Page 30 of Thin Lives

“Yeah.”

“So … we were friends,” he said, catching her eyes with his own. “Or, friendly enough that I called you by a nickname your husband doesn’t approve of.”

Emma’s lips pressed together, like she was trying to hold back words. He saw the slight clench of her jaw, and how her hand balled into a fist around Midnight’s unmoving form. “I suppose you could say that.”

Calisto glanced down at her dog. He’d given her that puppy, too. None of this seemed right to him the longer he thought about it. It would never be acceptable for a made man to treat another made man’s wife with things like affection and gifts.

It would never be appropriate for Calisto to do something like that with any married woman, let alone his uncle’s wife.

“How close were we that I gave you a puppy and—”

“Friends,” she interrupted quickly. “We were just friends, Cal.”

Too quickly.

She would no longer meet his stare.

“Emma,” Calisto said, squeezing her wrist a little firmer. “If we were friendly enough before that I did these sorts of things with you, then why haven’t you told me? Or tried to sit down with me more just to chat? I would have appreciated the effort. Just because I don’t remember you and how you came about in this family doesn’t mean I don’t want to.”

She wet her lips, shooting another look at the doorway.

Why did she keep doing that?

“Hey, I’m right here,” he said.

Emma’s gaze snapped to his instantly. “I’m very aware of where you are.”

And she sounded frightened about that fact.

Scared that he was anywhere near her.

“Is there something wrong with me being here with you?” he asked.

“No, of course not.”

“You’re acting like there is, like you might get in trouble for just talking with me.”

Had something happened—had someone said something—that made her afraid to be near him?

Emma openly frowned, and briefly, Calisto was positive he saw a sheen of wetness in her green eyes before she was blinking the tears away. “I should go.”

“But—”

“I have to rest,” she said, repeating her earlier statement.

Not wanting to, but knowing he had no right to force Emma to stay and explain his confusion about their friendship before his accident, Calisto let her go. He took a step back, a wide step. It gave her lots of room to pass him by.

But at the doorway, she paused, glancing back over her shoulder at him. Her mouth opened to speak, like she was going to say something, but the loud, raucous laughter muffled from behind the closed door of Affonso’s office across the hall stopped her.

“What is it?” Calisto asked.

Emma tore her stare away from his, and she did it in such a way that told him it hurt her to do so. “I keep hoping …”

He tipped his head to the side, unsure and wary. “For what?”

“For something impossible.”

Calisto smiled. “Nothing is impossible, Emma.”