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I held in a groan and let my eyes wander to the magnificent sight he made in his black tux with slim fit pants and white piping around the lapels and chest pocket. His easy smile and that slight scruff on his jaw was irresistible, and I wanted no part of it, not tonight. Thankfully—or not—Cal wasn’t thinking about me, because he was deep in conversation with Kara. Again.
Cal turned to face Rosie, shock and guilt written all over his face. “Hey Princess.”
“Come on, Rosie. We should get back to our table and let these two…talk.” I didn’t wait for Rosie to agree because I knew Cal was one of her favorite people and if given the choice, she would stay. My feet hurried as fast as they could in the opposite direction, weaving through cloth covered tables and dodging servers with trays of food and drink. I couldn’t put enough distance between us, and it was all my fault, for thinking, no for hoping or maybe wishing that Cal was someone else.
For wishing that I hadn’t fallen for him all over again.
I straightened my spine and took my seat, pasting on a small smile so Hannah and Travis wouldn’t ask questions. It didn’t matter what Cal did or with who, all that mattered was how I reacted. And I wouldn’t.
Rosie made a beeline for Travis’ lap, snuggling him close and trying to steal cheesy potatoes from his plate while Hannah hummed happily as she ate her salmon, completely oblivious to my inner turmoil. Or so I thought.
“You could just go talk to him, you know.”
I thought about it for most of the night, going to Cal to clear the air, but what would it change? Absolutely nothing. “Who?”
Hannah sent me a withering look and I shrugged. “Let’s not do that when you’ve looked like a lovelorn Duchess all night.” She grinned at her own cleverness and I rolled my eyes.
“I could go talk to him, if I wanted to. But I don’t and besides, we have nothing to say to each other. He and Kara though? They have plenty to talk about in a dimly lit hallway.” It was silly to bring that up because it made me sound like I was jealous, and I wasn’t.
Not really.
“What? You’re kidding!”
“Nope. You can stop worrying about your brother, he’s not brokenhearted or pining after me either. He’s moving on, or moving backward actually.”
“Bull,” she shot back around a mouthful of buttery biscuit.
“I know what I saw.” They stood closer than two people having a platonic conversation, and the area was too intimate to be anything but romantic.
“Oh, I’m sure Kara is trying to sink her claws into him now that her marriage is over, but I have more faith in Cal than you obviously do.”
I let out a bitter laugh at that. “It’s not about faith, it’s about past experience. Cal is always in search of something new or better, and that’s no longer me.” It felt wrong to say that, but it was also the truth. He was a nice guy, but he wasn’t a good bet for love.
“You’re wrong, but this will all be much more satisfying when you find out for yourself.” Hannah’s smile was wide and smug and her chin jutted out at me, like she already knew how it would all end.
“Right back at you.” I stuck my tongue out at her and laughed before I made quick work of the salmon dinner that sat cooling in front of me. “Suzie was right. This is much better than last year’s rubber chicken.”
She laughed and shook her head. “At least it answered the age-old question of whether or not chicken flavored gum should be a thing. It most definitely should not.”
“This is a big step up,” I replied absently and looked around just as Cal and Kara returned, separately of course, or else it would send tongues wagging.
Cal returned to his table and Kara to hers, both of them doing a damn good job of avoiding all eye contact. To the casual observer, it would look as if nothing untoward had happened, but to Cal it was just another dalliance.
Unless it wasn’t. He’d always had a soft spot for Kara, so it wouldn’t surprise me much if he actually changed his ways for her.
“Just go talk to him,” Hannah growled in my ear. “You’re starting to seem like a creeper.”
“Me? I’m just people watching, that’s all.”
“More like person watching, but I’m glad you can’t take your eyes off him. It means you want him more than you want the world to know.”
I opened my mouth to deny it, but I couldn’t. “You can’t always get what you want,” I told her instead.
“But sometimes, you might get just what you need,” she sang in response, laughing when I rolled my eyes at her.
