Page 14

Joey

Callum’s phone blasted a very familiar tune as we were getting into his car to go to our parents.

“Wait. Is that the Avengers theme song?” I asked him with a raised eyebrow and a sly grin, pausing at the open door to his car. Was Callum a Marvel fan? There was so much I didn’t know about him, but was quickly discovering that I needed to know.

A groan mixed with a wry chuckle was my immediate response. “Sorry, mo lus na gréine . I need to take this.” He leaned one elbow against the door whilst he swiped to answer his phone. “Hey George.”

Even from the other side of the car, I could hear a raised voice through Callum’s speaker. I grimaced at the tone, supremely thankful that I wasn’t on the receiving end of George’s angry tirade.

“I know, but—” Callum tried to interject before wiping his hand down his cheek at the failed attempt when George kept shouting at him. “I’m aware, but—”

I couldn’t help but snicker. Figuring this call might take some time, I lowered myself into the car seat, shut the door and grabbed my own phone out to play with whilst I waited for Callum to be done.

“George—” said Callum, once more trying to break the tirade his boss was on. He tapped his fingers against the hood of the car before dropping into the driver’s seat next to me with a sigh, shutting the door behind him. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. George! ”

Chuckling more, I put my phone down when a disgruntled pause gave Callum the chance to say what he needed to.

“I’m still with him.” Callum glanced at me and grinned.

After the ear-bashing Callum had just been given, the silence on the other side of the phone was almost deafening.

Laughing silently, I motioned for Callum to put the phone on speaker, which he did.

“Well, fuck me sideways, Callum. You could have led with that,” the gruff British voice bemoaned before I had a chance to say anything.

“Hi George. This is Joey. Nice to meet you.”

A notable pause, before, “I’m on speaker, aren’t I?”

There was no way I could withhold my laughter any longer, which of course set Callum off too. “Yes sir, you are.”

“Well, shit.”

Remarkably, he no longer sounded like he was angry at us, but I thought it might be best to apologize anyway, even though both Callum and I were struggling to reign in our laughter. “Sorry, sir.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that, my boy,” came the response, a trickle of humor lacing through his words. “Happy Thanksgiving to you.”

“And to you, sir.”

“Hm, I can already tell I’m going to like you. Callum, take note. This is how you speak to your elders.” There was a rustle of paper on the other end of the line, like he was settling or clearing his desk. “Calling me sir. I like this very much.”

I laughed as Callum rolled his eyes.

“You’re delusional if you think I’m going to be calling you that, old man,” Callum piped up, still grinning from ear to ear.

“See what I have to work with, Joey? The disrespect I’m given on an almost daily basis?” George asked, a rumbling laugh to his words. “How I’m supposed to work under these conditions, I’ll never understand.”

“Eh, this is how you trained me. What else did you expect?” Callum asked light-heartedly. “You’ve really got no-one to blame but yourself.”

“True enough, true enough.” George let out a beleaguered sigh before getting serious. “Okay, judging by that remark, am I right to assume that you’ve read Joey in?”

The giddy grin dropped a little on Callum’s face, but he still kept the happiness he’d held onto all morning. “He’s been given the basics. I need more time to go through the details.”

“Ah, good, good. Now I understand why I received nothing other than a simple confirmation that last night’s case was a success,” George replied with a hint of reprimand in his tone.

“Yeah, yeah.” Resigned, Callum shook his head and turned in his seat to face forward, starting the engine as he did. “Look, George, we’re on our way to our folks’ for Thanksgiving lunch. Can we catch up later? I’ll finish the report by tonight, I promise. Shouldn’t you be helping Mary? She’s going to be pissed with you if you leave her to prepare dinner for the family on her own.”

“Your words to God’s ears,” George said with a sigh. “Alright, I’ll let you go. Make sure you send through the final report tonight. I don’t want this case lingering any longer than it has to.”

“Will do. Happy Thanksgiving, George.”

