She swallowed hard before lifting her chin.“Please don’t make me apologize again.”
“I won’t.Promise.”
Her eyes met his, and he appreciated how easily she now gave them to him compared to when they’d first collided.Callum lifted his hand between them, silently asking permission, then reached for her.He brushed loose strands of her hair behind her ear and cupped her cheek.Her eyelids slid shut.Grace tilted her chin and leaned her face against his palm for a long minute.
“I’ve always wanted to be with you,” he admitted.“The situation didn’t work.”
The prettiest pink blush warmed her cheeks.“I never thought you even wanted to kiss me.”
He wanted much more than that.“Now you know.”
Chapter Thirteen
Gracedidn’tknowwhatshe expected would happen next, but Callum took her to lunch without kissing her again or revealing thoughts that were better left as a secret.There had been no indication he had melted her to the wall and left her gasping.
What had she expected?It wasn’t as if he would hold her hand or something during a perfectly amicable lunch.But she also hadn’t expected the way she was suddenly more comfortable around him.They acted as if this were their normal routine.One that was dripping with tension and chemistry.But incredibly, absurdly normal.
They ate lunch.They returned to Alicia’s home.They did everything they would have done had this been years ago, before she had met Dominic.
After lunch, Grace went back to work, but this time her creative block was gone, and she lost herself in the book cover project.She wasn’t sure how Callum spent the hours.They weren’t avoiding each other exactly.They were simply ignoring what had happened.
Except, even with an epic level of focus on work, she could practically sense him walking throughout the house.She held her breath anytime his footsteps neared the stairs, wondering if he would make his way into her bedroom and kiss her again.
Seriously, was she twenty years old?Stop thinking about him.
Argos and Toto barked in unison downstairs, shouting doggy joy that Alicia had returned.They noisily scampered from the front window to the front door, seesawing back and forth in a way that Alicia would never believe her well-behaved fur babies would act.
Would she tell Alicia that she’d kissed Callum?Hmm.
That would most definitely change Alicia’s opinion of him.
She had been impervious to Callum’s charm, and Callum seemed to like that about Alicia.Almost as if he were the one who had been charmed.
Alicia’s laughter boomed through the house, and Grace made her way to the kitchen filled with friendly banter.These two were so different from yesterday.She supposed that she and Callum were in a wildly different situation as well.
Callum was kicked back at the kitchen table with his long legs extended and his hands folded behind his head.A perfect picture of relaxation as he chatted with Alicia.“Hey, Grace.”
No sign he’d had her pressed to the wall earlier.Absolutely none.How was that even possible?“Hey, yourself.”
Alicia had her back toward them as she chopped chicken breast for Argos and Toto’s dinner.Her shoulders shook as she laughed.“You never told me about wanting to be a magician.”
Grace glared at Callum.“That’s because I was eight.”
“She’d do this disappearing act where she held up a sheet, would drop it, and duck into the hall.”
“I waseight.”
“Sometimes she’d get her dog in on the act.And no matter how bad, her stepmom would cheer and clap like Grace was Harry Houdini—wait, wasn’t that the name of your dog?”
Alicia didn’t stop laughing.“You’ve always been one for hiding.”
Grace’s heart squeezed.She would always miss Houdini.He was the best dog she ever had.“I was eight.”But she could hear the laughter in her voice.“Houdini was an excellent magician’s assistant.”Grace padded to the refrigerator and poured herself a glass of lemonade.“How was the library?”
“Less exciting than it was yesterday.”
Callum snorted.
Yesterday morning, Grace had eaten breakfast, having no idea how her life would turn on its axis.Especially having no idea that Callum would kiss her into another universe.
