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I can’t ever get enough of you.
I love you so much.
I was heartened as I lay there, my head on his chest and his arm wrapped tight around my back. It was my opportunity to broach the subject again and I was ready to stand my ground with him.
Scooting off his chest, I tugged on his arm so he rolled to face me. Our heads on our pillows, arms curled under, he smiled at me. Reaching out with his free hand, he tucked a stray hair behind my ear.
“Want to do something today?” he asked.
“You mean leave this den of iniquity?” I replied, causing him to laugh. “I only have you until tomorrow afternoon. Let’s just stay here.”
“Sounds perfect to me.”
For a split second, I lost my confidence. Because we’d had this conversation on multiple occasions and I’d never made any headway in convincing him to let me move in with him, I was braced for rejection. I already knew the pain that would come with it because I’d experienced it before.
But Joshua had told me, “What do you have to lose, Juni? More importantly, look what you could gain.”
I could gain a new life with Callum.
“I want to talk to you,” I said, and because Callum loved me and could hear the angst in my voice, he took my hand in his and curled it into his chest.
“You can talk to me about anything.” His low rumble was reassuring and protective.
It bolstered me. “I want to come live with you. I want us to be together. I can’t stand this long-distance relationship anymore.”
Callum didn’t get mad. He never did. Instead, he did as he always did, his manner turning soft and empathetic. “Baby… I know how hard it is. It’s hard on me too. But it will be worse for you, being in Ontario all by yourself. You’ll hardly see me any more than you do now—”
“That’s not true,” I cut in, because I knew his schedule. I had calculated the time and we would get more days together. Not a lot, but more than what we had now, and I needed more. “I get it will still be hard, but it’s what I need.”
“You don’t think I need it too?” he questioned. Not the first time he’d thrown that at me, but for some reason, I doubted the answer.
An unease settled into my chest, almost suffocating me. In order to breathe, I needed resolution so I laid it out there.
“I’m not kidding about this, Callum. I can’t do this anymore. It’s not enough for me to have these stolen moments and a video relationship with you.”
Callum’s hand jerked because I’d never said those words to him.
I can’t do this anymore.
“What are you saying?” he asked, a hard lock to his jaw.
“I’m saying we make plans to be together… for me to move in with you… or we go our separate ways.”
Panic flared in his eyes, but then they went hard. “You’re giving me an ultimatum?”
I nodded, sick to my stomach. “I love you, Callum. But it’s now or never.”
Pain and anger swirled, mixing into a turbulent expression. But Callum—ever so self-assured and still driven toward his goals—leveled a look at me that gave his answer before the words came out. “Then I’m sorry, Juni. It’s never.”
I rub my breastbone. Even recalling his declaration that it was never—that we were over—sends the same pain lancing through me, even after all these years.
I catch Callum looking at me in the rearview mirror and I’m not sure what my face says, but I can tell he’s worried. I avert my gaze out the window, banishing that awful day from my mind. A fight ensued because I was enraged he wouldn’t even consider my feelings. It was horrible, the things we said to each other, and I have never been so let down in my life. When he went into the bathroom, I dressed hastily, grabbed my bag and ran from the room. That was the last time I saw or spoke to him until my mom’s funeral over two years later.
“Home sweet home,” Lila murmurs, and I blink to see the iron gates of the Willard estate parting for us.
Coming off the dark memories of my breakup with Callum, seeing the home where I was unloved and abused for so many years churns my stomach.
“You okay?” Callum asks, and I think he’s talking to Lila, but his head is twisted to look at me in the back seat.
