Chapter 11
Callie
“Please tellme you didn’t fuck himyet.”
“Well, hello to you, too, Detective Cage.” I should have looked at my Caller ID, but I was in the middle of a tickle fest with Addison and didn’t think aboutit.
“You put in for a vacation so you could help the neighbor across the street. How big is this guy’sdick?”
I covered the phone with my hand and smiled at Addison, “How about a little fruit snack? I have some cantaloupe cut up in the refrigerator. Be a big girl, and go get it for me.” I gave her a thumbs up for encouragement. “Oh, and hold it with two hands,okay?”
“You have to hold it with two hands?” Ryan said to me on the phone,laughing.
“Ryan, you’re an idiot. Why are you calling me? I’mon vacation.” I sat down on the couch in the living room and watched Addison open the refrigerator and carefully pull out the plate offruit.
“I’m worried about you. That’s all.” His tone was serious now, which made me smile. Ryan Cage might be a pain in the ass, but he was a goodguy.
“Trust me, I’mgood.”
“I don’t want you sleeping with this guy,Callie.”
His words confused me. Ryan never cared about who I slept with. He knew because we have talked, in long, drunken conversations, about the kind of relationships I choose to have with people. Quick and painless. This way, I didn’t have to worry about a guy having to like me for more than one night. I wouldn’t have to have the talk with them when they started having aspirations for a family. I had no future in it. That just wasn’t in the cards forme.
“I haven’t. I swear.” I couldn’t believe I was letting the conversation goon.
"Okay, so what about the kids?" he asked because he's anasshole.
“What about them?” Ihuffed.
Addison slowly walked into the room, carrying a dish piled high with fresh fruit. She was trying not to laugh and spill everything. Ben was in the bouncy seat I bought him, bouncing happily, watching hissister.
“What if you get too attached? What if he moves away when the wife comes back from rehab? What if she doesn’t want you around or near her kids when she’s clean again?” He rambled off a dozen other scenarios that came straight out of mynightmares.
“Stop, please.” I could barely get the wordsout.
“Look, Pop-Tart, I’m sorry. I’m worried about you. You think the only thing you’re worth to a man is a fuck. You think you’ll never be anything because you can’t be a mother. And I don’t want you to lose yourself in this family and find yourself at the end withnothing.”
I swallowed down the rage that surged up my throat. "Thank you, Detective Cage. I will take all your advice into consideration. But it's tea time now, and I'm sure, as you say, I have a limited amount more to attend, so I don’t want to miss this one.” I ended the call and smiled at Addison. "You did a fantastic job of carrying the fruit. Why don't I put a kettle on, and we'll have an impromptu teaparty?"
The squeals of utter delight warmed my heart.Fuck Ryan Cage. I knew what I was doing. I was helping a family who needed a mother for a few moments. And I was a mother without afamily.
Sometime after dinner, my phone rang again, but this time it was Dylan, and for some strange reason my heart slammed and sputtered in my chest. I answered the call with my hand over my collarbone, trying to ease the sensation. “Hello?”
“Hey, it’s Dylan.” His voice was smooth and soft in my ear. “How are thekids?”
He never called me before. He always just texted. Something was up. “They’re fine. What’s wrong, are youokay?”
“Yeah. I just—” He breathed deeply into the phone. “I hate to ask you to do more, but would it be okay if I stopped by my mother-in-law’s on the way home from work tonight?” There was a small hesitation, then, “I wanted to see Sheri, without the kids beingthere.”
"Sure, of course." I didn't know what else to say. Of course he needed to see his wife.He needed to reconcile things, right? Forgive her for all her sins.Why did that bother me so much? Why did I want him to hate her?She needed to sign into a rehab as soon as possible, or she was going to getworse.
“I don’t know what I’d do without you, Callie. Thankyou.”
"It's my pleasure, Dylan. Your children are precious," Imurmured.
There was another pause before he spoke like he was trying to formulate the correct words to use. "What are you all doing now?" heasked.
“Well, now that we have a little bit more time, I think I’m going to bust out some of the finger paint I bought. Figured I’d leave the house a mess for when you camehome.”
