AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Right. I suppose I can do that this afternoon. I’m not sure why I didn’t think of it before.”
Except that I know exactly why I didn’t think of it before. I’ve been ruminating on Callie and the fact that I have to let her go.
“I know this is a big mess,” Dale says. “Neither one of us has really been acting like ourselves.”
“You noticed, huh?”
“Yeah. I have to tell you, Ashley is keeping me very grounded. I’m glad I shared what’s going on with her.”
I say nothing.
“Don?”
“Yeah?”
“How are things with Callie? Is she back from Denver?”
“Almost. I just got a text from her. She’s about fifteen minutes out.”
“Good. I think you need a heavy dose of Callie Pike.”
“Funny you should mention that…”
“What?”
I sigh. “Dale, I have to let her go.”
“What?” My brother’s voice is almost shrill. He doesn’t sound like himself at all.
“You heard me. And I know you understand why.”
“No, I don’t understand. And I’ll tell you the reason why I don’t understand. Because a few weeks ago, I was exactly where you are now. I almost let the best thing in my life go, and it would have been the biggest mistake I ever made.”
“Dale, you and I have a hell of a lot of baggage. But now with these new developments—”
“So we have more baggage. So what? You have a woman who loves you and who you love in return. Don’t let all this baggage—”
I can almost see my brother’s air quotes.
“—lead you into making a bad decision.”
“I’m only thinking about her.”
“I get that. I’ve been there, like I said. Do I need to come over and pound some sense into you?”
I scoff. “I’d like to see you try.”
“Hey, I work out. I have a taekwondo dojang in my basement. You sit at a desk all day.”
My brother is not wrong, and he also has way more of a temper than I do. Still, we’re pretty evenly matched body-wise.
“Dale,” I say, “this is different.”
“How is it different?”
“This is some major family drama we’re uncovering. It could affect our finances. It could affect everything.”
“So?”
