Second Chance Mess (Bad News Billionaires Book 1) Read online

  I leaned forward and kissed her and held her as she shook with tears that I was hoping were tears of joy but I wasn't entirely sure. There were so many feelings swirling around us, and even Max looked like he was getting a bit emotional. When I let her go and took a step back, Max stood up as well and came over to hand her the key to her new sanctuary.

  "Where are you going to be?" she asked as Max and I walked toward the door.

  "I'll be in the house, giving you time to think and enjoy your gift," I smiled. "I'm sure Max will be in his van."

  Max laughed. "She doesn't care where I'll be. This is all about you two lovebirds."

  I turned around one last time before I let the door to her beautiful new tiny home close behind me and smiled at her as she stood still in her same spot, looking happily overwhelmed. I wanted to stay with her tonight and make love to her in her violet and moss green bed, but I knew that the only way to make sure she knew this was what she wanted was to give her time alone to think about it.

  Max came back up into the house with me for a few minutes before heading out to his van.

  "Dude, I have to admit that you totally nailed that whole scenario. That was pretty fucking beautiful."

  "Thanks," I laughed. I thought that was the nicest and most sincere compliment I'd ever gotten. "I owe you so much. Without you, I never would have been able to do this for her."

  "That's what I'm here for," he said as he gave me a big hug and pat on the back. "All right, I'll be back tomorrow after I wake up sometime. I need to see how this all plays out between you two. For what it's worth, I really hope she says yes."

  "Me too," I said as Max walked out the door.

  I stood at the window for a while and looked out at Brooke's tiny home. We had done an incredible job with it. It was the epitome of a magical bespoke home, and it was so perfectly designed for her that I hoped she loved it. I knew that I wouldn't be able to sleep that night. How could I rest when I was waiting for the most important answer of my entire life?

  I laid in my bed and looked up into the skylight at the stars. When I looked at the brightest star in the sky, it made me think about the ring and about how beautiful it would look on Brooke's finger if she allowed me to put it on. I wondered what she was doing right now in her violet and moss-colored bed, and if she was looking up through her skylight at the same stars that I was.

  24

  Chapter Eighteen (Brooke)

  I was in absolute shock over everything that happened tonight. It was a good shock, an utterly euphoric and amazing shock, but it was still overwhelming.

  I hadn’t seen any of this coming at all. I had been so uncertain about everything and had been continuously questioning and second-guessing everything. And here, Tim was, creating this most amazing and special place just for me in an attempt to show me how much I meant to him. No one had ever done anything even remotely close to something as wonderful as this for me, not ever.

  As incredible as this little home was, it wasn't about the house or any of its intricate little details at all. It was about the thought and effort that Tim had put into it. When I looked at the bumblebees in the stained glass, I thought about him listening to that minute detail and remembering it in his mind just for me. When I glanced up at the skylight, I thought about making love to him under the stars, and when I picked up my little violet plant from the windowsill, I thought about the feeling of having a deep and empty hole pitted in my stomach when I first moved out of my apartment and in with Kate after having broken up with Tim over text.

  He had seen and heard and knew what was important to me, and I had been wrong about him. I was so overcome with emotion that I didn't know whether to laugh or cry or do both at the same time. I believed what Tim had said about the photo shoot and about being preoccupied. I believed him about all of it.

  I set my violet back down onto the windowsill and went to go lay down on the bed. It was so comfortable, and they had even incorporated the transitional design that I had described. I gazed up through the domed opening in the ceiling at the night sky and all of the glittering stars and was reminded of the ring that I still had clenched in my palm. I held the ring up above my face and looked at it. I held it up against the view of the sky. It was exquisite enough to match the rest of the stars in the sky. I wanted to put it on my finger to see how it would look, but if it was indeed going on my finger, then I wanted Tim to be the one to put it there. What was I going to do? Before, my heart and head were telling me two different things, but now they seemed to be singing in unison.

  Tim had asked me to wait. He had asked me to take the night to think about things and to make sure that this was what I really wanted. It was a big decision, and there would be no turning back this time regardless of which way I chose. I tried to lay still in the bed, but I was too full of excited and nervous energy not to fidget, so I got up and began to pace the little house. The glow from the soft lighting and the ambiance from the moon streaming in through the windows was magical and also filled with energy.

  I paced back and forth and thought about all the incidents that caused me to leave Tim and the way that I felt every time something seemed to happen that made me question him. Then I thought about how I’d felt after I’d left and what it was like without him. And every scenario I thought about led me back to him. Even when I was at my angriest of my most upset moments, it all came back to Tim.

  I stopped and stood still in the middle of the home and forced myself to calm down. I pushed my mind to be quiet and to think about the future and what I wanted to be in it. I saw a lot of things when my goals and dreams flooded my head—a career that I loved, a home that I felt at peace in, friends that I cherished—but in every thought I had, I also saw Tim.

  When I opened my eyes, I knew what I wanted. I really and truly knew without a doubt.

