I Crave You - C.C. Wood Page 0,93

to be completely honest with you," Sierra said. "No matter what interest rate or loan term we agree upon, any interest you pay me will go into a savings account and be spent on your Christmas and birthday gifts every year."

"God, you're so cheap you'll use my own money to buy my gifts!"

"Zero percent and you don't have to worry about me spending obscene amounts of your own money on you every year."

"Why are we friends?" I asked.

Sierra shrugged. "I'm not sure. You're the only person besides your parents who's willing to put up with me."

"Fine. Zero percent, but the term length will reflect the lack of interest."

"Awesome! Then you'll have your house paid off in fifteen years instead of thirty."

I shook my head. "How long do you think it will take to have the paperwork drawn up?" Sierra opened her mouth and I wagged a finger at her. "We will have an official contract, drawn up by your business manager or lawyer, or whoever handles this sort of thing for you."

"Well, I don't really have anyone who handles things for me except for Mr. McFadden who disperses my trust and keeps an eye on my investments."

"Then ask Mr. McFadden if he can do it or recommend someone."

"Look, Cam, I trust you to pay me back."

"I know you do, but I don't want to take advantage of you, so we're going to do it this way."

"Fine. Can I go back to my contemplation of my inner eyelids?"

"Of course."

Sierra started to lean back then sat up again. "Actually, I'm going to call Mr. McFadden now. I have a feeling Monica will move quickly on this."

I shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. Brody broke up with me, remember? She probably thinks she's won." I took a deep breath. "Because she did."

I understood it all then. Why Brody broke up with me. That he truly had meant for it to be temporary. Though he had to have known how upset I would be afterward. And that I might not be willing to give him another chance.

"That ass," I whispered. "I can't believe him. I can't believe he didn't talk to me about all this before it got this far."

"Who?" Sierra asked.

"Brody Murphy. He thought he was being all noble and saving me like some damsel-in-distress."

"Are you going to set him straight?" she asked, a smile spreading across her face.

"Damn, right."

30

I waited until the next day to confront Brody. I didn't want to have this conversation-slash-fight in front of Jacks. She didn't need to know what was going on between her father and mother and I didn't want to put her in the middle.

So, I did something I normally never would have done. I showed up at his office. I called his assistant, Kara, first thing in the morning and asked if he had any free time in his schedule right before lunch. I was hoping he hadn't mentioned that we'd broken up and it paid off. I told her that I wanted to surprise Brody.

Kara penciled me in for the half-hour before his lunch and promised not to mention it to him. I felt horrible for lying. I would make it up to her somehow. She came into the shop for ice cream from time-to-time, so maybe I could give her free ice cream for...six months. Okay, maybe a year.

I parked my car in front of Brody's office. I hadn't been here before. Mostly because his father worked here as well and I really didn't want to deal with him. His parents had taken our relationship surprisingly well, but I sensed his mother wished he were dating someone more like her. And his father had the attitude that I would give up my business as soon as I got married, which wasn't going to happen.

I may not have aspirations to be CEO of a multimillion-dollar contracting firm, but I did have goals and they were fairly ambitious.

I arrived for my "appointment" with Brody at eleven-thirty on the dot. I didn't want to be early and run the risk of Brody seeing me before Kara showed me into his office.

Kara's smile was bright when I came in, but her eyes were tired. "Hey, Cam. Good to see you. I'm so glad you're here. I don't know what's going on with him, but he's been a beast for the last couple of days. Maybe lunch with you will sweeten his mood."

Oh, I seriously doubted that. I intended to read Brody the riot act, but I wasn't sure