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“You know what’s even worse? Abuela held on until he turned sixteen, so it was all for nothing, anyway.”
“Yes, that does make it worse.” Nora poured more tea for them both. “So, my darling girl, here we are. Rafe is your best friend and nothing has made me happier than seeing the friendship you share, for both your sakes. But, we are the only family he has. If something goes wrong here and you lose the friendship, he loses everything. Because it won’t matter how well you handle it, he won’t feel comfortable coming here anymore. And that’s not even taking into account William and Juniper, or Callum, or Leah.”
Mikayla was mortified. That was not an aspect of the situation she had given any consideration to at all. “It won’t go wrong,” she said defensively. “We’ve laid out the deal, we’ve promised to still be friends after we end it.”
“And Rafe’s okay with all this?”
“Yes. He started it, if you must know.”
“I see. So, you’re just going to keep it casual?”
“Yeah, of course.”
Nora sighed again. “I know you, darling. I don’t think you’re the friends with benefits type of person.” Nora watched her with a steady, concerned gaze for a long moment. “I just don’t want to see you get hurt. Either of you. So, please, just tread carefully.”
Mikayla swallowed the lump that was forming in her throat. “It’s fine, Mum, really.” Her mum was basically saying; don’t do what you always do and alienate him. Don’t get clingy. Well, it was fine, she wouldn’t. She just wouldn’t. She took a swallow of tea, barely even tasting it.
Callum came through the door into the kitchen at that moment, telling Nora that John wanted to get her opinion on the coffee table he was making in the shed. Mikayla sagged with relief as Nora walked out, giving her an affectionate rub on her shoulder as she passed by.
“Hey.” Callum sat down across from Mikayla, in the seat just vacated by his mother, reaching for a biscuit.
“Hey.” She looked at him for a long moment, recalling what her mother had just told her. “I love you.”
He tilted his head to one side, giving her a long, assessing look. “I love you too. Weirdo.” When she didn’t say anything else, he said, “Everything’s booked for Thredbo.”
“Great.”
“I just need to organize the equipment hire. I’m not sure if she’s gonna ski, but can you ask Leah her shoe size? Just in case.”
“Sure. Or you could ask her yourself.”
“I’m not sure she wants me to do that.”
“No?”
“She doesn’t really like talking to me.”
“I’m not sure that’s true.”
He shrugged; his hazel eyes hooded.
“She’s just very shy.”
“Yeah, but she’s different with me than with everyone else, shyness aside.”
Mikayla smothered a smile, letting go of the urge to tell Callum exactly why Leah was different with him. It wasn’t fair to Leah to reveal her secrets without her permission. Still, she could give it a nudge. “If you like her, and I think you do, give it a bit of time and you never know, there might be a bit of romance in your future.”
She said it teasingly, but there was no mistaking the shadow that flickered across his face, there and gone so quickly she almost missed it. She frowned, tilting her head to one side as she looked at him. He’d dropped back into town a few months before, without warning. Since then, he’d settled into the cottage in their parent’s backyard and into work for their father. The work was just to keep him busy, because he definitely didn’t need the money. He seemed to be content just drifting along, hanging out with Rafe or William, going for a surf, listening to music in the cottage. Her frown deepened. Listening to music. Not playing it. He hadn’t laid so much as a fingernail on his guitar since he had come home, as far as she knew. And that was unprecedented. He’d barely been without a guitar in hand since their parents had gifted him his first, when he was six years old. “You okay?”
“Me? Yeah, sure.” He shot her a bland look.
She knew that look. That was his ‘don’t bother pushing, because I’m not telling you anything’ look. So, she couldn’t force it out of him, but she was definitely going to keep an eye on him. Maybe see if Rafe had any idea what might be going on. “Great!”
“Anyway, back to the ski trip. Room allocations. William and Juniper can take the master bedroom. It has an alcove they can use for Billy. That leaves three bedrooms with queen sized beds. You don’t care if you bunk with Leah? I’d feel weird sharing with Rafe.”
“I wouldn’t.” The words were out before she could really consider whether or not to tell him about her and Rafe. She ran through a panicked list of pros and cons. Pro - he was going to find out soon enough anyway. Pro - If he didn’t put them in a room together at Thredbo, they’d have to sneak around, no need for that now. Con - Callum would judge her.
“Like that, is it?” He asked with a quirked brow.