“Happy Thanksgiving, Callum. Lovely to meet you, Joey.”

“And you, sir.”

Once George disconnected, Callum pocketed his phone, and we began the drive to our folks.

Leaning back in my seat, I turned my head to watch Callum drive, a soft smile on my lips. He looked as relaxed as I felt, like a heavy burden had been lifted from his shoulders. I reached over and interlocked my fingers with his, making him glance my way quickly before he refocused on the road.

“Penny for your thoughts, mo lus na gréine ?” he asked, squeezing my fingers slightly before relaxing once more.

I shrugged, even though his eyes were trained on what was in front of us. “Just wondered how you want to play this today with Dad and Erin.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you said that they knew this was coming, but they didn’t know when.”

“That’s right.”

“So, how do we explain how we got together?”

“Uh… the truth?” Callum turned towards me again and looked entirely too confused.

I raised a disbelieving eyebrow at him. “That we hooked up over a glorified dating app and that I went home with you so we could fuck each other’s brains out in your super-secret apartment located less than an hour away from them that you didn’t tell anyone about, because you work for a super-secret government agency doing super-secret things?”

“Yeah, probably best not to lead with that,” Callum replied with a laugh before quickly sobering. “Truly, Joey, you can’t tell them about where I work or what I do.”

“Aha! So you admit you need to tell them you’re back living in town!”

He groaned in defeat. “This lunch is going to be insufferable, isn’t it?”

“You know your mom better than I do,” I said, smirking up a storm. “What do you think she’ll say?”

He puffed out a breath in a resigned sigh, before pressing his lips together in a tight grimace. “It’s not so much what I think she’ll say, more what I think she’ll do.”

“Hm?”

He glanced at me again, this time somewhat guiltily. “She’s going to try to read me to find out why I’m back. Not that she’ll likely be able to get anything out of me with my shields up, but…” He trailed off as he thought about what he was saying, then his eyes widened.

My eyes did the same in slight panic when I realized what he was thinking. Why had I not put the pieces together before now about that? She may not be able to get through Callum’s shields, but my mind was an open book! Everything he’d told me the prior night was fair game to her if she decided to go digging. “Um, Callum? How do I block her??”

“Yeah, have to admit, I didn’t think this one through,” he conceded begrudgingly. “Okay. Let’s see. How often did she read you when you were living with her? Every week? Month? What?”

I cast my mind back, thinking about those times she’d focused on me. “Um, maybe four or five times?”

“What?!” For some reason, Callum sounded horrified. “You mean to tell me she read you that much every week?! What the hell were you doing?!”

“Oh!” I let out a nervous laugh. “No. I mean, maybe four or five times over the three years before I went to college. It wasn’t many.”

“What.” Like a popped balloon, Callum’s bluster deflated, and he sagged against his seat in defeat.

“What?” Frowning, I squeezed his hand again. “What am I missing?”

Sucking in a breath, Callum muttered testily, “I used to get read four or five times a month when I was younger.”

I couldn’t help it. I burst out laughing.

“Oh, fuck off,” he said half-heartedly, biting back his own amusement. “I was a good kid. I just liked to explore…”

“Explore what? Erin’s patience?” I was laughing so hard that I had to grip my side so I wouldn’t cramp. I could totally see a young Callum getting up to mischief and causing mayhem wherever he went.

“Most likely,” he conceded, the corners of his lips twitching as he recalled whatever misadventures he got up to in his youth that I would be sure to ask him about when we had more time. “Those were some good times.”

“I’m sure they were.”

Releasing a happy sigh, he settled himself enough to bring us back to the topic at hand. “Okay. Training someone to block a reader properly takes years, but the quick and dirty fix is to overwhelm your thoughts with something else. Reciting times tables were a good solution for me when I was a kid. Something that you can focus on whilst still being able to carry on a conversation. Think of it like white noise for your brain.”

