his belt loops and smiled. “I bring it out on special occasions. I am, after all, a member of a country western band and from Texas. Not having a cowboy hat would be against the rules.”
“Well, it suits you.” She grabbed her purse from the hook by the wall, then smiled. “I’m ready when you are.”
After she’d locked the door, he took her hand and led her to his big, shiny black truck. The sun was waning in the sky, but the weather had done a complete one-eighty from the previous weekend. Mid-sixties and a mostly clear sky. The perfect evening for a first date.
Brandon opened the door for her and helped boost her up, then jogged to the driver’s side and slid into the cab beside her. “Would you mind if we stopped by a house in Franklin real quick? I got a call this afternoon about a rental that just came on the market. It’s a steal of a price, and they already have people lined up to see it tomorrow, so I was hoping to get in early.”
Not how she expected to start off their first real date, but nothing about their relationship was normal, so why not? “Not a problem at all.”
He merged onto I65 headed south, then reached over and grabbed her hand. “Any preference for dinner?”
Her hand engulfed in his felt oh-so-right and melted away the last of the nerves she’d had about the evening. “Just not Sonic.”
“Aw, come on now. They have the best tater tots ever.”
Mari laughed and rolled her eyes. “Fine. If you really want it—”
“Naw. You ruined it now. We’ll just have to go to some steakhouse or something. Not nearly as good, but I’ll suffer through a rib-eye for you, Baby.”
“That’s a real man right there.”
Fifteen minutes later, after Brandon had regaled her with all the reasons why Sonic Drive-In would have been an amazing location for dinner, they pulled up to a small, white house. It was in one of Franklin’s older neighborhoods, and about a thousand steps down from Natalie’s place.
She’d expected some high-end townhouse or duplex, not something that looked no bigger than her grandparent’s old cottage in Gatlinburg. “Wow. It’s—”
“Small. I know. But it’s a great price, the lot is one of the bigger ones in the neighborhood, and I won’t have to worry about bugging neighbors with my drums like I would in a condo or townhouse.”
Smart. A car pulled in behind them, and a man in khakis and a black jacket stepped out. “Okay, let’s go see this place.”
Thirty minutes later, Brandon was signing the application, writing out a check for the outrageous deposit, and shaking hands with his new landlord.
Mari felt like she had whiplash.
The house had been nice enough. Clean, mostly updated. Two small bedrooms. But—how could he make that big of a decision in just thirty minutes?
Had it been her, she would have gone home. Prayed about it over the weekend. Brought her mom and Nate to see it. Looked at about a hundred other places. Then—maybe—she would have put in the application.
Then again, he did say there were a bunch of people lined up to look at it the next day.
It just underscored how different they were.
As they walked back to his truck, Brandon’s face glowed with excitement. “I did it, Mare. My own place for the first time.”
The shortening of her nickname wasn’t missed on her. Danielle was the only one who did that. “I thought you had your own place before you moved to Natalie’s?”
“I did, but I was a broke kid right out of college so had a couple roommates. Natalie and Dave offered me their basement rent free to help me out. It allowed me to invest most of my earnings from music into AV Design Pro.”
Interesting. “And now you can afford to rent your own place. That’s great, Brandon.”
He captured her hand and brought it to his lips. “Don’t take this as me bragging, Nanny Mari. But I can afford much more than this place. I just don’t want to right now.”
She blinked. “Color me confused. What are you talking about?”
“AV Design Pro has done pretty well. We grossed over half a million last year, and if all goes well this year, we should blow that number out of the water. Between that and touring, I can well afford to buy a decent house. But I’m not sure what I want and where I want to end up yet, so I figured I’d just rent something small until I figure a few things out. I should’ve moved out of Nat’s a year or two ago, but it was working and I honestly haven’t been in town much to worry about it.”
Ack. There he was again. Surprising the doubts right out of her and making her want to wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him like she had Sunday night.
Not that she cared a bit about his financial status or place of residence.
No. He’d just reminded her they weren’t quite as different as she’d thought. There was a tiny little planner in him too. It was just heavily masked.
He saved her from humiliatingly throwing herself at him by opening the truck door. “I have a proposal for you.”
She stepped up into the truck and turned to him, eyebrows lifted in even more shock. “You? A proposal?”
“You’ll have to trust me, though.”
“I might could do that. Now, what is this proposal?”
“You and me—and a few to-go cheeseburgers and tater tots from Sonic for dinner. You game?”
She threw her head back and laughed. Now this was the Brandon she knew well. “I mean, I guess if you really want to go—”
“It’ll be worth it in the end. I promise.”
Chapter 19
Brandon slowed the truck to a stop and put it in park.
Mari sat forward and looked out the window. “Where exactly are we?”
Grabbing the brown sacks of food, he winked at her. “Just get the drinks and follow me.”
