Fighting Our Way (Broken Tracks 2)

“The room opposite hasn’t been touched so we can still use it as a guest room if people want to stay over.” I open my office door as we pass it. “Nothing has changed in here either, there’s plenty of space and a sofa if you ever want to come in here.”

Her gaze wanders around the room, landing on the bookcases. “What happens if I want a book off a higher shelf?” My eyes widen as I move my gaze from her to the bookcase and back again, raising my brows at the smirk on her face.

“A book—you—” Her smirk grows bigger and I shake my head. “Should’ve known.”

“Just keeping you on your toes,” she comments, tilting her head down the hallway. “Continue on with your tour.”

I fold my arms across my chest. “No. I might just let you figure things out on your own from now on.” She rolls her eyes and I walk ahead. “Come on then, I want to show you where the real additions have been made.”

I skip showing her the master and the extra guest bedroom—the one I’ve made up for her—because I’m unsure how to broach the subject, so I carry on farther down the hallway.

I hear her gasp as we reach the end and we walk into the large room with the indoor pool inside. The floor-to-ceiling windows show the expanse of land I have, and with the frosty grass glistening, it looks beautiful.

“You did this…” she trails off, clearing her throat. “You did all this for me?”

My eyes fall on the equipment that’ll lift her in and out of the pool. “Yeah, Traci said it was needed.”

“You shouldn’t have done that,” she reprimands, spinning her chair around to face me, a stern expression on her face. “You built a pool? A pool, Nate. Really?”

“Wait, what?” Her incredulous stare bores into me and when it finally clicks what’s she’s saying, I start laughing.

“Don’t laugh at me,” she hisses, redness expanding up her neck and flowing across her cheeks.

“You… you think I built a pool for you?” I’m not laughing at her: I’m laughing at the situation. “The pool was here before, I was talking about this.”

I walk over to the equipment and tap my hand on it.

“Well…” I turn around, watching as she places her hand over her forehead and tips her face down. “Now I feel stupid.”

Guilt for making her feel bad washes over me and I step toward her. “There’s no reason to feel stupid. If I didn’t have a pool then I probably would’ve looked into getting one, so you were half right.”

She huffs out an amused laugh before her gaze flits around the whole place, taking in all of the new equipment before landing on the door of what used to be my gym. “What’s in there?” she asks, pointing at it.

I motion for her to follow me. “The most important thing about you coming home was that you had a suitable place to continue your therapy without us having to go back and forth to the hospital all the time. As you know, Traci will be continuing that so you don’t have to start over with somebody new, but we needed the space.” I open the door and walk inside, my arms spread out wide. “So… tah-dah.”

She takes in the equipment I had Traci come and place around the room where she wanted them.

“Wow.” Her gaze bats back and forth between the equipment and me before she pushes farther into the room. Her hand slides over the soft leather of the therapy bed before she slowly moves toward the standing bars that are a few feet apart in the middle of the room.

I don’t know whether to step closer to her or leave her to take it all in as she places her hand at the base of her throat.

Opening my mouth to say something, I’m cut off when she says, “This is all so…” Her gaze flicks back up to mine, her chocolate-brown eyes misting over. “Thank you.”

I shoot her a small smile. “You’re welcome. There’s... actually a little more I wanted to show you before I let you get settled in.”

“Lead the way.” She extends her arm out, signaling for me to walk ahead of her.

The nerves flood back as we walk out into the pool room and toward the hallway. I know she agreed to move in with me, but I was under no illusion we would be staying in the same room, never mind the same bed. I mean, I want to of course but I’m no longer making decisions for her behind her back. I did upgrade the master bed to a lower frame like in the guest bedroom though—you know, just in case.

“I, erm…” I stop walking and face her. “I had one of the guest rooms redecorated for you and a new bed put in that’s low enough for you to manage, but I…” I sigh and motion for her to follow me to the master bedroom. “I also got a low bed for the master in case you choose—”

“Nate—”

“—to stay there… with me.”

“Nate,” she calls a second time, and when I look back at her, I see a small smile playing on her lips. “You’re rambling.”

“I just wanted you to know that there’s no pressure at all, I—”