“Huh.” That, strangely, made a lot of sense. The only thing I needed to do was find something I could focus on enough that she’d get bored with trying to read me and give up. “I can do that. Or at least, try to do that.” I nibbled my bottom lip, my nervous anxiety getting the better of me. “I think.”

“I’m sure you’ll be fine.” Callum grinned at me with way more confidence than I felt.

This was going to go so terribly.

Laden down with a fuck ton of trepidation, I eased the front door open and called out, “Dad? Erin? Anyone home?”

I don’t even know why I asked the question. It was Thanksgiving. Of course they’d be home.

“In here, honey!” Erin’s voice echoed from the kitchen. The mouthwatering smell of roast turkey wafted down the corridor to greet me as I made my way through the front door. “Lunch is still an hour or so away from being ready. I haven’t heard from Callum yet, so I don’t know if I should dish up then or wait.”

Kicking my shoes off, I stared pointedly at Callum, who was trying his best to ignore the way my head was bobbing in Erin’s direction.

“Yeah, yeah,” he murmured at me, rolled his eyes and maneuvered his way around me by placing his hands on my hips and shifting me gently out of the way so he could get past. After brushing up against my ass, he leaned in and pressed his lips gently against mine in a chaste kiss, before pulling back just enough to whisper, “Wish me luck.”

I snickered at the level of impending doom that had entered his voice. “Good luck.”

He kissed me one last time, before he reluctantly let go and headed towards the open-plan kitchen and dining area that we could hear Erin pottering around in, grumbling the entire way. Once he got to the cased opening, he leaned to the side, his elbow resting on the frame above him so he could run his hand nervously through his hair. “Hi Mam.”

“Callum?!” I heard a clatter of dishes as no doubt Erin dropped whatever she was holding at the sound of her son’s voice. “Oh my God! Callum!! Barry! Look who’s here!”

Smiling to myself, I couldn’t fault her for her surprise and excitement. Callum hadn’t been home since that night , so to say Erin was enthusiastic about Callum visiting was like saying water was wet.

Still sorting out my tangled shoelaces, I heard an oomph and looked up to see Callum had stepped back from the doorway and was now hugging the stuffing out of his mother who was making all the sounds you’d expect to hear from a mother who hadn’t seen her son in months. Crying, laughing, some more crying; it was all there. By the time I’d finished figuring my laces out and was easing my way around them to enter the kitchen and dining room properly, Erin had her hands on Callum’s cheeks and was staring at him with pure love in her eyes.

“Why didn’t you let us know to come and pick you up from the airport?” Erin scolded gently. “Barry’s been waiting for your call.”

Callum gripped her wrists, holding her steady. “I wanted to surprise you.”

“Well, color me surprised.” Erin’s wide grin stalled for a moment before I watched her eyes glaze over.

“Mam, don’t,” Callum said wearily, his hands tugging at her wrists in an attempt to remove the skin contact, but she held on. Grimacing, Callum steadied himself and forced his mom back. “Mam. Enough. If you want to know something, just ask.”

“You’re hiding something,” Erin responded suspiciously. “Your defenses are stronger than I’ve ever seen them, but they shouldn’t be if you weren’t trying to hide something from me. What’s going on?”

He sighed. “Nothing. Can’t we just have one afternoon where you’re not trying to interrogate me?”

She narrowed her eyes at him for a moment before stepping back on her own to wag her finger at him. “You’re lucky I’m busy with getting lunch ready. We’ll revisit this, mister.”

“Great,” he deadpanned, rolling his eyes at her.

“I am well pleased about your barriers, though. George came through, huh?” she asked before bustling over to me, not waiting for a reply. “Knew he would.” She reached for me, and it was with a heavy dose of trepidation that I went in for a hug of my own. “Joey! Happy Thanksgiving!”

“Erin,” I responded out loud, but in my head, I was reciting times tables just like Callum had suggested. Eight times six is forty-eight. Nine times four is thirty-six.

