Page 46 of Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake

“Well, tell me about it,” she said, annoyance still in her voice.

This was the part Rake was also mildly nervous about. He knew there were a few… flaws in the layout of the unit, but it was a steal, and the landlord had agreed to a six-month lease, which meant Rake and Lizzie weren’t tied down for too long if it didn’t work. He had been so desperate to securesomething, he might not have thought it all the way through.

“Well,” he started, clearing his throat, “it’s a newly converted warehouse. ‘Industrial luxury’ was what the Realtor called it. New appliances. Lots of windows, so good light. I thought you’d probably like lots of windows.”

Rake had seen the huge expanse of windows spanning a wall of the unit and had instantly thought of Lizzie, the way she would look with sunlight dancing on the flames of her hair as she stared out over the city. The pang of affection he’d felt atthe image was entirely unnerving, but made him click “submit” faster on the application than he’d care to admit.

“How many bedrooms?” Lizzie asked, not jumping at the excitement of natural light as much as Rake had hoped.

“Well, that’s kind of the one downside.”

“Downside?”

“It’s a big space. Huge, really, for Philadelphia at least. Eleven hundred square feet, but the rent was comparable to places half that size.”

“But?” Lizzie said impatiently, the syllable indicating that she would strangle Rake right now if she could reach him.

“But it’s technically zero, um, bedrooms.”

Lizzie was silent on the line, and Rake double-checked that the call hadn’t dropped. “You still there?”

“What do you mean it’s zero bedrooms?” Lizzie hissed.

“It’s a studio. A big studio,” he added quickly. “Giant. But there’s no, um, doors or technical bedrooms.”

Lizzie’s voice was chillingly quiet. “And how exactly are we going to make that work, Rake?”

“I was thinking… Well, I don’t have it fully figured out—”

“Title of our memoir,” Lizzie grumbled.

“ButI think it will actually work to our advantage. The space is open-floor and big enough we can both fit our beds, and then we can set up the crib near us, and we won’t have to deal with, uh, opening doors and… stuff.”

“Well, thank God you’ve relieved me ofthathassle. Not sure what I would do if I had to open one moredoor.”

“There’s other good stuff about it too,” he pushed on. “It’s a furnished unit, for one, so we don’t have to buy a bunch of new furniture. And I looked and saw there was a highly rated daycare nearby. The park is only a few blocks away, which will be great to take the baby when the weather’s good. Close to grocery stores and the like. I just… I don’t know. I guess I didn’t think it through. Or I did think but not the right way.”

Lizzie was silent on the line again, and Rake’s heart nearly bruised his sternum with its pounding strikes. Shame washed over him. He was already fucking up. Failing her. Like he seemed to do to every woman in his life.

“Do you want me to try and get us out of it?” Rake said with a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Lizzie was silent for another moment before saying, “Send me pictures of it. I want to see.”

He put her on speakerphone then sent over the link, crossing his fingers and toes that she would like those fucking windows with all their fucking light and maybe save his ass.

He waited a moment, letting her scroll through. “Well?” he said at last.

“It looks really, really nice,” Lizzie said, her voice sounding tired. She sounded tired a lot lately, and for some bizarre reason, the idea of her being weary without him there to help her plucked oddly at the base of his throat. Weird.

“Okay,” she said after another moment. “What the hell. Let’s go for it. That rent can’t be beat.”

“Really?” Rake asked, relief flooding him.

“Yeah, I do really like those windows,” Lizzie said with a tiny laugh, and confirmation that she liked them made him want to punch his fist in the air. Which was also weird.

“I’ll try and set up a time to look at the daycare you mentioned,” Lizzie added. “Indira, all-knowing-goddess-of-things that she is, mentioned daycare wait lists are long as hell. I already have a few places I’ve found to put our name down if that’s okay with you.”

“That’s perfect. This’ll be great. We’ll make it great.”