Of course he didn’t. He hadn’t been paying attention. Not really.
And I’d been letting him get away with it. But not anymore.
“Because she was careful to be on her best behavior around you, and I didn’t want to put you in the middle.”
His hands finally dropped to his sides, and his shoulders sagged. When he spoke again, his voice was low, stripped of his usual confidence.
“I’m sorry, Callie. I should’ve been there today, and I should have seen what my mom was doing. No excuses.” He swallowed hard, ice-blue eyes glinting with something raw. “You deserve better than what I gave you. I swear to you, I’ll do better.”
I studied him, searching for cracks in his sincerity. I didn’t see any. He seemed like a man who knew he’d screwed up.
I wanted to believe him. So much.
But his regret didn’t erase the empty chair in that exam room, or the sting of that needle sliding into my arm without his hand in mine.
His promise didn’t wipe away the ache in my chest.
It might give us a way to move forward, though. As long as he truly meant what he said.
My voice was shaky as I whispered, “Okay.”
His gaze lingered on me, brow furrowing as though he sensed the distance I hadn’t put into words. He stepped closer. “Let me make it up to you, please. Give me the chance to prove how much you mean to me. How much I love you, Callie.”
The me from just last night probably would’ve melted at the plea, swept away by the intensity in his eyes. But now, a whisper of doubt lingered at the edge of my mind.
4
ETHAN
Every inch of Callie’s body told me she wasn’t fine. Her arms were wrapped tightly around her stomach, her shoulders were stiff, and her mouth was trembling. But the worst part was that her soft brown eyes still carried the kind of hurt that gutted me.
My wife had agreed to give me a chance, but I knew I had a lot of making up to do. I just needed to figure out where to start. Which was going to be hard because she didn’t believe me. Not really.
Callie had needed me today, and I had let her down. What if she never trusted me to be there for her again?
A hollow ache cracked open in my chest, panic clawing at the edges. If she pulled further away—stopped believing in us—I didn’t know what the hell I would do.
“I’ll prove it to you.” I stepped even closer, and her head tilted up, her eyes wary, but she didn’t move away.
Words wouldn’t be enough. I had to show her that she was my center of gravity. That the life we were building together meant everything to me.
I ached to reach for her, to tear down the distance between us.
“I swear I won’t fail you like this again. I couldn’t bear to lose you, Callie.”
Her lips parted, the smallest catch of breath breaking free. The doubt was still there in her eyes, a shadow I hated, but so was something else. Love.
From the start, Callie hadn’t played games or tried to hide how she felt about me. She was open and honest, even when it was hard. Her candor was one of the reasons I’d fallen for her so quickly. She was so different from the women my mother kept pushing at me—who dated for sport, all strategy and no sincerity. Without Callie, I might’ve married one of them and been miserable for the rest of my life.
I closed the remaining distance between us, taking her trembling hands in mine. Her skin was cool, her pulse fluttering in her wrists. “I love you.”
“And I love you.”
I knew sex wouldn’t fix this. But tonight, it was the only language I had to show she was my everything.
Instead of taking from Callie, I was going to give. Each touch would be a vow.
“Let me worship you the way you deserve.”
