This is what happens when you fall in love. And this was why she’d tried so hard to protect her heart after her only serious relationship had blown up in her face. Somehow she knew allowing Brody into her heart wouldn’t end well. He’d been damaged in more ways than one and didn’t have anything left inside him to give.
Hadn’t said so in so many words?
I don’t know what you want me to say.
She’d wanted to say How about you love me? But she’d already given him the opportunity once, and he’d basically slammed the door in her face. Elisa hadn’t been too eager to allow him that chance again.
She padded barefoot down her hallway to the kitchen. Brinkley hadn’t touched the food she’d given him, and he seemed even skinnier than he’d been when she’d found him. She needed to get him to a vet ASAP.
In the meantime, she opened the fridge door and gave the contents inside half a glance. Why was she looking in here? She wasn’t even hungry.
She closed the fridge door with a soft thump. What she needed was a distraction. Something to remind her she actually had some self-worth.
She went back down the hallway and made a detour to her office. A few stock agents had requested to see some of her photos, which she’d already mailed. But she was restless and felt the need to send more queries. In a spiral notebook was a list of all the stock agencies in the country that specifically dealt with landscapes. Elisa retrieved the book and started with the next name on her list. Minutes ticked into an hour, then two as she organized photos into portfolios, and printed query letters. Each one got its own thick manila envelope and was stacked neatly on her desk all ready to be mailed first thing tomorrow morning.
Afterward, Elisa expected to feel better. But now, instead of her mind being occupied by her paying job, it was a jumbled mess of more than a dozen things: Brody, mysterious online crooks stealing from her, and her ability to pay her bills in just a few months. She should have known Brody would have been too hard to shove out of her mind. The man was too dominant of a force.
The moon was nonexistent, and her house was shrouded in a thick blanket of blackness. The darkness surrounded her and made her eyelids grow heavy. For the first time all evening, Elisa felt like she could actually sleep. She had just dragged her weary bones to her bedroom when the phone rang. Briefly she considered not answering, then changed her mind. She went to the phone, hoping it was Brody apologizing and professing his undying for her.
“Hello?” she answered.
“Hey, gatinha.”
The Portuguese slang for good-looking rolled off her brother’s tongue and brought tears to her eyes.
“Marcello?”
“Who else would be calling you this late?” His question was accented by a deep chuckle.
The sound was so familiar and as welcome as a warm fuzzy blanket on a cold day. She sank to the bed and leaned against the headboard.
“Sorry for the phone tag. I’ve been so swamped with studying, lectures, and logging hours in a clinic that I’ve barely had time to breathe.”
Elisa couldn’t respond because tears were streaming down her face like Niagara Falls. She held back a hiccup and tried to gather her composure.
“What’s wrong, irmã?” he asked when she still hadn’t said anything.
Slang word for sister made her cry even harder. “I’m sorry, Marcello. I’ve just missed you so much. I’ve really needed someone to talk to.” The floodgates had opened, and nothing was going to stop her from spilling her guts now.
“Tell me,” he demanded in his slightly accented voice.
Elisa pulled in a cleansing breath and emptied everything she had inside her, including Brody. It all came out in such a rush, as if saying the words was a way of detoxing her system. Her brother remained silent, allowing her to say as much as she needed, sometimes crying in between stories. He didn’t interrupt her, or tell her to calm down or get over it. Marcello always knew the right thing to say.
“Are you in love with this man?” he asked after she finally stopped whining.
She dropped her head back and stared at the ceiling. “Yes. How do I always manage to fall for the wrong guy?”
“Something tells me this guy isn’t going to screw you over the same way Micah did.”
“Yeah, Brody definitely isn’t gay.” Didn’t matter. Brody would end up shattering her heart a thousand times more than Micah did.
Marcello sighed. “Do I need to fly up there and kiss this guy’s ass?”
Elisa giggled and picked at a thread on her blanket. “You’re so sweet. But I can fight my own battles.”
“You want my honest opinion?”
She hesitated, then answered with a soft “Yes.”
“This guy’s running scared. Sounds to me like he’s carrying around a lot of guilt, and his first marriage didn’t end well. When men get scared, we turn into babies. Our first instinct is to run the other direction.” He paused while speaking softly to someone. Then he continued, “This guy’s in love with you, Elisa. I’m sure of it, and I don’t even know him.”
“How can you be sure of that?” Elisa so badly wanted to believe Brody returned her feelings, but his actions told the complete opposite.
Marcello chuckled. “I know how the male mind works. Our minds are weak. We fall for a woman and we don’t have a clue how to handle it. My best advice is to give him space and let him figure it out on his own. If you push the issue, he’s likely to shut down completely.”
If only. What if he never figured it out? What if she waited her life away for a man who couldn’t let go of his demons?
Elisa wiped at her eyes with the cuff of her soft robe. “Enough about me and my poor woes. Tell me what’s going on with you.”
Marcello went on to tell her about how he spent more time in school than he did at home. Their grandfather had been helping him study for his next round of exams, which were in a few weeks. Then the tone of Marcello’s voice changed when he talked about Adriana, a young professional ballet dancer, who was originally from Argentina. He met the woman when she’d come in to the clinic with a sprained ankle, a hazard of her occupation.
“I discharged her and coaxed her into giving me her phone number. I think she pitied my desperate attempt at a date.”
Elisa smiled. Her little brother was so grown up. “That’s not why she agreed to go out with you. You’re charming and good-looking. And you’re a med student.”
“I feel funny around her, like my heart just dropped to the bottom of my stomach. I’ve never felt like this before.”
Yes, Elisa understood that. Because she felt the same way around Brody.
“Sounds to me like you have your own love problems,” she told him.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a problem.” He paused a moment. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“It’s okay. I’m really happy for you. You deserve to find a good woman.”
Some background noise came through the other end of the line. “Listen, I’ve got to go. But I wanted to tell you that I’m planning on coming up to see you next year. I could really use the break from studying.”
The thought of being with her brother filled her heart with so much joy. “Only if you have time. I don’t want to take you away from your work. I know how busy you are.”
“I can take a little time away from work to see my sister. And it’s not fair that you always have to fly down here.”
Elisa smiled at her brother’s thoughtfulness. “I’ve only been down there twice, and once was only because I had happened to already be there.”