Second Chance Mess (Bad News Billionaires #1) - Lucia Jordan Page 0,51

for the front door.

Tim shocked me by lunging in front of me and putting his back against the door so that I couldn't open it.

"What are you doing?" I asked. Worry started to coat my voice. "Why are you blocking the door. You’re freaking me out, Tim."

"It's a surprise," he said. "It just needs a few more minutes.

"No, I don't care about whatever surprise you have. Let me out!" I could see a look of slight panic in his eyes. I didn’t think he meant to scare me, and he realized that he was.

"Brooke, there's nothing wrong, I swear it. There's nothing for you to worry about; it's just that I've been working on a surprise for you, and It's not quite ready for you to see yet."

"Enough with this surprise, bullshit!" I screamed. "Let me out!"

Tim looked hurt and defeated. I immediately felt bad for screaming at him, but in my defense, he was acting all sorts of weird. He moved away from the door slowly and stood to the side of it. He was still bare-chested in his gray cotton joggers, and he handed me his keys so that if I really wanted to get in his car and drive away, I could. He had others.

"Thank you," I said as I took the keys. "I'm sorry that I yelled."

"It's okay," he said. "I understand why you would feel confused and upset. I haven't been able to tell you what I've been working on, but it really has all been for you. You'll see."

"Okay," I said.

Tim still sounded a little crazy to me, though, so I just wanted to get out of here and go home.

"I'm going to think about what we talked about, and I'll call you later tonight, okay?"

"Sure," he said. He kept eyeing the door as if something were going to be standing outside of it when I opened it, and that made me a bit nervous. But when I opened the door, there was nothing unusual, just a picturesque view of the mountains. Tim followed closely behind me as I stepped outside into the cool air. I pulled my shirt around me and looked back at him to see that he didn't seem to mind being bare-chested and barefoot. Tim had a nervous and excited look on his face, and I was just ready to stop being confused about what secretive things were going on with him. I looked around to try and see where he had parked the car since it had been dark outside when we had gotten here last night. When I looked to the left of the house, I saw something there, but it wasn't the car.

"Is that another house?" I asked him as I walked farther out to get a good look at it.

Max was standing on the front steps to the container home. "Hi, Brooke," he smiled.

23

Chapter Seventeen (Tim)

It wasn't exactly the way that I had wanted Brooke to find out about her surprise. I was hoping to have some big, grandiose moment that led up to the huge reveal. At the very least, I would have liked to have time to put on a shirt so that I didn't freeze out here. But it had to happen now, or she was going to leave, and I didn't know if I'd be able to get her to come back.

She stopped for a minute and looked confused. She turned her head back and forth between Max and me, and then between the container home and the car. It looked like she was trying to make several decisions at once. I walked over toward her and closer to Max; he had a thick flannel on over the top of his shirt, which he tossed to me.

"Thanks, man," I said.

He nodded at me and smiled. I thought he was really excited about this, too.

"Whose house is this?" Brooke asked. "It wasn't here the last time I was here. Max, is this your house?"

"Nope," he grinned. "I live in my van, remember? I like to be able to move around."

She turned to look back toward me. "Are you adding on another addition to your house?" she asked me.

"Possibly in the future," I said. "But, this container home isn't for me."

"Then who is it for?"

I held out my hand for her to take, which after a moment of pause, she did. I walked her up onto the steps that Max had built at the literal last minute, and he stepped out of the way