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“I can try.”
Alexis sighed. “You’re stubborn as an ox, you know that?”
But that night at the grocery store, Cal again appeared behind her in line, holding a basket filled with healthy greens and a dozen organic eggs. She wanted to hate him for that too—for his presumptuous perfection. But instead, she found herself inexplicably moved by his quiet patience as an elderly woman fumbled with her change in front of them.
Why did he have to be so... good?
And why had someone so good decided on a profession where he defended the worst of the worst?
Every day, Callum Holden wore his smile and charm as easily as his suits, heading into courtrooms to stand beside criminals and fight for their freedom. Murderers, rapists, drug dealers—he defended them all with a passion that seemed to burn brighter with each increasingly vile client.
“Everyone deserves a fair trial,” he’d told her.
Everyone... including the man who had tried to kill her sister. Alexis had survived, thankfully, but that didn’t change the fact that Jaxon Thorne had intended to murder her. He’d slit her throat and left her for dead, and only the quick response from her former SEAL fiancé and the men of Redwood Coast Rescue had saved her life.
And yet Cal thought that monster deserved a good defense, taking him on as a client without even a second thought for how Ellie would feel about it. Or how it would kill their budding relationship.
He’d cared more about defending a murderer than her or her sister.
And for that, she would never forgive him.
Every time Ellie saw him, she was reminded of the courtroom, of Cal standing beside Jaxon with that same easy smile, arguing for leniency for a man who made monsters look like angels.
Every time she saw him, she was reminded of the lies, the twisted truths he spun so easily, in his attempt to paint Jaxon as a victim. She could still hear his smooth voice, arguing that Jaxon had been under the influence of drugs and untreated PTSD and wasn’t in his right mind when he’d committed his crimes.
Which, okay, maybe that was true, but none of it justified what the man had done to Alexis.
When she tried to explain her fury to Cal over coffee one chilly afternoon, he’d simply looked at her with those piercing blue eyes of his, the faintest hint of regret marring his handsome features.
“I’m sorry,” he’d said quietly. “But if I don’t defend him, who will?”
She’d stared into his eyes, stunned. The warmth she once felt toward him faded into a cold and bitter fury. She remembered leaving him there, alone at the table, his hand outstretched in a meaningless gesture of peace.
And then there were the times when he wasn’t even there—the times she found herself sitting in the coffee shop across from his law firm, watching through the big glass window as he paced back and forth in his office, talking on his phone or going through case files. She hated how she would still find herself drawn to the sight of him, how a part of her ached at the sight of his troubled brow. She hated that her heart would still flutter when his eyes met hers through the glass – a split second before he looked away, quick as lightning. But most of all, she hated how she’d catch herself wishing things were different. That they had taken a different direction, that he had made a different choice.
One evening, as the sunset painted the California sky in hues of orange and purple, Ellie took her puppy for a walk in the park. Puzzle was a ball of energy, a floppy one-year-old Golden Retriever with a sunshine temperament and a sock fetish.
As Puzzle bounded through the park, Ellie watched him with a mix of affection and worry. He was prone to being a tad too friendly with strangers and a little too curious about everything. His boisterous enthusiasm for life reminded her of someone she used to know. Someone who had brought that kind of unbridled joy into her life at one of her darkest moments.
Dammit.
She shook her head, trying to rid Cal from her thoughts.
Suddenly, Puzzle bolted across the park, his leash flying out of her hand.
“Oh, no. Puppy! Wait! Come back!”
But Puzzle was off like a shot, his yapping echoing around the park. She chased after him, but the pup was fast, and she wasn’t exactly in top shape. He zoomed past a group of picnickers, causing screams and laughs as he snatched a sandwich with a wag of his tail.
“Puzzle!” She yelled again, running after him. He darted between trees and raced across the open fields, oblivious to his owner’s panicked calls. Finally, he slowed near the edge of the river and sniffed something on the ground.
Ellie sighed in relief as she jogged over. But just as she was about to reach him, Puzzle picked up speed again to chase after a passing squirrel. “Puzzle! No! Bad dog!”
And then, from her periphery, she saw a man launch at her runaway puppy. A strong pair of arms wrapped around Puzzle’s middle, lifting him off the ground before he could terrorize another group of picnickers or, even worse, dive into the river.
Ellie came to a stop, her breath rasping in her chest as she watched the man wrestle with her squirming puppy and finally get him under control.
When the man turned around, her heart dropped into her stomach. There, holding Puzzle against his chest as if he weighed nothing at all, was Cal. His hair was mussed from the chase and his white dress shirt had a muddy paw print on it, but he was grinning at her as if he had just won the lottery.
