“He’s, ummm, still out there,” Kristen mumbled weakly, gesturing awkwardly towards the door.
“Is he?” Garrett murmured innocently, deciding that it would probably be in his best interest not to mention that they’d come to an understanding. He offered the asshole that drop-kicked him in the ribs an extra fifty dollars and the rest of the beer in his fridge if he stuck around so that he could fix this.
“I’ll just head out the backdoor and cut through the woods and leave you to whatever it is that you’re doing,” Kristen said, clearing her throat as she gestured awkwardly in his direction.
With that, she dropped her hands, moved to walk past him while he debated letting her go only…
“Do you remember the stories about my great-grandfather Noah?” Garrett drawled, watching as she went still.
“You mean the stories that you taunted me with, telling me just enough to tease me into wanting more, but never giving me the full story?” Kristen asked, leveling a glare on him at the reminder of all those times that he teased her with the story of how his great-grandfather fell in love with his great-grandmother.
“That would be the one,” Garrett drawled, crossing his arms over his chest as he moved to lean back against the wall only to remember that the wall had been gutted and settled for watching her instead.
“What about him?” Kristen asked as her gaze darted between the front door and the hallway leading to the kitchen.
“He built this house,” Garrett said, watching as she went still seconds before her gaze turned calculating.
“Meaning…?” she said, letting the word trail off with a look that dared him to say something that would piss her off.
“That it’s rumored to have a secret passage,” Garrett said, shrugging it off while he watched her swallow hard as her gaze slowly took in the foyer that he still needed to finish gutting,taking in the exposed boards, the wainscotting on the wall behind her that he was still debating whether it was worth saving before moving to the stairs and-
“You’re lying,” Kristen mumbled weakly before her gaze dropped to the warped, dull hardwood floor beneath their feet.
“Are you sure about that?” Garrett asked, doing his best not to think about what would happen when she found out that he was using one of her weaknesses against her. Since he didn’t have many choices at the moment, he decided to say a silent prayer for his balls and see how this played out.
“What do you want?” Kristen asked after a slight hesitation, forcing him to bite back a smile, mostly out of concern for his balls.
“A chance to explain everything,” Garrett said, shrugging it off like it was no big deal even as he held his breath, praying that she gave him a chance to fix this.
“In exchange for…”
“Allowing you to search for the secret passage,” Garrett said, hoping that it would buy him enough time to come up with a plan to fix this.
Kristen blinked up at him as she asked, “You mean the one that you’re lying about simply to toy with my emotions. Do you mean that one?”
“What makes you think that I’m lying?” Garrett asked, reaching up to rub the bridge of his nose only to pause as he watched the way that she noted the move, reminding him that she knew him better than anyone. Clearing his throat, he dropped his hand away even as he debated how he wanted to do this, groveling or…
“I’m an asshole,” Garrett admitted with a heartfelt sigh only to feel his lips twitch when she said, “I’m listening.”
“I fucked up,” he admitted, watching as she glanced around the foyer, taking in everything from the gutted walls to the stacks of two-by-fours placed against the wall behind her.
“Go on,” Kristen murmured absently as she ran her eyes over the stairs before she made her way down the small hallway that ran alongside the stairs.
“I’m an asshole,” Garrett said, slowly exhaling as he followed her.
“You said that already,” Kristen pointed out as she took her time making her way down the hallway, running her fingertips along the warped wainscotting lining the hallway wall.
“I felt that it needed to be repeated,” he said, watching as she paused by the hallway closet.
“What else?” Kristen asked as she opened the closet door and peeked inside.
“I’m still working on it,” Garrett said, slowly exhaling while he stood there, wracking his brain for something, anything, that would fix this.
“I have a few suggestions,” Kristen murmured absently as she tilted her head to the side to get a better look at the shelf above her head.
“I’m listening,” Garrett said, watching as she reached up and gently pushed against the shelf only to grumble when nothing happened.
“You could always explain why you decided to destroy more than fifteen years of friendship over a simple misunderstanding?” Kristen said, sighing heavily as she dropped her hand and stepped away, closing the door before she made her way down the small hallway and stepped into the gutted kitchen and moved past the folding table covered in takeout boxes that he’d borrowed from his cousin Reed.
