Page 119 of Sunkissed Colorado

“It’s okay, Sunflower.”

He could smile through anything, but it just wrecked my heart to think of how unfair things had been for Callum growing up. He’d said he would do anything to fix what I’d gone through. But the same was true for me.

It hurt so much to think ofhimhurting. And that was love, wasn’t it? Ugh, it kinda sucked.

“You don’t have to act okay if you’re not,” I said softly.

Now his hand was on my cheek, thumb caressing. “You’re so sweet to me, baby.”

“I’m not sweet.” No one before Callum hadeveraccused me of being sweet.

“You are. Sweet in the exact way I like. You don’t know how addicted I am to you. I could eat you up.”

There was a lump blocking my throat. I’d thought I had loved Ian, but it had never felt like this. So consuming. Such a mix of every emotion until everything was just a blur ofhim.

“Will you tell me what you and Grace were talking about earlier? At the brewery?”

He sighed, clearly not wanting to. But he still did. “That was about Grayden. About a year after high school graduation, we got word. He’d been arrested by military police and was going to be court-martialed. The process took a while, but he was convicted of manslaughter and sent to military prison.”

He’d said all of that in a monotone. Nothing like his usual vibrant voice.

I sat up all the way, holding the blanket to my chest. “What? Callum, that’s awful. Clearly you know that, but it’s… I don’t know what to say.”

“You didn’t hear about it? I assumed every person in Hart County did.”

“I was off at college, and I wasn’t exactly close to anyone we’d known in high school. Nobody in my family mentioned it.”

He nodded, expression stoic, yet the dark cast of his browneyes was telling. “I was already planning to join up myself, but after Grayden destroyed his life, sullied our name, it was like there was a fire under me. I wanted to get out there and help Ashford prove the O’Neals were worth more than a dishonorable discharge.”

“And you did.”

“Did our best. That’s part of why, no matter how much Ashford and I fight, we’ll always have each other’s backs.” He smoothed his hand over my head.

“Did Grayden ever tell you his side of the story?”

“He wouldn’t talk to us. Barely even defended himself. Why else would he do that unless he was dead-to-rights guilty? All we knew was he killed someone, whether or not it was intentional, and he was out of our lives. Then Grace got back in touch with him last year. Dane tracked him down for her.”

“Wow. That must’ve been another shock.”

“It was. Ashford refuses to hear anything about Grayden. But Grace wants me to talk to him, listen to what he has to say, and I just don’t know. Gracie’s better than the rest of us, I guess. More forgiving.”

I nestled against his chest again, feeling the rapid thump of his heart. That heartbeat betrayed just how deeply this conversation was affecting him. “You’re a forgiving person. But you’re allowed to feel like he doesn’t deserve your forgiveness.”

“Butdoeshe? How do I know that, Sunflower? Not only that, how can I get over the way it ripped me apart when I heard my big brother, the guy who’d been more of a father to me than our real dad, was completely disgraced? Ashford had always seemed fallible. But not Grayden. It was like…like I couldn’t count on anybody I looked up to because they would just let me down.”

I did my best to wrap my arms around him, holding him as tightly as I could.I love you, my heart said. As if love was a balm that could fix everything, though of course it wasn’t.

When Callum spoke next, it sounded like the words werescraping over gravel. “There’s something Grace and Ashford don’t know.”

He took a few more breaths. I glanced up at him again and he was staring at the starry sky.

“When Grayden was released after he’d served his time, he tried to come back to Silver Ridge. This was after I’d left active duty. Somehow he’d figured out where I was living, and he came to me first. Probably because he knew I wouldn’t be as angry as Ashford, and he didn’t want to upset Grace. He said he was sorry and wanted to explain what really went down with his arrest, and I…”

“What happened, Callum?” I whispered, then pressed a kiss to his jaw.

“I looked my brother in the eye and told him to leave. That we didn’t want anything to do with him, and all he would do was hurt us if he stayed. If I’d yelled like Ashford would have, Grayden probably would’ve waited for things to cool down and tried again. But I was stone fucking cold, Z. So he turned around and went. I think it broke Grace’s heart that she never heard from him, and she has no idea that wasmyfault.”

“You were trying to protect your family.”