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She shook her head fiercely, her expression mutinous. He was laying it all on the line for her, but she was still resisting him. Still fighting the feelings he held in his heart for her.
Jax let her hand go, knowing he couldn’t hold on to her any longer. From this point forward, Callie was going to have to choose him. Fight for him. Pick him.
“You’re scared, frightened at how powerful this thing is. I know you feel it, Callie. It’s not just me. I love you. But I’m not going to twist in the wind anymore. You made it clear today that you don’t trust me. And without trust…we have nothing.”
Callie opened her mouth, but no words came out.
“I won’t be bothering you again, Callie. The ball is in your court.”
It was over. For him. And his heart. He couldn’t take it anymore. His heart had been hurting for a long time and now it felt like it was being bruised and battered by Callie. If she felt something for him, she was going to have to get her act together and stop fighting him at every turn. It was time for Callie to get real.
His heart on the verge of cracking, Jax turned on his heel and left Callie standing there gaping at him. He left the building in a daze, blindly heading toward the parking lot where his car was parked.
**
Callie wrapped her arms around her waist as she stared after Jax as he raced off down the hallway. Her hunch had been correct. Jax was in love with her. Whereas before she had doubted it, now she knew it was true. She had felt it with every beat of his heart as it thumped against her palm.
Callie headed back toward the conference room, feeling a bit shaken by her confrontation with Jax. It didn’t feel good to be at odds with him. In her fury she had lashed out and said things that she didn’t mean. She had insulted him. Had she jumped to conclusions? She wasn’t sure. Jax was extremely loyal to her father due to their business relationship. Would he even admit that her father had been trying to intervene in her inheritance? Perhaps Jax had been fooled by him.
Or perhaps she had been disastrously mistaken. She had been so jaded by her father’s actions in the past that she wasn’t able to view things clearly as a result.
She shuddered at how heated things had gotten. Jax had been hurt. She had seen it reflected in his eyes and by the wounded expression on his face. Yet and still he had been tender, confessing his feelings for her and putting them out there with boldness and truth.
Her heart physically hurt at the moment. Jax wasn’t going to pursue her anymore. He had told her so and then he had left, letting her know in no uncertain terms that he was pulling away from her.
Callie felt her heart beating like crazy in her chest. If she hadn’t been at Attorney Mayhew’s office she would have sat down somewhere and cried. What a mess!
Her breathing became heavy and she knew that she needed to gather herself before she rejoined the girls and Pearl in the conference room. Her thoughts were all over the place. She stood still for a moment, pausing to get a cup of water at the water dispenser. She took a sip, hoping it would soothe her rattled nerves. What was this feeling hanging over her like a heavy cloud? And why did she feel so unsettled?
Callie pressed a hand to her chest. The knowledge swept over her like a strong gust of wind. He was way more than a friend. Much stronger than an acquaintance. She was in love with him! And she had been for quite some time.
She pressed her eyes closed and let out a moan. She had massive feelings for Jax. Strong, powerful feelings that rocked her to her core. The enormity of it was now crashing over her in unrelenting waves.
She had never been in love before. Callie had always held her heart at a distance, fearful that she would end up like her mother, who had allowed the man she loved to do hideous things to her children. A woman who had given her life away to a monster. Somehow in her mind, she associated love with weakness and destruction.
With a deep breath, Callie walked back to the hallway and began heading toward the conference room. There would be plenty of time later to sort out her feelings. At the moment there were five women she loved, along with Attorney Mayhew, waiting for her to hash out details regarding Savannah House. Hadn’t she kept them twiddling their thumbs long enough?
Callie walked back into the room, all the while reminding herself to put Jax out of her head for the moment. She took two steps over the threshold and then stopped dead in her tracks. Tension hung in the room like a live grenade. The sight of long blonde hair and a tall, lean physique had her pulse racing like wildfire. The chic maxi dress paired with the fashionable shoes served as a reminder that Francine “Fancy” Tolliver was now a New York City girl.
She let out a gasp. Fancy turned toward her, a shuttered expression etched on her face. Her sky blue eyes gleamed. Her posture was perfect. In Callie’s opinion, she resembled an ice princess. Clearly, judging by her expression, nothing had changed in all this time.
“Fancy. I- I didn’t expect—” She fumbled with her words. “W-we h
ad no idea you were coming here.”
Fancy raised an eyebrow. “I came back for Miss Hattie’s funeral. I was at the back of the church with a dark hat on. I wanted to say goodbye to her.”
Callie frowned. “So you’ve been in town for a few days? Why didn’t you come to the reading of the will?”
Fancy shrugged. “When Attorney Mayhew called me initially to tell me about it, I planned to attend. But being back here and remembering why I left…I couldn’t do it. When he called me back yesterday I didn’t tell him that I was right here in town. I decided to show up here unannounced so I could tell you ladies face-to-face that I want you to buy me out. Write me a check please.”
“We’ve been telling Fancy what a great opportunity this would be to own a business,” Olivia said, her eyes sending out warning signals. Callie got the hint. Fancy was being difficult.
Callie could tell from the moment she’d walked into the conference room that Fancy wasn’t here to play nice. She wanted to rile things up a bit.
“Olivia’s right. We could run Savannah House together, Fancy. We could put everything squarely in the past and be tight again,” Callie said, her voice brimming with enthusiasm. It would be a dream to run Savannah House with these five incredible women. Fancy didn’t realize it, but it would help her to move forward into a state of forgiveness. It would allow for healing.
Fancy’s lip curled upward. “Trust me, after what happened to me a year and a half ago, I’m not interested in mending fences and having a Kumbaya moment.”