He couldn’t wait to show Mari the view. It was his favorite spot to come and think. It was the highest point that could be driven to on Andrew’s land, and the country music star had given him permission to come whenever he wanted. In fact, he’d shown it to Brandon the first time—it was an amazing place to get out of his own head and pray and listen.
Even though this was their first date, it felt like he’d known her for months. He’d purposely tried to concentrate on getting to know her this past week, and even though he’d wanted to kiss her no less than a hundred different times, he’d only given in once.
But while his heart was quickly falling for this woman who had clobbered her way into his life, he had no idea what was going on in that pretty little head of hers. Maybe she thought it was just a casual evening out with a friend. He should be okay with that. He wanted to be okay with that.
But he wasn’t. Not even a little.
While two weeks ago he would have sworn he was nowhere near ready for a serious relationship, he couldn’t see this thing between them being anything less. He was tired of playing games.
And then Andrew had called that stupid band meeting earlier today, and Brandon had spent the rest of the afternoon stewing about it.
He’d come to one conclusion.
He needed to know if she fe
lt the same way before their relationship went any further. And this seemed the best place to find out.
Grabbing the blanket he kept in the backseat of the truck, he motioned her to follow him through the woods.
A minute later, they were at his spot.
Mari gasped. “Oh my goodness. It’s gorgeous up here.”
“Right? See down there, past that stand of trees? That’s Andrew’s farmhouse.”
She leaned closer to him, and before he realized what she was doing, she’d pressed a kiss to his jaw. “Thank you.”
“I’ll have to get you Sonic more often if it comes with one of those.”
She laughed, then took the blanket from him and helped them get settled.
During their meal of double-cheeseburgers and greasy tater tots, they talked easily as they had every evening this week, but this time with nature playing its own version of background music better than any restaurant or television ever could have. Mari told him how she’d spent the day hanging out with her Aunt Kendra, helping put together Easter baskets to take to the local children’s hospital. Brandon moaned about the prospect of furniture shopping for his new place, and Mari offered to help him decorate. He almost kissed her for it and would have if she hadn’t laughed and pushed him away.
When the food was gone and he’d run the trash back to the truck, he sat on the blanket again. He leaned back on his palms and stretched out his legs, crossing his ankles. “Thank you.”
Mari sat next to him with her legs crisscrossed. “For what?”
“Being flexible and eating out here. I’m sure this isn’t what you had in mind when I told you I’d take you to dinner.”
She nudged him with her elbow. “You’re right, but this is much better.”
Brandon reached over and took her hand in his. He had no idea how to broach the topic they needed to discuss but holding her hand gave him the courage to plunge in.
“The band meeting today was not what I expected.”
She squeezed his fingers. “Yeah? I was wondering about that but wasn’t sure if I could ask.”
He rubbed her hand with his thumb. “You can ask me anything, Mari.”
She leaned her head to his shoulder. “Thanks.”
He swallowed and plunged ahead. “Andrew’s antsy. The doctor told him he needs to be off for at least four weeks, but he’s convinced he’ll be ready to be back on stage by this coming weekend as long as he sits on a stool most of the show. We all told him how crazy he is to consider it, but he’s determined not to let his fans down. We did a mini practice this afternoon to see how it went, and he seemed to handle it fine.”
“What—what does that mean exactly?”
“It means I only have a few more days until I’m on the road again for a while.” He looked at her, hoping to get a clue as to what she was thinking.
But her face was only thoughtful and reflective.
He, on the other hand, wanted to pick up a rock and launch it in the direction of Andrew’s house. He thought he would have a few more weeks before he left again. A few weeks to decide if he really could throw his rule of no serious dating out the window.
What was he saying? His rule was already long gone. Had been since he’d started packing up his things last Sunday night.
What he really hoped was to have the time to convince Mari to give this partially long-distance relationship a shot.
He was tired of playing games, and if they were going to be in this, he wanted to be all in, no regrets.
But he couldn’t be all in alone.
His fingers squeezed tighter around hers. “And it means we need to figure out exactly what’s going on between us and what we’re going to do about it.”
Stay calm, Mari.
Breathe.
She tried to act like it was no big deal, but her insides started screaming demands all at once. Her stomach tightened, her head pinched in pain, and her heart beat off the charts.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. She needed this to be fun and casual, but suddenly it’d taken a dive into territory she wasn’t even close to ready for. “What—what do you think is going on?”
His fingers tightened on her hand, then he reached up and nudged her gaze to him. “I’m—I think I’m falling in love with you, Mari Jenkins.”
Love.
Jerking her hand from his, she scrambled to her feet. “Brandon, I—” I love you too. But no. She couldn’t. That made no sense. This was their first date, and maybe it could turn into love someday, but they barely knew each other.
He couldn’t love her, and there was no way she could be in love with him back.
