His forearms are bare where he'd pushed his sleeves up, sheened and veined, and I understand — viscerally and without warning — why Erin once went completely incoherent trying to describe this exact phenomenon.
His eyes lift and find me. I don't look away. I should. I'm a guest in his father's house, a woman with no claim on him, and the polite thing would be to find something else to focus on. Instead I hold his gaze one beat too long, let my eyes drop to the rise and fall of his chest before dragging them back up.
The flush on his neck deepens and that panicked look has returned.
He clears his throat. "I'm going to... ehm, shower."
"Yup," I say, too quickly. "Definitely shower."
My face is on fire and it shows, because he blinks at me once before he turns and walks down the hallway. The bathroom door clicks shut. The shower comes on, and I stare very hard at Will's bookshelves and think about absolutely nothing.
"I've seen subtler car crashes," Will chuckles behind me.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." I gather everything, carry it to the kitchen, well aware my face is getting redder by the minute.
"Mm-hmm."
I busy myself at the sink and absolutely do not think about Callahan naked in that shower.
I stay for dinner and help Callahan clean up afterward. He'd made one of the four things he can make, according to him, and tonight it was pasta. Delicious, actually, not that I'd give him the satisfaction of saying so.
By the time I check my phone, it's past eight and the window is black. I'd walked here. The walk is twenty minutes of quiet, and I like the way the town looks in late afternoon with light going gold over the harbor. But the light is long gone now. The street outside is dark and cold.
"I should go." I stand and reach for my things. "It's late."
"How'd you get here?" Callahan asks from the kitchen doorway.
"Walked."
"You walked?"
"I walk every day. It's twenty minutes."
"It's twenty minutes in daylight, Lily. Now it's dark."
"I have a phone. With a flashlight. I'll be fine."
With an exasperated sigh he says "I'll drive you."
"You don't have to do that."
"I'll drive you."
I hold his gaze. I always do, even when I shouldn't, and when his eyes move over my face my skin hums with it. I forget what I'd been about to say. Forget that his father is sitting eight feet away watching us like we're the season finale of his favorite show.
"Fine." I turn to Will and tell him goodnight.
"Goodnight, sweetheart." He catches my hand as I pass and squeezes it. "Same time tomorrow?"
"Same time tomorrow."
Callahan is already out the door and I follow him out into the cold. The night air bites my arms immediately and I wrap them around myself.
I'd seen the Escalade before, but I'd never stood next to it. This thing is not a car. It's a spacecraft. Black and gleaming and enormous. I never could have guessed that Callahan Holt drove a car that could be seen from actual space.
"This is a satellite, Callahan."
He snorts and rolls his eyes. "It's a Cadillac. An Escalade."
