When I reached him, he looked up and our eyes met, but the cocky smirk I’d expected never graced his lips. There was no smug charm radiating from him either. All I saw was quiet acknowledgment and maybe even a touch of relief.
“You came,” he said just loud enough for me to hear. “I wasn’t sure you would.”
“Neither was I.” I sat down in the chair across from him, clutching my purse a little too tightly. “I’m not staying long.”
“We’ll see.” He inclined his head toward the bar. “Do you want something to drink?”
“No.” My voice came out sharper than I’d intended. “If you can convince me to stay for more than five minutes, I’ll have a gin and tonic. If not, I’ll just be wasting your money again, so let’s hear it, then I’ll decide.”
He leaned back, studying me. As if reading my thoughts, he suddenly nodded. “You’re probably wondering why I picked this dump again instead of some fancy place in a better part of town.”
I shrugged but held that devilishly blue gaze I’d spent so many nights thinking about. “I’ll admit that the thought has crossed my mind.”
“I don’t do fancy,” he explained as if it should tell me everything I needed to know about him, and it kind of did. “I’ve never liked fine dining or restaurants that set tables with seventeen forks. If it’s cold and on tap, I’ll drink it. Give me a wine list consisting only of bottles that cost more than some people’s rent and I feel nauseated.”
Despite myself, I felt my head tilting, curiosity bubbling up from deep inside. “Is that true?”
He rocked his head from side to side. “It’s true enough. I’m a simple guy. If I’d been born into any other family, I’d probably be working a trade somewhere. Something blue collar. Instead, I was born with a silver spoon up my ass and a brain for marketing, so here I am. A rich guy with simple tastes who often finds himself in situations where he’s forced to enjoy the finer things in life.”
I frowned, taking a beat to process his words and trying to decide what I thought about what he’d said. It didn’t sound like he was bragging. If anything, he was just laying it all out like a string of facts he had no feelings about.
“About what you said earlier. At the rink?” He set his bottle down with a slight clink on the battered table. “The ad wasn’t some kind of play for women. I meant what I wrote. I actually need a wife.”
I tried not to let my disbelief show on my face. Last night, he’d explained about his family, but I still wasn’t sure I believed it. “I’ll take that gin and tonic now.”
Even if only because I needed a minute. I needed to think about what he’d revealed so far and how it fit into the image I had in my mind ofCallum Westwood, Cal Poly’s own heir to the Westwood fortune.
He nodded and stood up, striding confidently over to the bar and coming back a couple minutes later. After he’d set the drinkdown in front of me, he took his seat and folded his arms on the table, his eyes intent on mine.
“You don’t believe me,” he said, once again stating it as fact. “You still think that I placed that ad for a different reason, that I had some kind of ulterior motive, but I didn’t.”
“Why?” I wrapped my fingers around my cool glass but didn’t take a sip just yet. My voice was quieter now, but it still carried the edge of suspicion. “Why do you need a wife, Callum?”
He exhaled slowly, like he’d been waiting for the question and was relieved it had finally come. “My father is on my back about settling down. I don’t have the time or the patience to date, fall in love, or any of that. I’m a businessman. I see this as a deal, not a romance. Placing that ad seemed like the best way to find someone whose interests align with my own, but doing so anonymously.”
I stared at him, wondering how the heck he could say something like that so plainly, like love was some inconvenience to be avoided. Finally lifting my glass to my lips, I took a long sip and swallowed before I looked back at him.
“Why would you even still consider me?” I asked. “I’d be coming into this with a child. That complicates things, doesn’t it?”
He shook his head. “Actually, it helps me. My mother’s obsessed with grandkids. Two of my brothers’ wives are pregnant, but apparently that’s not enough to appease her. If I show up with a wife and a kid already in the picture? That’s a solid move.”
He let out a short, humorless laugh. For a moment, I couldn’t breathe. He was talking about my son, my whole world, like Brody was some kind of chess piece on a board.
I would’ve left right then and there. My muscles even tightened in preparation for jumping up, tossing my drink in hisface, and running out again, but then the image of him on the ice earlier flashed in my mind.
Callum had towered over those boys, handling the chaos quickly and efficiently, with soft but firmly spoken words. Brody had looked at himlike he’d been seen. Like he’d been understood.
It had terrified me, but the relief had been just as intense, so I settled back in my chair and forced myself to relax. Callum leaned forward slightly, his eyes fixed on mine. “Why’d you even answer the ad, Maisie?”
I swallowed but resisted the urge to deflect. If I was really going to stay here and have this conversation, I had to be honest. Just like he’d opened up to me. We’d be wasting each other’s time otherwise.
“I didn’t do it for me.” I shifted in my seat, my fingers tracing the edge of the table. “Brody needs a male figure in his life. Somebody he can look up to. But dating is hard when you’re a single mother and don’t know whether someone is going to stay in your life. Do I introduce him to my kid when I don’t know if he’s going to stick around? No, but my kid is also the most important thing in the world to me, so I’ll also never know if a relationship is going to work out until the guy has spent time with him.”
Callum’s dark eyebrows drew together, like he hadn’t expected me to be so vulnerable. “There’s really no one helping you with him?”
Why he’d latched onto that, out of everything I’d said, I didn’t know, but he looked so serious about it that I gave him a serious answer. “Brody and I are alone here. My entire family is back in Michigan. They used to help out, but we don’t have anyone in California to step in and play that role.”
Callum nodded slowly, like he was processing, but when his gaze sharpened, I knew what was coming. “Why’d you walk away from Cal Poly? From diving?”
