Second Chance Mess (Bad News Billionaires #1) - Lucia Jordan Page 0,54

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