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Chapter 21
“Adeal.” Even as Callie repeated the word, it made no sense.
Sinking onto the love seat, she stared at Jake across the living room. Eleanor perched on a chair, biting her lip worriedly. Aria, Rory, and Henry had all left before Eleanor corralled Jake and Callie into the family room so they could “clear the air.”
With what? An industrial-sized vacuum?
Callie still couldn’t believe what she’d just heard.
Jake had asked her out because of a deal he’d struck with her mother? Callie had been suffocating Eleanor so much that her mother had found it necessary to practically blackmail Jake so that she could have the freedom to pursue her new relationship with Henry—a man Jake had already met because he’d been chatting with her mother at Sugar Joy?
WTF?
Jake sat on the sofa, his elbows resting on his thighs and his head in his hands.
“I can’t believe this.” Callie lifted her hands, willing her mother to tell her this was some ridiculous joke. “You coerced him into asking me out? And you—” she pointed a finger at Jake “—agreed? You came to my office that day acting like you wanted to take me…excuse me, tohang outwith me? Are you both kidding me right now?”
“Callie, I’m so fucking sorry.” His voice was hoarse. “I never expected it to come to this.”
“Neither did I.” Her forehead furrowed, Eleanor approached her daughter and reached out to touch her hair. “I’m sorry, honey.”
Callie flinched away from her mother’s touch. Eleanor stopped and curled her fingers into her palm.
“It was totally my fault,” Eleanor said. “My idea. Don’t blame Jake.”
“That’s not true.” He lifted his head, his blue eyes dark with regret. “I’d have done anything to ensure no one else knew I was here. And it wasn’t…I mean, that day in the elevator, you were so…I wanted to…and when I found out it wasyou, and then the whole thing at the bakery…it was like some twist of fate, and I couldn’t…I didn’t want to turn it down.”
“Oh, give me a break.” Hardening her heart against his jumbled words, Callie got to her feet. “You were both afraid of being found out, and instead of just owning the truth, you made a bargain to lie to me.”
“It wasn’t a lie.” Eleanor stepped in Callie’s path, placing her hands on her hips. “I asked Jake to take you out, yes, but not under the pretense of lying to you. You’d known each other in high school, and I’ve been hoping for a long time that you’d start going out and enjoying yourself…and he came along at the right time.”
“Because your pathetic, lonely daughter couldn’t get her own date?” Fisting her hands, Callie fought back another wave of anger. “Because I’d been suffocating you so much that you didn’t even want to introduce me to your new boyfriend?”
“Every time I’ve tried to talk to you about easing up a little, you haven’t heard me.” Eleanor put her hands out in front of her. “And I explained why I wanted to keep Henry to myself for a little while.”
“You didn’t have to enlist Jake to help you do that!”
“Yes, I did.” Frustration flashed in her mother’s expression. “Callie, I love you so much, but you’ve been micromanaging my life for so long that I was beginning to think I’d never get it back or just live on my own again. You’ve blocked every attempt from me and your sisters to try and get you to understand or evenseewhat you’ve been doing, and yes, I take the blame too because I let you take charge.
“When I met Henry, it was hard enough admitting I was interested in another man after your fatherandafter my surgery. I struggled more than I can tell you with so many questions. Who was I as a woman after that? Would anyone be attracted to me again? Did I even want to be with anyone else? The last thing I needed was you telling me what I should or shouldn’t do, or conducting some kind ofsearchon Henry, or God forbid somehow preventing me from seeing him at all. I just wanted to get to know him on my own terms in my own way.”
Callie clenched her jaw. “I wouldn’t have stopped you from seeing him.”
“Yes, you’d have welcomed him warmly, just like you did tonight.” The sarcastic edge to her mother’s voice cut Callie like a knife.
God. Had she been that bad? Could she ever change?
Eleanor let out her breath and spread her hand toward Jake. He hovered silently near Callie, like an eagle wanting to swoop in and enclose her in his wings.
“When Jake showed up, it seemed like the perfect solution,” Eleanor said, her voice gentling. “You’d get your mind off your work and the tenure review, and you’d have a bit of fun. He’d stay undercover, so to speak. I’d have a chance to figure things out on my own.”
“And not once did you think of how I’d react to this whole scenario?” Callie stepped toward the door as something inside her shifted, turning her anger toward them inward. “Not once did you think I might not want to have fun?”
Even as she said the words, she realized how ridiculous they sounded. Who didn’twantto have fun? A control-freak Classics professor who couldn’t seem to deal with change on any level, apparently.
“Honey, all I do is think of you and your sisters,” her mother said. “I’m sorry you had to learn about it this way, but maybe it’s for the best. We weren’t getting through to you any other way, and at least now youknow. It’s much easier to work through problems when they’re out in the open.”
“Well, maybe we can all go to group therapy, then.” Stung by the implication that this was her fault, she strode to the door.
