“I’ll come visit as usual.” I went to visit because I knew it was difficult traveling with the kids. They lived in San Francisco near Grams.
“We didn’t want to interrupt your schedule.”
My schedule. I actually had to think for a minute to figure out what he was talking about. Of course he meant work, but I was thinking about my schedule for the night.
I glanced on the clock on the wall. My stomach tightened. Ryan would arrive in five minutes, and I hadn’t decided on what lipstick I wanted to wear.
I was wearing a white bodycon with little gold straps that helped push out my breasts. The aim was to tease him to death by dressing overly sexily.
“No, no, I’ll come see you. Chad, I’m about to go out. Can I call you back tomorrow?”
I had five minutes to choose a color. I was thinking either my Chanel red or my Dior pink that looked like bubble gum. I’d curled my hair and gone for a smoky look over my eyes, so either of those colors would be fine.
“Of course. As long as you’re okay.”
“I am—I’m peachy.”
“Okay, sis, have fun. Love you.”
“Love you more.”
I sighed when he hung up, missing him because I hadn’t seen him in close to five months, but eager to get back to getting ready.
I looked at myself in the full-length mirror. I looked good, probably more like I was going to a club than like I was going to dinner, but that was the idea.
I picked up the red lipstick first and smeared it over my lips. It looked perfect, too perfect to remove even to try the pink, so I left it.
Water rushing down to the floor grabbed my immediate attention. My head snapped toward the bathroom where the sound came from. I ran in there to see the water running from the ceiling and into the bath. My guess was the same pipe fixture must have run from the bedroom and into the bathroom.
I backed away, deciding it would have to stay just like that because I wasn’t tending to it tonight.
No way. That called for a plumber’s attention in the morning.
As I took another step back to go into the bedroom, water came gushing down on my head. I screamed at the sudden coldness and the fright that made me jump out of my skin.
Shit.I was drenched, actually soaked from head to toe, and the ceiling had a hole in it from where the plaster had given way. The water must have built up on that section and burst through, and now it slowed to a steady flow.
My damn hair that had taken over an hour to curl was a mess. I winced at the sight of myself in the mirror and closed the bathroom door.
“Dammit.” I frowned, flipping my hair over my shoulder.
“Brooke, are you okay?” Ryan called out.
I gasped. Oh no, he could not see me like this.
His footsteps sounded on the stairs. He was in the house.
Before I could think about what to do, he appeared at the doorway to my bedroom, looking worried—worried and alsohot.
Just like that first time I saw him, the sight of him stole my breath away.
But, unlike that first time when he’d worn a suit, he was now dressed in a white biker jacket and a fitted black shirt that clung to his abs. Black slacks hung loose around his hips, giving a fantastic view of his powerful, athletic legs.
I didn’t think he could be any more perfect than he was, but I’d been seriously wrong. He’d even gotten a haircut that accentuated his faux hawk.
“What happened? I heard you scream.”
I was trying to find my voice. “Water,” was all I could say. Very few things in this world had the ability to render me speechless.
