Page 29 of Bad For Me (Rock Canyon, Idaho 5)

“What?” Caroline’s jaw dropped open.

Everett was right there with her. There was such an ease between his father and Callie; it was like they were old friends. And what was Monday?

“Of course, but why don’t we get out of the doorway and sit down? We already ate, but I wouldn’t mind some pie and coffee,” Fred said, crooking his elbow for Callie.

Callie looked up at Everett, and her teeth were worrying her lip, as if she was waiting for him to protest.

He wanted to know how the hell they knew each other and why Fred hadn’t mentioned it before. Why hadn’t she mentioned it?

“How do you two know each other?”

Callie hesitated before straightening her shoulders and meeting his gaze. “I’m your father’s AA sponsor.”

Everett looked between them in disbelief. “That’s a joke, right?”

“Why would I think that was funny?”

She was serious. When they’d met, and she’d said she’d heard about him—had she been talking about his dad? What had he said about him?

And after everything that had happened with his dad growing up—the drinking, the late-night pickups, the drunken fights and hungover I’m sorrys. How could he be drawn to a woman like her?

And how could she be his father’s sponsor? What was she, thirty? How the hell did she have the experience to mentor a man twice her age?

The room started closing in on him, and he couldn’t breathe. The three of them were

staring at him now like he was crazy, like he was the one acting weird, but how was anything about this normal? Of all the fucked-up coincidences . . .

Then it struck him. She’d known. This whole time he’d been flirting with her, pouring his heart out and apologizing to her for keeping Rhett a secret, she’d been hanging onto this.

He had to get out of there. If he didn’t, he was going to lose his shit. Everett wasn’t much for shows of temper, but the rage, the disappointment, the hurt . . . it was just too intense. Too much.

“I . . . I can’t deal with this.”

Everett turned, furious with himself and Callie, and passed Caroline, who was still holding the door. It was bad enough worrying about his own lineage and addictive personality, but fall for a person who already had those problems? How fucked up would it be to get involved with Callie and try to build a life together, only to have it all fall apart later when she fell off the wagon?

He wasn’t even thinking as he climbed into his truck. If his dad wanted to have pie and coffee with her, then she could drive him home.

AT HOME, TWO hours later, he still couldn’t wrap his head around it. Lights passed by, and he looked out the window but couldn’t see anything. He was tempted to walk over to his dad’s place in the dark and have it out with him, but suddenly, the headlights were back. Only this time, they were pointed directly into his window.

Shit.

A soft knock on his door told him it wasn’t his dad, and he took a deep breath before opening it.

Callie stood there, the porch light illuminating her nervous smile.

“Caroline dropped me and your dad off at my place, and I brought him home.”

“Thanks,” he said.

She was doing that hand-twisting thing again, and he waited for the apology he knew was coming.

“You know it was immature to just take off and leave him, right?”

“Excuse me?” He hadn’t been expecting that.

“Just because you found out something you didn’t like, you took off and left your dad stranded. It was thoughtless and rude, and you should be ashamed of yourself.”

“What about you?”