  He had told me to stay here tonight, and I adored being in this space. But I couldn't stay in this house a moment longer without going to give him my answer. I ran out of the house, tucking the key in my pocket and still clasping the ring in the palm of my hand. When I got to Tim’s front, it was unlocked, so I went right inside.

  I dashed straight to his bedroom, and when I got to the doorway, I stopped and looked at him. He was wide-awake and staring up at the skylight.

  "Brooke," he said as he sat straight up in bed. "Are you okay?"

  "Yes," I answered as I rushed in toward him. "Yes, I'm okay. I came to give you an answer."

  "But—"

  "I know you told me to take the night to think about it, but I already thought about it, and I already know my decision."

  "Are you sure?" he asked. He looked worried and nervous.

  "Yes, I'm absolutely positive."

  "Okay," he said as he turned to face me on the edge of the bed.

  We sat holding one hand beneath the light of the night sky that poured in on us from above. Tim waited for my answer as I took a big and steady breath to give it to him.

  "I have doubted so many things over the last couple of months," I said.

  His mouth dropped slightly as if he were preparing for the worst.

  "But the one thing that I have never doubted," I continued, "was how much I loved you. No matter what, even when it seemed like it would kill me, I loved you more than I could stand. Thank you for creating that beautiful space for me. I am in love with every single inch of it. But even more than that home itself, I am in love with the fact that you risked your company's biggest contract to make sure that you were here, putting your hand on building that for me. You ensured that each piece of that home is touched by a memory that you kept safe in your heart just so that you could show it to me in the masterpiece that you created. I want to do something as wonderful for you, but I can't build a container home. Instead, what I want to do is marry you and show you how much I love you for all of the rest of the days of our lives."

  Tim's face beamed as though he had just been given the happiest news of his life. "That's a yes?"

 
; "Yes," I laughed as tears rolled down my face at the same time. "That's a yes."

  He lunged forward and kissed me, and I could taste the salt from tears on our lips. I opened my palm and held out the ring that he then slipped onto my finger. It fit perfectly, and when I held up my hand toward the sky, it fit perfectly among the stars too.

  "I love you," he said.

  "And I love you, too," I answered.

  "Come on," I said as I pulled him out of bed with me. I grabbed Max's flannel that he had thrown onto the nearby chair. "Put this on."

  "Where are we going?" he asked excitedly.

  "To enjoy my beautiful utopia together."

  As soon as we stepped outside, a light and gentle snowfall began—the first snowfall of the season.

  Tim opened his mouth wide and bellowed a shout out into the wilderness. "Max!" He shouted so loudly that I felt it could have woken up every bird in the trees. "She said, yes!"

  A moment went by, and Tim's shout was reciprocated with a loud yowling sound that was Max's hoopla of a reply. The two of them had woken up the whole forest, and soon, wolves were howling off in the distance as well.

  Then he took my hand, and we went inside. Together we laid in the snug bed, wrapped in each other's arms, and staring up at the stars until our eyelids got heavy. As I drifted off to sleep, I felt like I had finally found my home.

  I hadn't dreamed in many nights, at least not dreams that I had remembered. But that night, I had a one that was too remarkable to ever forget. I dreamed that I was a star and that I was looking down upon the earth, watching all of the people come and go throughout their days. I felt spectacularly lonely up in the sky, and even though there were other stars, they were silent and distant, and I couldn't seem to talk to anyone except the thoughts in my own mind.

  I was watching the people on earth, and I saw Tim. I watched every night as he sat by his bonfire and drank his glass of bourbon. Some nights he was naked, and I shined starlight down upon him to illuminate his body, which I found entrancing. The more nights that I spent watching him, the more lonely I felt, and the more desperately I wanted to be down on the earth with him.

  Until one night, I saw him sitting by his fire, and I felt the overwhelming sense that if I couldn't go down to be with him, then I didn't want to exist anymore at all, not as a star nor anything else. So I let myself fall. I didn't really know how a star fell to earth, but I just let myself feel as though I were drifting, and before I knew what had happened, I found myself on the cold, hard ground below.

  I felt as though I had shattered into a thousand tiny pieces, and I was cold and broken and afraid. Tim walked over and scooped his hands down to pick me up and carry me inside the tiny house. When we got inside, he gently laid me on the violet bedcovers beneath the skylight, where I looked up and saw where I had fallen from. I didn't know what I was now; if I was a star, or if I was like him. But it turned out that I was neither.

  He came to sit with me and picked all of my tiny pieces up to hold in the palms of his hands. His hands felt warm and then hot, like the bonfire, and for a moment, it hurt as if I were going to turn into dust. But I didn't. Instead, I was stronger, more hardened, and more beautiful than before. I watched the reflection in the glass windows as Tim pushed my pieces together and formed me into a small and beautiful thing that looked like a star but wasn't. Then he wrapped a silver band around me and fashioned me into something lovely.

