She absentmindedly petted Sherlock and let her eyes roam the living room as if hoping to find comfort or safety.He could offer that.He needed her eyes to lock onto him again.But she refocused on the cat, unable to find whatever she was looking for.
“I don’t know why I’m telling you all this.”The cat kneaded its paws on her leg.
“Because you trust me.”
She tugged her bottom lip into her mouth.“Do you think I’m an idiot?”
“No way.”
Her eyebrow arched, and she shot him a pointed look.
“Stubborn, maybe, but not an idiot.”
The corners of her mouth lifted, and Grace laughed quietly.“Maybe so.”
“The more I learn about how you were protecting yourself—even if I think you should have done it differently—the more I realize how much thought you’ve put into your situation.”
Silence hung between them.He liked her laugh and couldn’t remember what it sounded like growing up.He supposed he sounded different as well.But that wasn’t where his head should be.Callum licked his lips and refocused on the conversation.“Why won’t you update your parents about Dominic?”
Her gaze fell.“That he found me?For the same reason I didn’t tell them what was happening while I was married and before Dominic was arrested.”
He let the silence hang.She would give him more.He just had to keep his mouth shut.Callum bit the inside of his cheek and knew whatever she was about to say would hurt.
“I’m embarrassed,” she finally admitted.“I’m ashamed.”Her eyelashes fluttered.“It was such a cliché, and I should have been smarter than I was.And now,” her voice cracked, “after everything I’ve put them through since I left, just to have it all fail?That’s too much.”
Her shame sliced through him.He ached to comfort her, but a darker part of him ached to destroy the source of her pain.
“Don’t look at me like that.I can’t stand the pity.”
“It’s not pity,” he promised, though he didn’t know what it was.
She reached for her wrist, but the bracelets were gone.“When you were younger, did you ever imagine what your life would look like?Where you would live?Or did you always know it was the Army?”
“I’m not in the Army anymore.”
“That wasn’t what I asked.”
“Good.Because that’s complicated.”He grinned to play down the topic.He wouldn’t explain to her what had happened.Not tonight.Maybe never.It would change the way she looked at him.He shifted the conversation to her again.“I didn’t imagine much.But I bet you did.What was it?”
She shook her head with a sheepish grin.“That I’d have a cute house.Flowers in the front.A little vegetable garden in the back.Someplace safe.Like where we grew up.A friendly neighborhood.Not too big.Not too small.With lots of happiness and laughter.”
“You can still have that.”
She scoffed and rolled her eyes.“I thought you said I wasn’t an idiot.Because we both know that’s not in the cards for me anymore.”
“When all of this is through—”
“Which will never happen.”
“Grace—”
“Callum.You don’t orchestrate your own funeral to—”
“We can fix it.”I can fix it.
“Even if you could, Dominic is too possessive.He never quits, and now that he knows… It’s game on.”
“When all of this is through, I promise, you will have your cute house with all the flowers and laughter you want.”
