“Did I do something?” he asked, the question a knot in his throat.
Her eyes flew to his, those hands at his back flexing and bunching, tugging him even closer. “No! My mother…” She broke off, tears welling in her eyes again.
A growl rose in his throat. The ferocity of his desire to protect Callie—even from her own mother—took him by surprise. “What can I do?”
She shook her head again, swallowing down the last of the tears. “You’re already doing enough.”
“Let me help you. Tell me how.”
She placed her hands over his own where they cupped her face. Turning her face into his palm, she planted a kiss there, and then stepped out of his hold. “I have to get ready. Liv will be waiting for me.”
As she stepped back, he caught her arm, his hand trailing down until he grasped her hand in his. “Don’t shut me out, Callie.” He hated the plea in his tone.
She stared at their hands for a moment before pulling away. “I’ll see you at dinner,” she said as she disappeared into the bathroom.
It didn’t matter that the adrenaline coursing through his veins demanded he take care of her; she didn’t want him to. Which was for the best. They both knew how spectacularly he’d failed the last time he’d tried to take care of her in any meaningful way. This restless need to go after her, to hold her until she told him everything, to fix it so nothing and no one ever made her cry again—it was untenable. She wasn’t his girlfriend. She was barely his friend. None of it was real.
So why did it feel like it was?
Noah found himself at Liam and Min’s room, uncertain when he’d made the decision to go there. He had just raised his fist to knock when the door swung open.
“I am not going for another run,” Liam said.
Noah didn’t say anything, just stared at his friend, until Liam nodded, then stepped aside and ushered Noah in. He paced the room, glancing in the open door to the bathroom to confirm they were alone.
“Min’s not here. She had plans with Liv and Callie,” Liam said.
“How do I make it stop?”
“Make what stop?”
“This! Whatever thisthingis.”
“You’re going to need to be more specific,” Liam said, taking a seat in the armchair in the corner of the room and crossing his ankle over his knee. Like he had all the time in the world. Like Noah wasn’t losing his shit right in front of him.
“She was crying. And I couldn’t make it stop. She won’t even tell me what’s wrong. If she would just let mefix itthen she wouldn’t be crying.”
“Callie isn’t the type to want someone else to fix her problems.”
“She was crying,” he repeated helplessly.
“I know.”
“And I have all these…” He waved his hand around in front of his chest as if that explained what he meant.
“Feelings?” Liam asked, arching his eyebrow.
Noah scowled. “How do I make it stop?”
“You think I know?” Liam laughed. “Do you even remember what I was like when I first met Min?”
“This isn’t that,” Noah said, shaking his head and sitting on the edge of the bed. “I don’t know what this is, but it isn’t that. Callie’s basically family.”
Except when you’re kissing her, or inhaling her scent while jerking off…
“Oh yeah? When was the last time you thought about Livi the way you’ve been thinking about Callie?”
Heat flared in Noah’s chest, working its way up his neck to his face. He would never think about Livi the way he thought about Callie—the two didn’t compare. Livi was his little sister, the baby-faced kid whose skinned knees he used to bandage. And Callie was…not.
