“You’re a complete stranger.”
“My neighbor’s a doctor. The kind that delivers babies.”
“How convenient.”
“Kitchen renovation is done. Brand-new appliances. Granite countertops. Built-in step stools hidden in the lower cabinets so short people can reach all the way up to the highest cabinets safely.”
That gets her attention.
Can’t miss the way her pupils dilate.
Getting her résumé was an excellent move.
“Are you selling me your house or asking me to house-sit?” she asks.
The question makes my brain hiccup.
It’s Caden’s house.
I can renovate it.
But I can’t sell it.
If I sell it, whenever I finally end my career and come home from Europe—and I amdefinitelygetting a spot on a team somewhere overseas before training camp is done—I want to come home to Caden’s house.
I want to still have that part of him.
Even if I move to Milwaukee or settle in San Francisco or become a hermit in the Pacific Northwest, I want to know I can still see Caden’s final chosen home.
Ziggy fans her face. “Thank you for the offer?—”
“I leave in four days. If you want to see the house, text me. If not, I have friends who will check on it and I’ll board my dog.”
She flinches.
Not a little flinch either.
This is a whole-body,warn me before you slap me next timeflinch.
This woman is a puzzle box of puzzles, and I’m so fucking curious right now.
“Well, I’m happy for you,” she says shortly. “Please excuse me. I have a meeting with a real estate agent and my mom. I hope you enjoy your trip.”
“What did I say?”
She shakes her head while she moves to the driver’s side door. “It’s not you.”
“Offer stands.”
“You don’t know me.At all. You watched me throw up all over a man last night?—”
“He deserved it.”
He did, but she keeps going like she didn’t hear me. “—and otherwise, all you know about me is what’s on my résumé. Why would you ask a complete stranger to house-sit for you? I might be the kind of person who throws ragers. I might be a terrible dog sitter. I might paint the exterior an awful color for fun and sell all of your appliances for cash.”
“You saw things working on that cruise ship, didn’t you?”
She does a slow blink, and then the most magical thing happens.