I groaned when I felt her stiffen in my arms, then pull back with a frown on her face.

Twelve fives are sixty. Seven elevens are seventy-seven.

Just like she had with Callum, Erin placed her palms on my cheeks and focused on me, her eyes glazing over.

Fuck. Six nines are fifty-three. Twelve twelves are one-hundred and thirty-seven.

Wait. Those aren’t right. Double fuckity fuck.

Somewhat panicking, I looked over Erin’s shoulder and stared at Callum helplessly. His intensely serious, but gorgeous hazel eyes fixed on mine, reminding me of the way he hovered over me last night, his cock filling me oh, so deliciously in all the right ways—

Erin gasped, pulling back and clapping her hands over her mouth in delight. “Oh my God! You’re finally together!”

Oh, my triple fucksticks. That’s what she read from me?

I groaned and hung my head forward to the sounds of Callum’s raucous laughter filling the room. “I’m never going to live this down, am I?” I muttered to myself.

“Nope!” Callum cackled before coming over and wrapping me in a hug of his own.

Instinctively, I wrapped my arms around him in response, giving him all the opening he needed to lift my chin, lean forward, and plant his lips on mine, even if I did try to squirm away from him. We were in front of his mother for fuck’s sake! And after what she’d seen in my head?!

“Barry! Barry! Our boys are fucking like Energizer bunnies!” Erin happily called as she turned away from us and darted towards the stairs to find Dad. “They’re finally together!”

Oh. My. God. Could this be any more mortifying?

With his arms tightening around me, Callum laughed at her words and my despairing groan, before he pulled back and rested his forehead against mine. “At least you know she’s happy for us. And that you could block her.”

I groaned even deeper. “I was trying to recite times tables like you told me.”

“Ha!” Callum’s body shook from his amusement as he stepped back and roared with laughter. “How’d she get us having sex from times tables?”

“I started getting the totals wrong and lost focus,” I admitted begrudgingly, bemoaning my self-control while I ran my hands down my face. “And then I looked at you and the way you were looking at me reminded me of last night, and one thought led to another, and—” I flung my hand in the direction that Erin had disappeared and flailed. “— that was the result.”

“Oh, this is brilliant!” Callum laughed and laughed until he almost choked, his hands on his knees with his body bent in half as he tried to force air back into his lungs.

And that was how Dad and Erin found us when they both re-entered the kitchen/dining area: Callum cackling like a hopped-up loon, gasping for breath, and me, bumping my forehead against the nearest wall repeatedly in utter mortification.

“Oh, Dad, by the way,” I said, leaning back in my seat and patting my overstuffed stomach as I swallowed the last bite of my lunch. “I need a new EpiPen.”

Sitting opposite me, Dad’s eyes widened in alarm. “Why? When did you use it? Why didn’t you call us?”

I waved his concern away. “No, I didn’t need it. We had to use it on someone else.”

Dad cocked his head to the side. “I feel there’s a story there I might need to hear before my heart rate comes down again.”

“Maybe.”

Shifting forward so he could rest his elbows on the table, Callum raised a hand to gain Dad’s attention. “Joey and I went on a date last night and someone at the restaurant had an allergic reaction to eating lobster for the first time.” He leaned against me, rocking his right shoulder into my left. “If we hadn’t been there, the poor guy wouldn’t have made it.”

“Christ, that was lucky for him,” Dad said, relief clear in the way his shoulders finally relaxed. “First time, you say?”

I picked up the conversational thread. “His wife said it was their ten-year anniversary. They’d wanted to splurge and try lobster. Gave them quite a scare.”

“I can only imagine,” Erin said, her hand resting lightly on her throat in sympathy. “Of course, we’ll get you another one before you head back. I’ve got some deals I want to pick up tomorrow. I’ll pick it up before I come home.”

