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“You know who he is?” Cal asked incredulously.
“Everyone knows who he is,” Scarlett scoffed, as if her brother was an idiot. “Geez, Cal, you need to look outside your world of music from time to time.” She winked at Millie. “God, he’s hot.”
“He knows it too,” Millie quipped.
“Seriously?” Cal’s eyes shot daggers at his sister. “Can you come with me?” Cal reached for Millie Sue’s hand. Instead of causing a scene no one wanted to see, she let him lead her out of the kitchen into the mudroom, where he closed the door and turned to her.
“You’re not going anywhere, Millie Sue. You’re staying here.”
Millie wasn’t sure if it was Cal’s tone or her lack of sleep or the emotional crap balled up inside her. But something in her snapped, and she squared her shoulders.
“You think that you actually have some say over what I do and who I do it with?”
“Hell yes, I do. Last night, you were in my bed, not his.”
“What does that have to do with it?” she shot back.
Cal looked like he was going to explode. “It has everything to do with it. How can you spend the night with me and then up and leave to go to him?”
“I can do whatever I want. In case you’ve forgotten, I’ve been on my own for years. I’m used to calling my own shots. I slept with you, Cal. That’s all. It doesn’t give you the right to boss me around. I’m not your girlfriend.” She took a step back. “I’m just an old lover you’re spending time with while you’re here, and we both know once Bent’s better, you’ll be gone.”
“You don’t know that.”
Millie Sue waited a heartbeat as she tried to get her emotions in check. How had they gone from bliss to this mess so fast? Hadn’t she just told Benton that she was fine having Cal to herself while he was here, for however long that was? So why was she digging in her heels and forcing a fight?
“I don’t want to do this,” she said slowly. “I’m not fighting with you.”
“I sure as hell do. I thought we were back together. I thought we meant something more.”
“Then what? How can we be something more than what we are, which is a part-time fling? We’re ex-lovers who still have great sex. That’s all.”
“You’re full of shit.”
“Doesn’t matter what I am. As soon as Bent is better, youwillget on that private plane you own, and youwillfly away. If we’re lucky, we might see you again in the spring. And that’s fine. That’s the life you chose, but I’m not waiting for you. I’m not going to be that girl. I want…” She brought herself up short before she said too much. Exposed too much.
“What do you want?” He moved closer, but she stepped back, suddenly needing as much distance as she could muster.
“I want more than what you could ever give me.” Her words were brutally honest, and Cal’s face darkened with anger.
“Don’t you think we should talk about this?”
“No.” She shook her head vehemently. “I don’t. We’ll just fight, and I’m not doing that with you. Not again.”
“But Mills.” Cal ran his hands through all that messy hair. “That’s what we do. We fight about stuff and then we make up.”
“No, that’s what wedid. Big difference.” Millie searched for the right words. “We fought right up until that last night and then we didn’t fight anymore.” Tears poked her eyes, and she forced them away. She would not cry in front of Cal. “You left before we had a chance to make up. You left before I could…” Her voice cracked, and she reached for the door. “I need to get out of here. We should never have done whatever the hell it is we’ve been doing.” She looked up at him. “I’m done, Cal. I thought I could handle this. Thought I could be with you, no strings and all that, because it felt so damn good. But we’re always going to be on the wrong side of each other.” She stepped back and reached for a place of calm. “We’re idiots to think otherwise.”
“I don’t think I can give you up.” His dark eyes glittered, and his pain was real. She saw that.
“That’s the thing, though.” She opened the door. “It’s not up to you.”
“You’re really leaving.”
“I am.”
“And the last few nights. Us being together means nothing to you.”
“Oh, Cal, you really don’t get it.”
