“God, Poppy.”
Poppy ignored Brodie’s desperate laugh. “Or you can take your butt back to the city, throw yourself at his feet and apologize for being an ass. Find out if he loves you, if this is a forever thing. Face your fears.”
“That’s a hard decision to make, even harder to do,” Brodie protested.
“Do it anyway,” Poppy suggested. “Be brave enough to be happy, Brodie. Don’t let your fear win. You are stronger than that, more courageous than you think. Just do it, my darling. Reach out and grab the future you’ve always wanted.”
“But what if I’m too late?” Brodie asked, unsure why she was asking this question because she wasn’t going to go to Kade, wasn’t going to ask for another chance. That was crazy talk...wasn’t it?
Poppy’s sweet smile held more than a trace of satisfaction. And triumph. “What if you’re not?” She placed a wrinkled hand on Brodie’s face. “Don’t make me get tough with you, Brodie.”
“This isn’t you being tough?” Brodie demanded with a sarcastic laugh.
“Honey, I haven’t even warmed up yet. I can go on for hours,” Poppy stated prosaically. “You might as well just give in now and save us both the time and energy.”
Brodie put her arms around Poppy’s waist and rested her head on her great-aunt’s shoulder. “Well, when you put it like that...”
* * *
Brodie used her shaking index finger to key in the code that would take her straight up to Kade’s apartment. She hoped he hadn’t changed the code. That would be mortifying. She entered the last number and waited for the elevator doors to slide open. When they did she had to force herself to step inside.
She could do this. She had to do this.
If she didn’t speak to Kade tonight, she never would. She would talk herself out of being brave. She’d allow herself to backslide, to rationalize why she would be better off alone.
Talk the truth, even if your voice shakes.
Poppy’s words stuck with Brodie and she repeated them to herself as the elevator took her higher, and closer, to the love of her life.
And he was that. Jay, dear Jay, had been marvelous, but her feelings for Kade were deeper, harder and stronger. Maybe that’s why she’d been fighting this so hard. Loving Kade wouldn’t be easy but he’d be worth it.
She had to tell him, had to see if he felt the same.
As the elevator stopped at the top floor she touched her stomach in that age-old protective gesture women had been using through the centuries.
Wish me luck, baby. Here’s hoping we get to be a family.
Brodie stepped into the dark loft, the lights from downtown Vancouver dancing in the floor-to-ceiling windows. The apartment was ridiculously quiet and she bit her lip, feeling like an idiot. She hadn’t considered the notion that Kade might not be here. He could be anywhere—with his friends, out of town, on a date. The only thing worse than Kade coming home with a date would be finding Kade upstairs in bed with another woman. With the doors closed, she wouldn’t be able to hear a thing.
It had only been three weeks. He wouldn’t have moved on so soon, would he? Then again, she’d kept pushing him away, telling him that what they had was only sex. Maybe he was upstairs, doing all those fabulous things he did to her...
Brodie threw her bag onto the couch and stormed toward the staircase. If she’d been bawling her eyes out while he slept his way through the pack of puck bunnies, Brodie might be forced to do something drastic.
What, she wasn’t sure, but it would hurt. A lot.
Brodie flung open the door to his bedroom and hurtled over the threshold, stopping when she realized his enormous bed was neatly made and, crucially, empty. Brodie closed her eyes and hauled in a deep breath.
“You’re acting like a crazy woman, Stewart,” she muttered.
“Can’t say that I disagree.”
Brodie whirled around and saw Kade standing in the doorway to his en suite bathroom, a towel wrapped around his narrow hips. Man, he was gorgeous. How could she have walked away from that?
He was sexy and hot but he was also a good man. Someone who was loyal and kind and considerate and...hers.
“What are you doing here, Brodie?” Kade asked, his expression forbidding.
“Uh...” Okay, she was being silly but she just had to make sure. “Is there anyone in there with you?”
Kade turned his head to look back into the bathroom. “Busted. Come on out, honey,” he called.
Brodie’s heart ker-plunked. She placed a hand on her sternum and tried to find something to say.
“God, Brodie, don’t be an idiot,” Kade snapped. “There’s no one here. I was just messing with you.”