Page 4 of False Start

She couldn’t look at me, just kept her eyes on her shoes.

“The location isn’t the best,” she admitted. “If you want easy access to the Seattle nightlife. But if it’s quiet solitude you’re looking for, and privacy, then this is a great neighborhood.”

I nodded, considering. And then a thought hit me.

“What if I don’t like this one?”

“Then don’t buy it.”

“Will you help me find the right one?”

At that, she stiffened, finally lifting her gaze. “I…” She shut her mouth again, her eyes flicking between mine like I was a crossword puzzle clue she didn’t quite understand. “You want me to be your agent?”

“Well, it beats the hell out of you being my babysitter.”

Her lips popped open a bit, and then I swore she almost smiled before she looked down at her shoes again.

“If you don’t like this one, I would be happy to show you other listings,” she said softly. “I’d like to know more about what you’re looking for so I can help find you the right house.”

I turned to face her fully, folding my arms over my chest. “I thought you’d shoot me down.”

She shrugged, glancing at me quickly before looking down again. “I need the commission.”

Those words felt like little rocks pelted at my head. They stung, both because I hated the thought that she only considered putting up with me because of the money she could get out of me buying a house through her, and because I hated that she needed money enough that she had no choice but to agree to work with me when I knew damn well she didn’t want to.

My stomach was a churning sea from the whole interaction. She was the last person I expected to see this morning, and yet now that I had seen her, I had this unrelenting desire to do whatever I could to see her again.

“Sounds like we’re in business, then.”

She nodded, but her brows knitted together like she’d just sold her soul to the devil.

I scrubbed my hand over my mouth, looking around the stupid house before walking the few steps that separated us. “Not this one,” I said.

“You haven’t even made it past the foyer.”

“I don’t need to.”

She opened her mouth, then sighed and closed it again. Finally, I saw a bit of her fire emerge, saw her eyes harden and her lips purse together.

“Perhaps we should discuss what it is you’re looking for before we see any other houses,” she clipped, turning on her heels and walking toward the front door. “That way neither of us wastes our time.”

“Is that your subtle way of telling me I wasted yours?”

“You’re a big boy. Figure it out.”

“There she is,” I said on a laugh, and I caught up to her in four long strides. Then, I blocked her from taking another step.

She halted before she ran right into me, her eyes widening a fraction as they climbed up my chest to meet my gaze.

“I thought I lost you there,” I teased. “All that looking at your shoes shit isn’t the Madelyn I used to know.”

Her chest rose on a long, slow inhale, her throat constricting with a swallow. Then, her eyes fell to my chest, losing focus, like she was on another planet instead of less than a foot away from me.

“The Madelyn you used to know no longer exists.”

With the finality of those words, she slid past me, contorting her body so she didn’t so much as brush against me as she did.

Madelyn