“Actually, I need to pick up a few things myself. Can I go with you?” With Callum still leaning forward, I stretched my arm out to rest on the back of his seat. He watched my movement, a small smile lifting his lips when I relaxed again.

“Of course, hon!” A bright, wide smile lit up Erin’s face as she watched our interaction before she pointed between us. “It’ll give me more opportunity to grill you about this developing situation.”

Resigned, I let out a puff of air, letting my head drop back. They’d both done so well, getting through lunch with barely a demand for any information other than the basics. I should have known it wouldn’t last.

Thankfully, Callum took charge, pointing his finger right back at her with narrowed eyes. “No, Mam. No. I won’t have you dividing and conquering. If you want information, you ask us both together or not at all.”

Dad coughed in amusement before he glanced at his wife. “They might have a point, dear. Let’s just get all the questions out of the way now, okay?”

Erin huffed, but eventually conceded. “My biggest worry is how you two are going to make this work when you’re on opposite sides of the country. Joey, are you planning on transferring?”

Strangely, the thought of transferring had never even crossed my mind, because I knew Callum had moved back home already. But now that the idea had been floated, I couldn’t help but wonder if I would’ve transferred had Callum still been living in New York.

I realized with not a small amount of surprise that the answer would have been yes .

Truthfully, there wasn’t much holding me where I was studying. I’d admitted to Callum that I wasn’t sold on the major I was studying, so it would have been relatively easy to transfer my credits to a different major at another college. Of course, I’d miss my frat brothers, but I could make new friends wherever I went, especially if there was a chapter of my fraternity at whichever college I ended up at.

If I had decided to move interstate, the tuition costs would’ve ended up being higher, but if I lived with Callum, at least I wouldn’t have to worry about the cost of housing. Maybe Dad and Erin would even have been thrilled with us living together if they could put what they’d been paying for my current room towards the higher interstate tuition fees. At least that way, there might not have been a huge difference in costs, especially considering they were both adamant about not letting me work my way through college. They’d held the same stance with Callum when he was studying, but still… College was expensive.

That begged the question of whether I’d be willing to move in with him, especially so soon after we’d reconnected. Or connected in the first place. I had to keep reminding myself that we’d essentially only spent the equivalent of a single day together. I must be mad to even entertain the thought of moving in with him so quickly, but here I was.

And again, the answer would have been a resounding yes . I would move in with him. In a heartbeat.

My mouth was open to tell Callum exactly that when he answered for me.

“Actually, Mam, I’m not in New York anymore,” Callum reluctantly admitted, toying with his glass of water, his eyes downcast to avoid looking at his mom directly. “Haven’t been for a few weeks now.”

“What?” Erin’s eyes widened in shock. “Where the hell have you been living? Why didn’t you tell us you’d moved?”

“Because I needed time to settle in.” His index finger circled the rim of the glass, a quiet hum ringing out. “My work transferred me, and it’s taken me this long to not only settle into a new place, but a new team.”

“You got transferred?” Dad asked, curiously. He obviously wasn’t phased by the news, which I was glad for since he could keep Erin from blowing up at her son.

“Yeah.” Callum raised his head to look at Dad and nod. “They had an opening for my skill set, so I put my name forward. It was as much of a shock to me as it is for you when they came back and said I got it.”

“I can’t help but notice that you’re not saying where you moved to,” Erin said, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Callum coughed, his focus back on the glass, and the hum changed pitch as he shifted his touch. “Um, yeah.” He swallowed nervously. “I’m living in Granmere.”

A frosty tension fell over the table.

“You mean to tell me…” Erin began, her voice dangerously quiet. “That you’ve been living forty-five minutes away from us for weeks, and you’re only just deigning to tell us about it now ?”

“Erin…” Dad warned, his hand reaching for hers on top of the table.

She glared mutinously at him. “ No . My own son decided to move back here and not tell us.” She turned her irate gaze on Callum, hurt flickering amongst her anger. “I could understand not saying anything for a few days, but you said weeks . Callum, why?”

