Trusting You (Second Chances #2)(9)

I had my hair in a messy ponytail with my sunglasses propped on top of my head and no make-up on. A lot of women refuse to go out without make-up on, but I wasn’t one of them. I loved not wearing it at times.

“You look amazing,” Brett said as he came through the door. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yes I am. I just need to grab my bag.”

Smiling, Brett’s gaze lingered over my living room and then back to me. “Let me guess…Korinne designed your living room for you. It looks like her style.”

I snickered. “Yeah, she did. That’s how I was reunited with her. I hired her not knowing it was the Korinne I grew up with. I gutted everything out of here and had her redo the place. When she got here I had nothing except lawn chairs in here to sit on. Her facial expression was priceless.”

“I would’ve loved to have seen that,” Brett remarked humorously.

“Korinne took plenty of pictures so I’m sure she’ll show them to you if you just ask. She thought it was funny, too.”

Cautiously, Brett nodded and turned to walk further into the living room and then over to the windows to peer out. With his back to me, he asked, “Do you keep in touch with him? Your ex I mean.”

I stumbled with his question because I didn’t know if telling him that my ex wanted me back was a good idea. Instead, I decided to skirt around the truth to avoid the question. The last thing I wanted was for my ex-husband to be an issue.

“I try not to,” I remarked quickly. “He calls and sends texts every once in a while, but after the divorce I made sure to never cross paths with him again. I saw him once not too long ago, but I’ve done pretty well with avoiding him at all cost.”

Brett’s eyes grew hard and protective as he turned his gaze to me. “Good. Then I won’t have to worry about him getting in the way. If I was him I’d be going crazy trying to get you back, but then I wouldn’t have been stupid enough to f*ck it up in the first place. Thankfully, I don’t know who he is.” He left the window and marched up to me.

Rolling my eyes, I took him by the arm, leading him back to the front door and replied, “Which is why I’m not going to tell you his name. I had my last name changed back to my maiden name almost immediately once everything was final. I wanted no ties to him when it was all said and done.”

I grabbed my tote bag and keys, ushering Brett out the door so I could lock it behind me. “All right, I think we’ve had enough ex talk for now. We need to find more interesting things to discuss, like for instance, how did you find out where I lived?”

“How do you think?” he replied incredulously.

Shaking my head—because I knew exactly who it was—I rolled my eyes and announced, “Yeah, I figured it was Korinne.”

With a wolfish smile, he opened up the door to his Jeep for me to slide in. Out of all the cars I’d owned, I’d always wanted a Jeep Wrangler. If I sold my Lexus I could buy several of them, and I was determined to do it one day.

“I love your Jeep. One of these days I’ll have one, except mine will have to be an automatic and not a stick shift like this one. I tried to learn once before, but failed miserably,” I admitted, feeling slightly embarrassed. I was surprised I never wrecked any of the cars I practiced on.

Brett put the car in gear and slowly backed out of the driveway. “It’s not that hard. I tell you what … when we come back from the lake I’ll teach you. It’ll be fun.”

Gasping, I shook my head desperately. “Oh no, I’m not. I don’t want to be responsible for screwing up your transmission. Seriously, it’s a bad idea and this looks like a brand new Jeep.” It even had the new car smell still in it.

Brett glared at me and actually rolled his eyes. “So?” he countered. “I trust you, Melissa. You’re not going to mess up my Jeep. What if you were stranded somewhere and you needed to know how to drive a stick. I think everyone should learn how to drive a manual.”

I huffed. “Fine, but if I break your car, don’t blame me. This all rests on you.”

Smiling, he snatched my hand off my lap and lifted it to his lips. “I’ll take my chances,” he murmured before placing a soft kiss to my knuckles.

It didn’t take long for us to get to the marina where Brett stored his boat since it was located just down the street from me. On the way over I tried to imagine what kind of boat he would have and came up with one conclusion. Something big and fast was what I was thinking, but when he took me to his boat slip I was surprised to see that it wasn’t a fast one at all. It was perfect.

At my astonished expression, Brett chuckled. “Let me guess … it’s not what you expected?”

“Not at all,” I quipped. “I’ll admit, I kind of thought you would have a fast, flashy boat, but this right here is much better. It’s more laid back. There are so many things you can do on a pontoon boat like this.”

“Yes, there is,” he mumbled under his breath. When I gazed over at him, he winked and shrugged his shoulders. “What? There is, and I didn’t mean that sexually.”

Jumping onto the boat, I dropped my towel and bag on the seat before stripping off my tank top and shorts. “Do you plan on seducing me out on the high water, Mr. Walker?” I teased.

His eyebrows shot up. “Only if you want me to, baby. I’m going by your lead here so when you’re ready I’ll be there. If not, then I’ll wait.”