Okay, I was grasping at straws. My body buzzed around him, but his words were too much, and combined with the direct eye contact? Walls. I had to build some walls real quick.
His lips quirked. “We’ll test it.”
“Testwhat?” my voice cracked.
“Our chemistry. I’ll show you I am very into you that way and you’re into me too. I’m not being cocky right now. I have a theory. Do you want to hear it?”
Our chemistry. Holy balls. We’d always been so platonic, so to hear him speak about how we connected? Wild. Absolutely…well… there was a time we’d fallen asleep spooning, and I’dwoken up with the urge to kiss him. Or the time we’d danced in the rain, and I secretly wished he’d just kiss me. Maybe there were small moments of attraction, but I never let it go anywhere because he always told me I was his best friend. The constant friend-zoning stopped all those thoughts. So yeah, I nodded, desperate to hear what he had to say. I spun the ring around my finger, over and over and over, because oh my god. This was huge!
“We used the termbest friendsto hide our emotions in high school. It made us feel safe, when we both know we were the other person’s emotional support partner. That comes with attraction and trust, Ivy Lee. Or maybe we were too immature and not ready to face what this was. It’s clear to me, and I’ll be patient until you figure it out.” He held up his glass of wine.
I cheered it.
“To… us?” I said, half-smiling.
He liked that. “To the new Ivy and Callum. Now, do you want to learn the update on my sister?”
16
IVY
Callum told me the latest news about his sister and her baby daddy. The dude offered tomove in with her temporarilyto help but wasn’t sure he wanted the commitment. That upset the other lawyer sister who was gonna go after him in court.
His third sister was actually going to move in with Diana for year, which I thought was the best choice. Their mom was in the picture too, but the idea that kept popping into my head was Callum getting drafted. Did he want to be?
He mentioned it’d come with a bonus, which could help Diana out with her new baby, but it came with strings.
“My dad doesn’t know about the baby, and he’ll probably try to offer to buy his way back into our life somehow.” Callum took a sip of the wine and tensed.
“You should let him.”
“No.” He shook his head. “He doesn’t deserve to be in our family anymore.”
“I don’t disagree that he hurt you all and what he did was absolutely horrible, but if Diana needs financial help and thebaby daddy is too unreliable, why not let him help? What does she have to lose with accepting help?”
“Dignity.”
“I disagree. I think,” I said, speaking slowly. “People make mistakes and learn from them. They grow. They change. What if he’s not actually buying his way in? He doesn’t even know about the baby yet, and what if he doesn’t want to miss being a grandpa?”
“Ivy, you weren’t there the day he told my mom about his secret other life. It tore her apart, and she’s still picking up the pieces. You didn’t see her break down. That’s not something I’ll ever forgive. End of discussion.” His voice had an edge.
“Excuse me, I don’t appreciate you using that tone with me.”
His face fell. “I’m?—”
“I wasn’t there that week because you pushed me away. You treated me like shit because of what your dad did. I think what he did was shitty, but your sister is in a different situation than you and reserves the right to do what she thinks is best. If she wants to let your dad back into her life, then you don’t get in the way.”
“Of course, I wouldn’t intervene.”
I frowned and shook my head.
“That’s not that obvious from your tone. Also,” I paused, hesitated. “You’ve made mistakes too. Are you saying you haven’t changed or grown from three years ago? Are you the same guy who pushed me away and didn’t reach out for three years?”
I’d never seen Callum look so pained. His posture shifted, and his eyes lost the spark that was there five minutes ago. Guilt ate my stomach up, the gray line of usdatingalready being blurred from the past. My eyes prickled. I needed a minute. Just a quick one to collect myself. “Excuse me, I’ll be right back.”
I pushed up before he could respond and rushed toward the bathroom in the back. A lead ball formed in my stomach, and I was queasy. We’d already spoken about the past, and I brought it up, hoping to hurt him. For what?
Because he said Iwasn’t thereso I couldn’t talk about it?
