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I just blinked at him like a muted owl. Joshua grumbled something disparaging under his breath, but I ignored him. “Ice cream?”
“It sounds like a good place for a first date, don’t you think?” Callum asked me.
“Date?”
“Are you kidding?” Joshua sneered, pushing his way back to the counter. “She’s Kings Beach.”
“I’m thinking I like Kings Beach,” Callum murmured as he stared directly into my eyes, completely ignoring Joshua.
And that was all it took.
I fell for the man hard.
Turns out, my dad let him take me for ice cream while he looked at Joshua’s WaveRunner. Callum and I were inseparable from then on.
Well, until he broke things off. He was twenty-five and I was twenty-three, and it shattered my young heart. When I think back to that conversation, it constricts my chest to the point of pain. No matter how badly Joshua hurt me over the years, nothing compares to that crushing heartbreak of losing Callum.
“Juni.”
I blink out of my memories to find Callum staring at me expectantly. He wants to know what drove me into Joshua’s arms and I suppose I owe it to him for helping my father today. Otherwise, I’d say he doesn’t deserve to hear the story because along with the hurt that flares brightly from the way he let me go, the anger and bitterness still rage deep down.
“I waited two solid years for you,” I remind Callum.
We both went to the University of Denver. He was two years ahead of me and playing D1 hockey there. Callum never had aspirations of playing in the pros. No, he wanted to be in charge of it all and got his degree in sports management. I was studying nutrition and graduated two years after him. I’d hoped to join him when I got my degree, but instead, he asked me to wait. Urged me to return home and put my degree to use until he could get an established front-office job.
We carried on a long-distance love affair that consisted of nightly phone calls and trips to visit each other when we could swing it. But he was working so hard and traveling so often. He’d started as a player’s agent and then went into scouting, so he didn’t have much free time at all.
For two years, I lived back home with my parents and started working at my current job. I loved it, but I loved Callum more. I wanted to be with him.
“Joshua became a good friend to me,” I say, the easiest explanation for those two years after I graduated college. “This can’t be a surprise to you.”
Callum shakes his head. Despite the two stepbrothers not being close, Joshua was always around when Callum and I were dating. I spent a lot of time over at Callum’s house throughout high school and visits home from college. Joshua matured over the years and while he acted entitled on many occasions, he did become an actual friend.
“It never occurred to me that he’d turn you against me,” Callum says.
My eyebrows shoot high. “He didn’t turn me against you. No one could have ever done that.”
“He took advantage of my absence,” Callum insists.
“Probably. In hindsight, I’m sure that’s what it was. But you’re the one who broke up with me.”
“Because you gave me an untenable ultimatum, Juniper. You were very clear that we needed to move in together or you couldn’t wait for me.”
I throw my hands out in exasperation. “I waited two years, Callum. It was two years too long.”
“It wouldn’t have worked then, Juni. I was scouting in the Ontario Hockey League. I was on a plane every week. It would have been a horrible life for you.”
“And you stayed in that job another two years after we broke up. You made choices that ensured we were doomed from the start.”
Callum’s features harden. “That job led me to my first assistant GM position. I can’t regret sticking it out.”
“I’m not asking you to regret pursuing your dreams and passions. Those were the right choices. The choice you made in not letting me come with you was the mistake. You had no right to decide what was best for me. You took all that away from me and made a unilateral decision—”
“It was a mistake,” Callum blurts out and my jaw drops open. I think I must have heard him wrong because when we broke up, he couldn’t have been more adamant that he was doing the right thing.
He sighs as he scrapes his fingers through his hair, giving a sad shake of his head. “I didn’t know it was a mistake right away, though.”
Frowning, I tip my head to the side. “When did you figure it out?”