They’d only known each other a week.
She still had almost a year and a half before she had slated to go back to school for her master’s, and that would take at least a year or two to complete.
Then maybe they could fall in love.
But not now. She was only twenty-four, and she—
Good grief. She had no clue how old he was. That was a sign right there.
She wanted this to be casual and fun and thought he did too.
But now he was leaving.
A long-distance relationship was definitely not something she could commit to. Sure, she’d known he would go back on tour eventually. And that had been fine before he’d said he was falling in love with her.
Brandon jumped up beside her. “Mari, I know this is crazy. I’m not asking—you don’t have to declare your undying love for me. I get that it’s soon. I just need to know we’re on the same page before—”
Her head throbbed. She needed out of here. Now. “No, I can’t—I can’t do this, Brandon. I’m sorry. I thought maybe we could hang out and date for fun and it would be okay, but I just can’t do it.”
“I don’t want to just date for fun either. That’s why—”
She shook her head. He wasn’t getting it. She wasn’t completely sure she understood either. “No. I can’t do this. I’m so sorry. Can you take me home? Please?”
He stared at her for what seemed like an eternity, then his jaw hardened, and he gave a stiff nod. “Fine. Let’s go.”
She wrapped her arms over her chest and climbed back in the truck while Brandon shoved the blanket in the back, then hopped into the driver’s seat and slammed the door.
“Brandon, I’m—”
“It’s fine. Let me get you home. I’m sorry I—” He shook his head as he gripped the steering wheel. “I’m just sorry.”
Chapter 20
Mari let herself down the basement steps, another week with Trinity and Serenity in the books, and the prospect of a full week off looming before her.
The Hillards were taking a week’s vacation to the gulf next week. Secretly she’d hoped her assistance in watching the kids would be needed, but they hadn’t asked her to come with, and she hadn’t offered.
So she had the week to herself and other than a few things she needed to catch up on and some serious Netflix bingeing, it was going to be pretty boring.
It didn’t help that today marked four weeks since she’d last seen Brandon on the date that blew up in her face.
Not that she was counting or anything.
She’d had no contact with him except a brief text he’d sent apologizing for how he’d acted.
Her reply had just been to say, I’m sorry too.
Since then, nothing.
And life had never felt so completely and utterly meaningless. She’d given herself every lecture possible. That a guy shouldn’t wreck her life, especially the absence of said guy. That God had much bigger plans for her.
But the ache in her heart refused to go away.
Flicking on the light, she went to the fridge and grabbed a Coke.
“Hey there.”
She couldn’t stop the scream that escaped her throat as she twisted around toward the voice. “Mom! What in the world are you doing? You about gave me a heart attack.”
Her mother lounged in a living room chair, her sock-clad feet propp
ed up on the wood coffee table. “Sorry. I remembered where you said you hid a key outside and let myself in. I didn’t think you’d mind.”
“Remind me to move that now.”
Sadie winked at her. “Your heart will recover, I promise. Now come sit down. We need to have a little chat.”
Mari’s shoulders sank as she came and plopped onto the couch. Not that she minded talking with her mother, but it’d been a long week, and she really wasn’t in the mood. “I’m tired, Mom. Can we—”
Her mother pulled out an envelope from her purse, put it on the coffee table, and slid it over to her. “Here.”
Mari glanced at the envelope then at her mom. “What’s this?”
“Natalie and I had a nice little chat earlier this week. Sweet lady, by the way.”
Her mother had talked with her employer? That was just great. Last weekend, she’d told Nate and her mom about the Hillard’s vacation and that she was a little bummed about not going.
But for her mother to interfere—
Anger burned in her stomach. Standing up, Mari fisted her hands at her hips. “I can’t believe you called her, Mother. I’m not a little girl anymore. You can’t just jump in and fix—”
“Hold on a minute. I didn’t call anyone. She called me.”
“She—what?” That made no sense. “What did she want?”
“First, sit back down.”
Mari sat, the envelope laying in front of her, taunting her.
“I’ve stayed quiet for the last month even though I’m not stupid. I knew something was going on with you. But you’re right. You’re an adult and don’t need your mommy jumping in and fixing everything, even though you know I’d be more than happy to. I’d hoped you would come to me, but imagine my surprise when instead, my daughter’s boss calls me, telling me she’s made a huge mistake and isn’t sure how to fix it, and needs my advice.”
Mari shook her head. “I don’t understand. What did Natalie do—”
“Apparently, she feels like she said something to her brother that perhaps caused a relationship between you and the man in question to stop. It’s been bugging her for weeks, and she seems to think the sadness she’s seen in you the last few weeks is her fault. But I told her that was crazy since I’m your mother and had no knowledge of such a relationship.”
Love at First Laugh: Eight Romantic Novellas Filled with Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever After Page 57
