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Sleep was hard to come by last night. I ignored all of Junior’s texts and voice messages, not in the mood to hear his ranting about how I embarrassed him. After I called Kess and explained to her exactly what happened and I texted my parents saying I’d call them today, I thought I’d collapse into a deep sleep. Being in a strange place, as comfortable as it is, my brain was on high alert despite the exhaustion. And the burns on my chest and stomach look and feelworse today than I expected them to. I’m sure they’ll just take a few days to heal.
It’s surprisingly easy to talk to Callum. Maybe because it seems like he’s intently listening to every word. I have no idea what the man is thinking with his grunts and intense expressions. He thinks before he speaks and doesn’t ramble on like I do. But I don’t get the impression that he’s annoyed by me, and that’s saying something.
I dated Junior for nine months and my parents were so excited for me to be dating someone who had it all together. A successful real estate agent from an upper middle class family, I was surprised when he started pursuing me. When I mentioned to my mom that I wasn’t sure Junior even liked me half the time, she laughed and said that was silly. Everyone likes me.
Embarrassment burns, thinking of the way he laughed about me behind my back yesterday. The day he was supposed to be pledging his love for me. And I wonder why I ever ignored my gut feelings about him.
Because you wanted someone steady in your life too.
I knew we didn’t have an earth-shattering romance and that there were a few things that I didn’t exactlylikeso much about him, but…I loved most things. Every time I tried to talk it through with my mom or even Kess, they reminded me that no one is perfect, we’d make beautiful kids together, and that Junior’s financial stability would keep us comfortable forever.
My mom and Kess are good people, but I wouldn’t say either of them have ever gone for what I’d call thefinancially stablechoices in their own lives. I’m not sure why I took their advice to heart about this for my own life when I was vacillating on whether I should marry Junior or not, but I did.
I didn’t say yes when he first asked me…or the next two times. And when I was fairly certain I should say no, my mom and Kess pulled an all-nighter with me, talking out the pros and cons. All of this should’ve pointed to me saying no, but insert that old standby quote about hindsight here.
I glance back at Callum and my breath catches at the sight of him seated in front of those windows. Wow. He is a heavy dose of adrenaline rush. My hands shake slightly as I wash my plate and move on to the pan and spatula.
“I moved your RV,” he says.
I turn to him again, excitement rushing back. His eyes skate down my legs the way they did when he first walked in. I’m pretty comfortable in my own skin and it’s not like he hasn’t seen a girl’s legs before, but I still feel a flood of heat wind through me.
“You were able to fix her?”
His lips twist. “No. But there’s a guy in town—Bill. I can have him take a look if you’d like.”
“Oh. Yes. That’d be great. Thank you. I’m glad you were able to move it out of the snowbank. Thank—”
“You don’t have to thank me for doing what anyone else would’ve done.”
I frown. “Uh, no, I don’t personally know anyone else who would’ve done everything you’ve done for me.” I shake my head, going through the list in my head. “Even my Uncle Pierre who is very generous…I doubt he’d invite someone he didn’t know to stay in his house overnight. And he’d never consider trying to move an RV.”
A sound comes out of Callum.
“Wait…was that a laugh?” I pretend to be floored.
He rolls his eyes. “No,” he mutters.
But I think maybe that’s a smile playing on his lips.
It gives me too much of a thrill to see that.
“I’ll call Bill and let him know your situation. It’s no big deal.”
I start to say thank you and instead say, “I appreciate that.”
He grumbles something and I giggle. It dies as soon as I remember the pile of snow outside when I’m not wearing any pants.
“I don’t suppose I could wear some of your sweats to go get my things?”
He nods and gets up. “You can take my coat…and boots. They’ll be huge, but you won’t mess up your—” He points to my lace boots by the door.
I smile at him and he hurries past me, setting his plate down and then leaving the room. He comes out a couple minutes later with a coat, boots, and sweats. I put the coat on first—it’s the one he was wearing last night—and I inhale all the Callum goodness. Pine and leather and peppery—it’s a flood of good smells is all I know. The sweatpants are next.
He watches as I slip my legs into them and roll the top down and the bottoms up. Next are the boots. I clomp over to the door and he looks me over, his eyes widening before he turns and points out the window.
“It’s out that way, almost to the barn…”
“Okay.”
