“That’s your reason?”
“I listen when something changes.”
She scoffs softly.“That sounds exhausting.”
“Usually is.”
She turns back to the desk, refusing to let his presence derail her focus.She’s not here for him.She’s not here for music.
She’s here for answers.
Callum steps closer, drawn despite himself.He leans over her shoulder to see the photograph better, his arm brushing hers, his chest close enough that she can feel his warmth through her sleeve.
She hates how grounding it feels.
Hates that her body registers him before her mind can push him away.No, just no.Not with Callum, and yet the smell of him sends her pulse pounding.
“He never let anyone touch that drawer,” Callum says quietly.“Ever.”
Isla swallows.“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“No,” he agrees.“But it tells you something.”
She studies the photograph again.The edges are soft, worn thin from handling.This wasn’t shoved into a drawer and forgotten.
“This was taken at my mother’s house,” Isla says.“She would never have given it to him.”
Callum’s jaw tightens.“Then he took it.”
The word lands like a rock.When had he been at the house?Or had her mother sent it to him?
“He stole a picture of me,” Isla says, disbelief sharpening her voice.
“He kept it,” Callum counters.
“That’s not the same thing.But as far as I knew, he never came to the house.So how did he get that photo?”
“I don’t know,” he says gently.
Her grip tightens around the photograph.“If he cared enough to steal and keep my picture, if he carried me with him in secret, then why didn’t he come back for me?”
“I can’t answer that.”
“Why wasn’t I enough?”
The question escapes before she can stop it.
Why keep this and still stay away?
Why look at this and never come back?
Callum doesn’t answer immediately.
He’s too close.She’s too aware of him, the solid line of his shoulder, the faint scent of wood and strings and something uniquely him.He hasn’t moved away.He hasn’t reached for the photo.
He’s letting her have this moment.
“I don’t know,” he says finally.“But I don’t think indifference was the reason.”
