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“Exactly, you already have a plan. How many certs do you already have? Hell, I’m pretty sure knowing you, once you gradate with that business degree, you already have a business plan ready to pitch for a shop. Am I wrong?”
“No, but—“
“Callie doesn’t want or need someone who has it all figured out and is ready to hand it to her.”
“She deserves that,” I gritted through my teeth.
“True, but you know her. She would much rather be side by side with you, building something, than have it be handed to her. If you don’t get that, then I don’t know how you could even consider yourself her best friend after so long.”
My jaw clenched as my cousin’s words settled inside of me.
And I had a feeling I knew without really having to think too hard that Roxie was right.
“You never told her,” I said quietly.
“About you following her or about you sneaking in?” Now it was my turn to roll my eyes.
“Both.”
“I tried,” she admitted. “Callie insisted I was seeing things. When random pieces of clothes started going missing, I knew it was you.”
“Is that why you started to sleep on the couch a couple months back?” She giggled.
“Do you know how hard it was not to jump-scare you when you thought I was asleep?”
“Fuck,” I cursed under my breath, and she laughed. “What about this job at the bakery?” Her smile faded away. There was something in her eyes that I couldn’t read. Not fear, but maybe something close to it.
“It’s a job.” She shrugged. “Look, this isn’t about me today; it’s about you.”
“If something was going on, you would tell me, right?” She made a non-committal sound under her breath before continuing her lecture.
“If you love someone, you don’t waste time. You just grab the joy you can because life can get really fucked up.” I opened my mouth to ask if her life was fucked up, but Callie called out Roxie’s name.
“Do you think you could help me with my makeup?” she asked from her room.
“I got you, babe!” Roxie called out when it hit me.
What kind of moron am I, just sitting here, waiting to see how dressed up she gets for some other asshole? Am I really going to let her leave?
“Don’t be an idiot,” Roxie said one last time before hopping off the breakfast bar and heading to Callie’s room to help her get ready for her date with some dumb-ass hockey player.
I wiped at my face. My mind raced a million miles a minute about all the ways this could go wrong. We might care for one another, but what if they really hit it off? Trevor would pull out all the stops even if their date was just at the diner.
When Callie walked out, I crossed my arms over my chest. She looked like innocence and the promise of sin wrapped up in the sweetest sundress I had ever seen.
“You can’t wear that,” I blurted out and didn’t miss the way my cousin rolled her eyes.
“Good one, genius,” she mumbled under her breath the moment she got near me, picking up her purse from the breakfast counter.
“Don’t listen to him, Callie. You look beautiful”.
She looked more than beautiful. Callie Villa was breathtaking, wearing an olive-green sundress that reached just above her knee. It also had this milk maid neckline, including the ribbon in the front that tied up into a pretty bow that made any man think about undoing said bow and watching all the bounty that was Callie’s full chest tumble out. She stepped forward, and I didn’t miss the thigh-high slit the dress had on the side. Jesus. The dress fit her perfectly. Roxie had done some kind of shit with her makeup that highlighted all her already beautiful features and spiked them up triple fold.
She was dressed like that to go on a date with someone else?
“I should get going. I don’t want to be late,” she said, not really looking at me.
“Right.” I swallowed, my tongue too fucking big for my mouth.