  When I woke up from my dream, it was still the middle of the night, and I lifted my hand to look at my glittering ring again. I held it up to my face in the light and saw my splintered reflection on all of its edges. It was truly made of a thousand star-pieces crafted out of a painful and beautiful fall into love. I wrapped my hand closed as I felt the ring around my finger and put my arms against Tim's chest as he slept. Then I curled myself back up against him and fell back asleep with a brilliant smile on my lips and a brilliant piece of a star on my hand.

  25

  Chapter Nineteen (Tim)

  The three of us all rode into work on Monday morning, looking as though we had just won the lottery. Max had agreed to stay until the wedding—which we hadn't quite set yet since we needed to deal with the Spokane project first—and even parked his van closer to the house now so that he could come to enjoy the bonfire with us at night while he was there.

  Brooke accepted the position as marketing director, which was just in time because I really needed her help now to get back on track with the Spokane job before the three of us needed to fly out there for the final presentation.

  When word got around the office of our engagement, all of the girls ogled over Brooke's beautiful ring, and I caught her glancing at it at least every few seconds throughout the day. Now that we all seemed like a solid and unbreakable team, the three of us agreed that we would focus together on saving the Spokane project from mishap since it had been substantially neglected in the last few weeks.

  Everyone at the company had done a great job of keeping it afloat, but without Max's final design touches and Brooke's publicity push, and without my communication to the client on our progress, we were in a little bit of danger of not pulling this off. All three of us had worked too hard and were too excited about the possibilities that this project would bring to let it go under. So we all dove in and got to work.

  Max hopped right into the builds, which were almost finished, and added his craftsmanship that made each one of the container homes stand out. His touch was really what would sell the project and the company. Without it, the tiny homes looked like every other tiny home on the market.

  Brooke got right to work online, using photos that she took herself of Max at work on the individual containers, and me amidst the progress at the production plants, and even some of the intricate details inside the homes that she used her hand showcasing the ring to add a personal touch to the photos. She was more than pleased not to use any of the pictures from the photo shoot to push online promotions and publicity opportunities for the project.

  I immediately got on the phone with the client, and after a lengthy apology about my recent absence, I got right to telling them about the progress and the fact that we were on schedule for completion. The homes would be shipped in one week, and we would be flying out to Spokane for their big reveal.

  All in all, we were able to pull the last-minute efforts of the project in with a tight rein, and everything looked like it would be a huge success.

  After we managed the project, we then had Brooke's special tiny home added onto the main house in the mountains. It fit perfectly onto the left side of the house against the mountainside and made the house now an even more impressive model of a unique modular container home. The entire section became Brooke's studio wing that she retreated to throughout the day and night to enjoy, sometimes bringing me with her so that we could make love under the skylight on top of the violet bed. That bed really had started to grow on me a lot.

  When the time came for us to fly out to Spokane and give the presentation, the client was exceedingly happy with how the homes had turned out, and we were given not only just a tour of the tiny home community that was being started there this year but also an additional contract to build more of the homes. My company was headed for a skyrocketing success.

  On the flight home from Spokane, we talked about wedding plans and plans for the future of the company.

  "I was thinking," I said to Max as the flight attendant brought us each a Bloody Mary. "I want to divide the company up between the three of us. I want to make us all equal CEO's."

  "Are you serious?" Max asked. "You know I'm not much of a business guy. I left that corporate world a long time ago for a reason. I'm a craftsman, not a suit."

  I laughed. "I know that, Max, and you will never need to be a suit, I promise. This will just give you a higher salary and more share in the company profits. You deserve it. You are the entire foundation behind Cubed. Take the offer, and then you can take the money and trick out your van some mo
re."

  Max smiled and shook my hand. "Thanks, man."

  I nodded, and we toasted to our mutual success. "And to my beautiful bride-to-be," I said. "What do you want to do about this wedding?"

  "I want it to be a beautiful, outdoor, mountainside ceremony," Brooke said with a happy glow on her face. "I want it to be right on our own land next to the house among the mountains and under the stars."

  "So a nighttime wedding?" I asked. "That sounds like it would be really amazing."

  "I'll build an archway," Max offered.

  26

  *** (Tim Continued)

  When we got back to Seattle, Brooke went wedding dress shopping with Kate, who was over-the-moon excited about the whole thing, and I got the feeling that she and Nick were probably going to be next in line for an engagement announcement.

  We sent out the guest list and invited only people who we wanted, nothing too big or too fancy, just what was absolutely perfect for our closest friends and us to enjoy. Brooke and I went to pick out wedding bands, and I took her right back to the same jewelry shop that I had gotten her ring from. I was pleased to see that the same young woman who had helped me before was still there. The grumpy older sales associate lady was there, too, and I thought I'd have some fun with her first. I waved at the saleswoman that I liked, but she was busy with another customer. So I brought Brooke with me as we went up to the older lady and asked to see some wedding bands.