He pressed his lips together so hard they turned white. “I needed time.”

“Seriously?” Erin asked, her voice at arctic levels of frostiness. Her chair scraped the floor when she stood up and began pacing, her fingers clenching and unclenching as she tried to settle herself. “We would’ve helped you move. For weeks you’ve been letting us believe that you’ve been in New York, when you’ve literally been just down the road?” She shook her head, frustrated disappointment lingering in her still icy tone. “Four and a half years, Callum. Four and a half years, I haven’t been able to hug my son whenever I wanted to.” Tears began streaming down her cheeks as the frustration finally gave way to hurt and pain. “I understood why you stayed away. God help me, I understood. But weeks? How could you keep that from us? From me?” She tapped her chest with her palm before she let out a defeated sob and stormed away. Seconds later, a door slammed shut, making us all jolt in our seats and wince.

We sat there silently, letting the tension slowly ease.

Letting out a quiet sigh, I glanced at Callum. He’d stopped making his glass sing, his fingers now curled into fists resting on the table while his eyes were pressed tightly shut. I leaned against him, shoulder to shoulder, and let my hand drape across his thigh to give it a light squeeze of support.

A slow but shaky inhale was the only reaction before he hung his head and shook it slowly from side to side.

“Well…” Dad said hesitantly, looking at me with a grimace.

I shrugged my shoulders in response. We all knew what sort of temper Erin had. It would burn bright and fast, but now that she’d said her piece, and it was over, the hurt could still linger.

“I was a fool,” Callum muttered quietly.

“No, you weren’t, son,” Dad said with a resigned sigh. “I understand your reasonings.” He glanced at me. “ All your reasonings.” He refocused on Callum. “But I can’t deny it’s been hard on your mom. Maybe go and talk things out with her, let her know you didn’t realize how much she missed you? Just tread carefully, okay?”

Callum nodded before scooting his chair back and leaving the table to go in search of Erin.

Dad and I sat at the table in silence until we heard Callum knock on our parents’ bedroom door with a soft word before it opened, then closed with a click.

“You think they’ll work it out?” I asked Dad quietly.

He chuckled before he stood up and started gathering the empty dishes from the table. “I have no doubt. It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without some form of family fight breaking out, and they haven’t been in the same room for any decent length of time outside of the wedding for years. All they need to do is find their feet with each other again, that’s all.”

Nodding, I rose from my chair and grabbed what I could to help Dad clear the table and haul it all to the kitchen for cleaning up or storing any leftovers that remained. “Hey, Dad?”

“Yeah?”

“How come you’re okay with Callum and me being together?” I nibbled at my bottom lip. “I’d figured that if there was going to be an argument today, it would have been that that caused it. Callum said that you knew to expect it and would be okay with it, but I guess I didn’t really believe him until I saw your reaction for myself.”

Dad paused, his hands full of condiment dishes, his form half stooped over the dining table and glanced at me curiously. “How much did Callum tell you about what he told us?”

“He said that he told you both about his vision, and that you understood why he had to leave.” I grinned at the memory of our discussion last night. “He said he thought you were impressed with him for the restraint he showed.”

“He’s right, I was.” Dad chuckled and stood up properly, his hands full, but still watching me carefully. “Tell me Joey. How much did he tell you about the vision itself?”

I gulped and stared at the things I was putting in the dishwasher before I responded warily. “He may have mentioned something about our wedding…”

Dad laughed, his shoulders easing from tension I wasn’t aware he was even carrying. “Good. That means I can speak freely, then.” He placed what he was carrying on the kitchen island and lightly gripped the edge of the bench top, thinking hard about what to say.

Before he could open his mouth, however, I mentioned something I knew I should probably talk to Callum about. I’d mentioned it in passing last night, but he hadn’t plucked that conversational strand, instead focusing on the bigger picture. But my memory of that night plagued me, even now. “I heard you both that night. Just for a moment. Did you know that?”

