When It Falls Apart (The D'Angelos) by Catherine Bybee

Author:Catherine Bybee [Bybee, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Montlake
Published: 2022-06-20T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

It was done.

The condo was empty.

The problems had been fixed, and everything should pass inspection.

The only thing that could possibly be needed was one last cleaning day, which Brooke had already decided to hire out.

She watched the place fade away in the side mirror as Luca pulled back from the curb, and hoped she’d never see the place again.

Sad as that sounded.

“You okay?”

“I’m good.” And she was. “Hard-ass day.”

Luca reached across the center console, and Brooke took the invitation and placed her hand in his.

“Thank you.”

“You’ve already said that.”

“I still feel it.”

It was just after seven. They jumped on the freeway only to find traffic.

“This drive home will explain all my crankiness by the time we get there,” she told him when they reached the first red taillights on the 10 freeway.

“When were you cranky?” he asked.

She squeezed his hand. “The night I moved in. I all but bit your head off for offering to help move boxes upstairs.”

“Oh, yeah. You were cranky.”

Brooke fake gasped. “Ah! You could sugarcoat that a little.”

“Spunky. Feisty. Someone I hated to admit that I wanted to get to know better.”

“Hated?”

Traffic completely stopped in front of them.

As in zero miles per hour.

Luca turned to her.

“I did not want to rent the apartment.”

“Right.” She tried to pull her hand away.

He held on.

“Because doing so felt like a failure.”

Brooke paused.

“When my father died, Francesca was an infant. I knew my marriage wasn’t good. My father knew, but he pretended not to know. I promised to take care of our family. To be there in his absence.”

“That had to be hard.”

Luca paused. “Renting a part of our family home was a failure to that promise. It wasn’t you.”

His fingers twitched, and then squeezed.

“That seems deeply personal. Why did you choose to tell me that?” she asked.

Traffic started to move.

“God, cara, after all I’ve seen today, how can you ask that?”

“I don’t understand the comparison.”

Luca brought their joined hands to his lips and kissed the back of her hand. “And that, my dear, is what makes you so very beautiful.”

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