She jerked her eyes to me, calculating, then her hand extended from inside her sleeve. I held my breath until I realized she was holding a small notebook. It had a dragon on it.
“What’s this?” I asked, seeking permission from the police officers with my eyes before taking it.
They nodded.
When I opened it, I had no choice but to press my lips together to keep from laughing. She’d outlined all her grievances about Brody’s books.
“If you’re going to be the one spending time with him, you need to know how to help him,” Blair said.
I closed the notebook and nodded. “All I want to do is help him,” I assured her.
“That’s not all you want.” Blair made a disgusted face as the police officers delicately placed her in handcuffs. “You want to do naughty things with him too. You forget, I’ve read your books. You’re obviously a whore.”
“Well, I’ll try to find some balance.”
On the other side of the police car, I recognized Brody coming to a skidding stop in his golf cart. He looked as if he was about to lose it. We snagged gazes, and the relief on his face blew through me like a spring breeze, warm and welcome. At that moment, I knew that there was no turning back.
I’d spent my whole life determined not to become my mother. My biggest issue had been that I believed there was only one way to manage that. I was wrong. There was another way.
Brody stood there for several beats, collecting himself, then started toward me. He looked at Blair long enough for confusion to register. Then everything he had was for me.
“I was so afraid when I saw the cop cars,” he said, pulling me into his arms and burying his face in my hair. “When Hayley called, I didn’t understand what she was saying.”
“We assumed it was Joey,” I said. “It never occurred to us that it could be Blair.”
“But … why?” He pulled back far enough to look into my eyes.
“She wanted to make you the best author ever.”
He wrinkled his nose.
“She didn’t realize you could do that on your own,” I added.
His expression went dark. “We’re going to talk about you leaving your house when you knew a dangerous individual was on your lawn. Not right now but eventually.”
I smirked. “She wasn’t dangerous. She was just … misunderstood.”
We looked back at Blair as she was loaded into the police car. I had no idea what would happen to her. I hoped she got help, though.
“I need to tell you something,” I said when he turned back.
“Yeah? Does it involve us having ice cream in bed for dinner?”
I smirked. “I think that can be arranged. But that’s not what I want to tell you.”
He waited, not speaking. He always gave me the space I needed to figure out my thoughts. That was his greatest superpower.
“I love you,” I said before I could think better of it. If I waited too long to say it, fear might take over.
It wasn’t that I needed to hear him say it back. For me, this was the hard part. I needed to be the one to open myself up to him. That was my true journey. It had never been about him loving me.
He broke into a wide grin. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
He leaned close, his lips hovering over mine. “I love you too. I think I have from the start.”
“Not from the very start,” I teased. “You hated me back then.”
