Free House Divided by Jennifer Peel Page B

married and Caroline is Brady’s niece.”
    “Oh …,” she directed a puzzled glance at
Brady, “well, boy, what have you been waiting for?”
    I was so embarrassed.
    Brady looked at her and cleared his
throat. “Mrs. Kellen, I think we would just like to order now,” he politely
responded.
    She looked confused, but took our order: three
cheeseburgers with fries and three chocolate milkshakes. Brady and I would not
be sharing.
    “Uncle Brady, why did that lady think you
and Miss Ellie were married?” Caroline asked as soon as Mrs. Kellen left.
    He looked at me thoughtfully before
turning his attention back to Caroline. “Because darlin’, Miss Ellie used to be
my girlfriend.”
    This excited her. She looked at me for
confirmation.
    “That was a long time ago,” was all I
could say.
    “It wasn’t that long ago,” Brady
countered.
    I turned toward him, and his pleading eyes
were squarely fixed on me. Pleading for what, I’m not sure. I couldn’t bear to
keep looking at him. I turned to Caroline. “Sugar, do want to pick out song on
the jukebox?”
    She happily agreed.
    Like a gentleman, Brady stood up as we
left. When I exited the booth, he caught my arm. “I really am sorry, Ellie.”
    I just shrugged my shoulders and followed
Caroline to the jukebox. I was sorry too. Sorry I came back and sorry I ever
broke the rules.
    Like a true country girl, Caroline liked
Luke Bryan, so she asked me to pick one of his songs. Thankfully, she could
talk your ear off, so Brady and I didn’t have to talk to each other. While she
chattered, I remembered sitting in this very booth making plans with Brady. By
now we would have had a Caroline of our own, but she would have been named
Avery and would have had her daddy’s eyes and bouncing dark curls. And we would
have had a boy named after Brady. I was more than foolish to actually have
believed that would happen. Thankfully it didn’t take long for our food to
arrive. I had kind of lost my appetite, but I tried to eat as much as I could.
I even introduced Caroline to the fine dining experience of dipping your fries
in your milkshake. I think she even enjoyed it.
    “I can’t believe you still do that,” Brady
commented.
    “Why?”
    “Because it’s disgusting and not very
proper for a fine southern lady.”
    “Don’t knock it ‘til you try it.”
    How many times had I said that to him? I
had tried so many times to get him to try it, but never succeeded. I would even
bribe him with kisses, but he would always steal a kiss and say, “Ellie, you
know you want to kiss me anyway.” And he was right, I always did. I’ll admit I
still did, but it was best not think about that.
    He arched his eyebrow sexily. “If I do,
will you agree to the original terms?” I guess he remembered too.   
    He really was too much. I just shook my
head no.
    He laughed. “It was worth a shot.”
    Caroline began to yawn; she’d had a long
day and had been a trooper. Brady paid for us and then scooped her up as we left
for home. On our way out, Mrs. Kellen came out and apologized for earlier.
    “Don’t worry about it,” we replied in
unison.
    She just smiled at the two of us and waved
her finger. “I still have hopes for the two of you.”
    I wanted to say, “Don’t get your hopes up,”
but instead we quickly said goodnight and made our exit. All I knew was
tomorrow I was getting Aunt Lu to agree to her procedure, and then I was
getting the heck out of there.
    Brady drove me home first; Caroline had
already fallen asleep. He helped me carry in my obscene amount of bags. I
thanked him kindly for his help and saw him to the door. I noticed a familiar
look in his face, it was the same determined look he gave me the night of
homecoming when he had announced to the world that we were together. I was in
trouble again. I tried to shut the door quickly, but he pushed against it.
    “Ellie, please.”
    “Please what?”
    Without warning, he pulled me close and
ran his fingers through my