Superfan (Brooklyn #3)(85)

Although I want that.

It’s a short trip down the hall. I knock with the backs of my knuckles. Since the place is nearly empty, my knock echoes inside.

“Come in!” she calls. When I try the door handle, it’s unlocked. Inside, I find Delilah seated on the sofa that Heidi and I put there a few weeks ago. She glances up at me, and I have to pause there a moment and take in the whole picture. She’s wearing a black T-shirt, just like the first time I met her. Her hair is swept up in a loose bun, where a bitten pencil seems to hold it in place. Her face is bathed in candlelight and a shy smile.

I have never seen such a beautiful sight in my life. And I’m not just saying that because there’s a Grimaldi’s pizza box on the rented coffee table. Plus a bottle of wine and two of my own wine glasses.

“Well, hello there,” I say as I close the door behind me. I drop my gym bag to the floor. “Did you decide we need some peace and quiet tonight?” I cross the room to sit down beside her.

“No, it’s not like that. But there is something I wanted to talk to you about.”

I glance around this gorgeous room. I wish this were our couch, in our place. But I keep that idea to myself for now. What I wouldn’t give to come home to her like this on a regular basis. “What’s up, buttercup?”

“You remember how I gave you that big speech in Darlington Beach? The one about needing you to check in with me instead of planning my life for me? And how much I appreciate that?”

“Yeah?” Have I overstepped? I wrack my brain, wondering what I did. “That does sound familiar.”

“Well, today I didn’t show you the same courtesy. And I’m feeling a little worried. I did a thing without asking.”

Oh, phew. This isn’t about me at all. “What thing? You changed my pizza order?”

She gives me a little poke in the ribs. “I made an offer on this apartment.”

“You…” I play that back in my head a couple times just to make sure I heard correctly. “Really?”

“Yep. I made an offer at the new asking price. So I can’t imagine your teammate will turn me down. And it’s a cash offer, too, so…” She studies her fingernails.

I let out a genuine whoop of joy. “And you thought maybe I wouldn’t like that?”

“Well, it is awful presumptuous of me. I’ve been visiting only a week. And I did it without us discussing it first. It does sound a little crazy.”

Not to me. “If I recall, I put this bug in your ear in the first place. So you weren’t exactly flying blind, here. But who says I care about crazy? You and I can be a little crazy. We’re never going to be a normal couple—the kind who’s introduced at a cocktail party. The kind who goes out on a few dates, then escalate smoothly, like a jet taking off. Sex on the third date. No psycho exes or missed chances on a beach…”

She’s laughing, and I love that sound. “I guess that ship has sailed.”

“Right? I mean, maybe someday we’ll be guests at that kind of cocktail party. And some well-meaning person will ask—how did you two get together? And you’ll turn to him and say, ‘How much time do you have?’”

She’s laughing so hard she leans against me and shakes.

I flip open the pizza box and grab a slice.

“So it’s okay with you?” she gasps. “That I’m buying an apartment down the hall from yours?”

“It’s more than okay with me. In fact, I hope that one of these days you’ll invite me to move my stuff out of that one and into this one. But if you want to do this stepwise—dormitory style—I’m good with that.”

She takes a slice of pizza, too. “If we don’t work out, then I will have made things super awkward and sad.”

“It would be sad. But it would be even sadder not to try,” I say before cramming more pizza into my mouth. “That’s what I think, anyway.”

She covers my free hand with hers. “Thank you for just rolling with this.”

“You’re giving me exactly what I want,” I admit. “So I’m not just rolling with anything.” We chew our pizza while my head spins. “I do have questions.”

“Hit me.”

“What about Becky?” I hate to think of Delilah trying to settle in a town where she has nobody but me.

“Becky is ready for this. She’s busy calling all her old friends who live anywhere remotely near Brooklyn and asking them if they know anyone who needs a roommate. Becky grew up in Connecticut. She’s no stranger to these parts.”

“Oh.” Well, that’s handy.

“Becky’s been to more New York pizzerias than I have.”

“Not like that’s hard. We have to broaden your horizons. And what about security? Will you let me ask Carl to find you somebody?” When I start traveling in a few weeks, I’ll worry.

“I already made that call. He said his firm could handle whatever I need, and he’d find me a daytime bodyguard that I like.”

“That’s really all my questions, then.”

“I’ll have to go home to L.A. for a while, anyway, and figure out my move. Besides, my offer hasn’t been accepted yet. I might be rearranging your expectations for nothing.”