Sweet dreams.
Sleep comes easily tonight
Chapter Ten
Callum
Through the glass doors of her nice red brick apartment building, I can see Sophie glance over her shoulder, checking to see if I'm still here as she waits for the elevator.
Only when I see her get on the elevator do I pull away, satisfied that she's safe and sound.
The soft music on the radio suddenly feels like too much for my overcharged nerves. I need the silence. I need peace to replay everything that happened tonight.
When I first saw her at the door ofRivers & Rhodes, it felt like I could take a full breath of air for the first time today. I didn't want Sophie to feel obligated to come to the book club… but I had been hoping.
And, okay, I'd set out an extra chair for her just in case.
Mom had been grinning all day like she was in on some secret, but she wouldn't tell me what. She just gave me that mysterious little wave of her fingers and disappeared up to the roof for her nightly routine.
As everyone started showing up and taking their usual seats, I tried to keep the hope alive. When the time dragged on closer to eight, I tried to not let the disappointment show, even though it settled in my chest like an uncomfortable weight.
I went to the front door to lock up, and then Sophie appeared, looking like something straight out of my best dreams.
God, she was beautiful, breathless, dressed in a soft sweater and jeans, her dark hair falling around her face in waves. Andshe wassmilingat me. A little shaky around the edges, but still there and true.
I felt frozen for a second, and my mouth moved before I could stop it, her name pouring out of me eagerly—maybe a little too eagerly.But I couldn't help it. The excitement that had flooded me was almost overwhelming.
She meshed with the group as I knew she would, welcoming the chaos. She jumped into the book conversation without hesitation, shared her own thoughts, and laughed at Tonya and Parker's over-the-top debate.
She was polite and kind,even when...
Paul O'Connor.
His name is sour, even in my thoughts.
It's a name I haven't had to think about in thirteen years.
At first, when Sophie said,"fiancé,"I didn't want to acknowledge the sharp sting of disappointment that hit me. When she corrected herself,"ex-fiancé,”the wave of relief that followed I wanted to ignore even more.
Especially because it was obviously a source of great pain for her.
Then,cancer.
My heart dropped as cold fear struck me. Sophie met my eyes then, those beautiful, clear blue-green eyes, and she looked like she was searching for something.
Support. Strength.
I'd give that to her.
She laid it all out, and every word made me feel sicker. I could feel the devastation in her voice.
"Paul couldn't deal with the fact that I'm going to have to get my breasts cut off, and that I'll have to go through chemotherapy for the next three months and then radiation after that so he decided the best way to deal with it would be to sleep with his coworker and leave me—after I moved to thistown where I didn't know anyone except his friends and his family, and now I have cancer, and no friends, and no fiancé so..."
As soon as Sophie said the name Paul, I felt it start to connect in my brain. When she told Tonya his last name, it hit me like some twisted, cold, nostalgic wave.
Because I knew Paul O'Connor.
He was Starling Cove's golden boy, handsome, charming, good at football, and smart. He graduated a year before me.
