“Yeah?” He seemed genuinely surprised.
“Yeah.”
“I thought for sure you were going to hate it and tell me to paint over it.”
She was surprised to hear that her opinion carried that much weight. “This is your house, Aaron. Not mine. If you want to paint all the walls purple, I’m not going to say anything except, ‘Get ready for some lowball offers.’”
He laughed, and she wanted to listen to that all day on a continuous loop. His laughter was contagious. “Don’t worry. No purple.”
“Good to know. I can only imagine the kind of feedback we’d get.” She took a deep breath. She’d come here to confront him. “Can I talk to you about something?”
AARON HAD A sinking feeling that Bonnie wasn’t going to ask him about something related to the house. He’d been avoiding her, and it was making him miserable. He deserved to feel miserable, however, because he was a terrible brother. He figured the least he could do was put a little breathing room between him and Bonnie as well as him and Mitch.
He couldn’t hate either one of them, but he owed it to Lauren not to be seen all over town with the two of them. Not hanging out with Mitch was easy. Not being around Bonnie was torture.
“You can talk to me about anything. You know that.”
Bonnie seemed to think that wasn’t exactly true. She hesitated a second before opening up. “Did I do something?”
“What do you mean?”
“Did I say something or do something to make you question your feelings for me? Because I thought we were on the same page, and now I’m not sure we’re even reading the same book anymore.”
Another smooth move on his part. By trying to ease Lauren’s feelings of rejection, he’d managed to give them to Bonnie. “You didn’t do anything. I’m sorry if I’m putting out a lot of mixed messages right now. I’m trying really hard to do the right thing, but it seems like no matter what I do, someone I care about gets hurt. First Lauren. Now you.”
“I warned you that things would get messy if you placed yourself in my corner of the fight. I knew your sister wasn’t going to handle it well.”
“I know she’s a pain. I know she’s wrong about you. I know you deserve an apology and so much more. But I have let my sister down in ways I didn’t realize, and I have to try to make it up to her. The only way I know how to do that is to let you and Mitch fend for yourselves for a little bit.”
“Is that why you told Mitch he should hire me as his Realtor? Are you trying to help him spend time with me?”
Aaron’s back stiffened. “What? Why would you think that?”
“Because Mitch came to the office today and said you encouraged him to seek me out and that you two have been trying to come up with ways to make things better for me.”
Based on her tone, they both appeared to agree that spending time with Mitch was not better for her. “I have barely spoken to Mitch in weeks. I don’t know why he would say that.”
By stepping away, he hadn’t meant to open the door for Mitch. “I can talk to him. Remind him that it’s in his best interest and yours if he leaves you alone.”
“That would be extremely helpful. Thank you.” Bonnie slid her hands into her front pockets. “Can I be honest about something else?”
He took a step in her direction, drawn to her in ways he couldn’t explain. In ways he only saw in movies and read about in books. “I hope you’re honest with me about everything.”
“I understand you’re trying to regain your sister’s trust, but I really hope we’re still going to go on that date. I think about it pretty much every day. It would be so disappointing if it wasn’t ever going to happen.”
Aaron shared her desire. He also thought about that date every morning and every night when he finally let himself rest. “I want to say yes so badly.”
She shifted her weight from her heels to the balls of her feet. “I am scared to death there’s a but at the end of that sentence.”
“No but. I need some more time, that’s all. I’ve got to make some things right with Lauren before I can let myself have you, but make no mistake, I want you.”
Her cheeks flushed, and she looked down at her feet. “Okay, well, I can give you time. I don’t want you to take too long, but I can accept you needing a little bit.”
“Help!” David screamed from the living room.
Bonnie and Aaron exchanged “not again” looks and took off down the hall. Another trip to the ER would be absolutely humiliating. Another accident when Bonnie was here might make her start to question if a higher power was trying to tell them something.
Bonnie ran over to her dad, who was sitting on a folding chair in the kitchen. Sasha sat next to him, calm, cool and collected. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
A smile spread across David’s face. “Nothing. I just thought you two were alone back there a little too long. Sasha had me convinced I shouldn’t intrude, so I decided to bring you to me instead. I’m impressed with how fast you guys made it out here.”
“Me, too,” Sasha said with a chuckle. They thought they were hilarious. Aaron watched as Bonnie’s ears turned bright red.
“It was almost like they saw a mouse,” David said.
“Are they scared of mice?” Sasha asked.
“Oh, you should see these two when they see a mouse. It’s a toss-up who will climb on top of the other first to get away from the tiny little critter.”
“Don’t. Ever. Do. That. To. Me. Again,” Bonnie said, slapping him on the arm with every word.
“Everything okay with
