She pushes her voluminous red hair over her shoulder. “Hey, Gav.”
His voice is even, but it feels like he leans slightly toward me. “Blair. Have you met Callie?”
“No.”
She hasn’t even looked at me. I’m feeling dismissed, but I won’t leave until I get a signal from Gavin. Ugh. I’m terrible at reading his signals, remember? I don’t know what to do.
Abandoning him isn’t an option. He’ll have to abandon me.
“Is Liv with you?” he asks.
“She’s spending Christmas with her dad.”
Gavin’s face falls, and my heart falls for him. There was achild involved? Every new layer here makes me want to comfort him more. Nothischild, clearly, but judging by his face, he cares for her.
He runs his fingers over his beard. “Her dad? Wow. When did she reconnect with him?”
“Can we go somewhere else?” Blair asks, her eyes finally flicking at me before landing squarely on Gavin again.
He swallows hard, his throat bobbing. I want to slink away silently. This is clearly a struggle for him, and I’m standing between them like a big old American bubble of awkward.
“Sorry, eh. No.”
She leans back like his words are a physical blow.
“Can’t,” Gavin continues, pulling me flush against his side. “I’m with Callie.”
Now I get the full force of her attention. It falls on me like a blowtorch, scorching through narrowed eyes. “With Callie,” she repeats, as though asking for clarification.
I’m frozen. I don’t know what he means either. With me, like, he arrived with me tonight? Or with me, like, in a relationship? Obviously that would be a ploy only previously seen in the likes offiction, but the way his large hand snakes around my waist and pulls me up against him, I’m leaning into the second.
Blair’s nose wrinkles in distaste. She leaves without saying anything else, but Gavin doesn’t lower his hand.
His heart races, and I can feel it pounding against where my shoulder blade is pressed to his chest. His breath is warm against my ear. I’d worry he’s on the verge of a panic attack, but I think he’s coming down from whatever that was.
When she’s disappeared into the crowd, I start to turn, but Gavin’s hand tightens the slightest bit. “Callie, I am so sorry.”
“It’s fine.” I tip my head back enough to see his face. “I don’t mind being your Blair-repellent.”
He holds my gaze for a few heavy beats. “How much do you mean that?”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CAPTAIN SCOTLAND
I’m fairlycertain this is breaking all sorts of protocol when it comes to hosting your cousin’s wife’s sister for a few days, but since I never received a rule book and the relation is so far removed there’s no reasonable name for it, I’m pressing forward.
The kitchen is far too warm, but I don’t care. Callie is leaning against my side, looking up at me like we’re in a private conversation—like two people in a relationship would talk. Our body language is screaming mutual interest at the very least. This is incriminating. If Blair is complaining to anyone right now, they’ll look at us, and we’ll confirm their suspicions.
The trouble is I know this, but Callie doesn’t. Yet.
“I mean it,” Callie repeats. “I’ll pretend to be your girlfriend tonight if it keeps Blair away. I don’t know your history, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see a lot of trauma there.”
She doesn’t know the half of it. “Blair is probably telling half my town right now that we’re dating. Or, more accurately,askingif we’re dating. If that train leaves the station, it’ll be impossible to stop.”
“That’s what you want?” she asks. “For the train to drive away?”
I shouldn’t admit it to her, but it is. Instead, I say, “We don’t have to speak in riddles. Everyone in this house knows you’re in the country for a short time, so they’re going to look over here and assume we’re taking advantage of that short time.”