His eyes widened in alarm. “You knew about his vision for this long?”

“No.” I shook my head sadly. “I wish I did. All this time, I thought he left because he hated me. I heard you ask him if he was sure about something, and he essentially told you that he couldn’t stay while I was here. That it would be a disaster if he stayed.” Raising my hands for finger quotes, I settled on a tiny, sad smile. “I assumed that meant he couldn’t stand the sight of me and had to leave before he punched my lights out.” I let out a quiet puff of laughter. “It’s why I stole his jacket and hid it for so long before I started wearing it. It was my revenge on him for hating me so much.” I looked at Dad and rolled my eyes at my folly and shook my head again. “Served him right for leaving it here and all that, you know?”

Dad chuckled.

“Yeah, I know. Stupid, huh?” I sighed, still smiling that sad little smile. “If only I’d heard more than that. It’s obvious now that there was so much more to that conversation he had with you, but I was working with what I’d overheard. I spent so long thinking that he hated me.” I looked up at Dad, my brow furrowed in confusion. “Why did you let me believe that?”

“Oh, Joey.” Dad came around the kitchen island and enveloped me in a hug. “I thought we were protecting you. I was so angry with him when he first told us about what he saw. My mind automatically went down a path it shouldn’t have, thinking horrible things about Callum’s character. When he explained everything though, when he explained why he needed to leave, everything made more sense.” He squeezed me tighter. “I’m so sorry, Joey. I should’ve made sure you didn’t think badly of him for the choice he made. It was the right one to make. I still believe that.”

I turned my head to the side so I could speak more clearly. “Is that what you meant when you said that you respected him for leaving?”

“Yeah.” He let me go, taking a step back and taking a deep breath in before releasing it slowly. He leaned against the island, his arms crossing in front of him as he settled his thoughts. “If he hadn’t walked away, if he’d stayed, he could’ve influenced you. Groomed you.”

I winced. Dad made a fair point. I was still only fifteen at the time, and already looked at Callum like he hung the stars, even after only a single, brief meeting. Things could have gone very badly had Callum not been so upstanding.

“It says a lot about a person’s character when they choose, entirely on their own, to walk away from something they hold so very dear. And he held you so very dear, Joey. Even then.” Dad smiled fondly at the memory. “It’s obvious that he still does. If I had been in his position, I don’t know if I would have had the backbone that he showed that night. He chose to wait, but from as far away from you as he could get so he wouldn’t tempt himself. Callum earned my respect that night for making the right decision. And that respect has only strengthened, because he stuck to his morals and stayed away until you were of age.” He raised an eyebrow when he smirked at me. “And single. Although I wouldn’t have minded in the slightest if he’d come back last year and chased Amelia off.”

My jaw dropped open. “You loved Amelia!”

Dad threw his head back and laughed. “We did, initially. But she said something in passing one day. I can’t even remember what it was now, and it made Erin wonder. She read her the next chance she got. And yeah…” He shook his head ruefully. “Let’s just say that things went downhill pretty quickly after that.”

Wiping my hands down my cheeks hard enough to smoosh my lips together, I blinked hard while my memories rearranged themselves for the second time in twenty-four hours. “Good God, Dad. Why did you guys never say anything?”

Dad shrugged but was sympathetic to my dismay. “Some things you need to learn the hard way, son. Otherwise, you’ll never learn the lesson properly.” He uncrossed his arms to rest his palms on the edge of the counter, tapping his index fingers on the underside as he thought about what to say next. “Think of it like this: now you know everyone wears a mask in one form or another, especially when they first meet you. Some wear masks to keep you safe and protected, while others wear them to trick or trap you. The hard part is figuring out which is which.”

Resigned to what he was saying, I let my hands drop from my face and leaned back against the counter opposite him. “That was a painful lesson to learn.”

“Sadly, the best lessons always are.”