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Slowly, gradually, I felt them burning down.
Chapter Twenty
Callum
Ana’s eyebrows rose sharply as we walked across the tarmac. She was leaning against the railing of the steps leading into the jet and smoothly pulled her shades down to mask her dissatisfaction. It flashed in her dark eyes the second she spotted Lake, my shoulder draped in her luggage and her fingers entwined in mine. It was noticeable enough that Oz exhaled with a hint of stress, which might’ve been the first time I’d ever heard that emotion from him.
“What?”
He shrugged. “Here’s to hoping she’s not the type for petty revenge,” he muttered when Lake broke away from me to help with her luggage.
“What do you mean?”
“You brought your girl on a business trip and I’m sure the reasons aren’t business-related but Ana looks a wee bit unhappy about it.”
“She’ll get over it,” I said as we climbed the steps and into the Gulfstream.
“You must be Callum’s lovely lady,” Ana held her hand out to Lake when we got in. I shook my head at her when she shook Lake’s hand but looked straight at me.
“I guess so, though I’ve never heard Callum describe me as lovely,” Lake laughed, peering at me. “Or a lady for that matter.”
I smirked. She was too fucking sexy to be described as lovely but of course she was. I kept the thought in and nodded for us all to take a seat. “Nice touch,” I remarked at the table lined with various bottles of Pike Scotch. “Some hair of the dog?” I asked Oz and Lake, who both groaned.
We’d all had too good of a time last night, Lake and myself in particular. By the time we returned downstairs to our friends, Oz had gotten them sufficiently drunk because that was what he did best with people – bring out their worst. We’d mixed Scotch with champagne over five courses of dinner and at the end of it all, joined whatever party was going on in the event hall. While Oz, Logan and Isabel danced their asses off, I sat at the bar with Lake on my lap, both of us just laughing and watching. Some drunk asshole grabbed Isabel’s ass and before Lake and I could move a muscle, Isabel beat him with her clutch like a woman gone mad.
“Shame that she’s married. That was the sexiest fucking thing I’ve ever seen,” Oz shook his head. “Top five at least. You know that kind of feisty translates well in bed.”
I ignored him. “Know what that reminded me of?” I asked Lake, whose eyes were already wide on me because she was thinking the same.
“My grandma.”
Elena had been the feistiest old woman I’d ever met in my life. Twice she had her purse snatched on the subway and twice she smacked the living shit out of the thief with it when she got it back. The second time, she enlisted the help of a stranger to drag him to a cop on the platform. The memory had us laughing fondly till Oz asked if Lake’s grandma was single.
“She’s dead, Oz.”
He winced. “So that’s a ‘no?’”
“For this lifetime, unfortunately.”
We were all pretty drunk. Lake was apparently enough so to get started on her confession with me. It was after we’d snuck our drinks back upstairs and sat on the top of the steps, watching all the drunken antics unfold below us. It had been quiet for a minute when she tossed back the rest of her champagne and spoke.
“I started talking to my mom again after my grandma died.”
I looked at her without showing my surprise. “Yeah?”
“You know my mom’s name right? My biological mom?”
“Trisha.”
“Trish, yeah. She tried asking my grandma for my contact info once, I think when I was like, thirteen, and my grandma shut that shit down so fast,” Lake laughed, staring bleary eyed into nothing. “She knew she was bad news. Never wanted my dad to be with her. My dad was apparently a good guy. I mean, obviously, since my grandma made him.”
She never really knew him. He didn’t have much contact with her mom and died young in a car accident. I wanted to say something comforting but instead, I just nodded and listened, afraid to disturb whatever had shifted in the air to inspire Lake to talk.
“My grandma warned your mom, too. She said Trish found out about the nice, cushy life I suddenly had and she was suddenly very interested in me. Your mom was worried. She told me to tell her if I ever received contact from Trish.” The amusement faded from Lake’s voice and shame trickled its way in. “I really should have done that.”
“When did she try again?”
“Literally the day we got back from my grandma’s funeral. On Facebook. She was really nice at first, actually. She went through my pictures and said I looked so pretty and I had such a cute boyfriend and she was happy my life was so good. I knew from the way your mom and my grandma acted that it was wrong if she tried to talk to me but it didn’t… feel so bad. She was my mom. She was the only blood I had left. And I was kind of curious about how she might’ve changed. If maybe she’d gotten better.”
