I’m starting to understand his edge. He likes to keep people out.
“Can I ask you a question?” I ask.
“Well, you did just skin me alive. I guess one more question isn’t going to kill me.” He laughs, but it doesn’t come close to landing.
“Why do you think you’re not good enough?”
His cheeks fill with air, and he blows it out. “Shit, digging right into the wound now, huh?”
I lean forward and hug him. He wraps his arms around my middle and tugs me closer to him. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I think you can be my new therapist.”
So he’s had one in the past?
“I wasn’t good enough for her to fight for me, or keep me, or raise me—she abandoned me but stuck by my brother. It’s a pretty big gaping wound. I try to bandage it with a I-couldn’t-give-a-shit persona, but just like you with Rebound Callie, it’s still there under all the layers of scar tissue.”
I squeeze him tighter. “I’m sorry, Foster. That she did that to you. That she made you feel that way.”
He runs his hands up and down my back. “Thank you.”
I pull back, and there’s something like relief in his eyes.
“If you hadn’t pushed, I never would’ve told you. Somehow it actually feels good for you to know,” he says.
“Look at us adulting.”
“You’re a good influence on me. And I’m sorry… for pulling you away from the clubhouse, those guys… acting like you’re mine. There’s no excuse, but I saw red, and I just wanted to get out of there, but I wanted you with me.”
I smile. He has no idea how much he’s killing me. “I’ll always be here for you. But next time, maybe just say, ‘Hey, Callie, let’s get out of here. Alone.’”
He nods. “I will.” We stare at one another for a beat until he breaks the silence. “How about we order in and watch the finale of that show you love?”
“No sex lesson?”
He shakes his head. “Tomorrow—morning—but tomorrow.”
I laugh and lean forward a bit to get my phone out of my back pocket so I can order takeout.
“You’re the bravest person I know,” he says before kissing my neck. “You just charge headfirst into unknown territory.”
My fingers sink into the hair at the back of his head as he sprinkles kisses along my neck.
This feels like something different than what we’ve done thus far. This intimacy and sharing our trauma and wounds are going to get me in trouble. But it’s all in the name of love for our baby, right?
Chapter
Forty-Two
Callie
* * *
I’m ungodly hot, and my eyes slowly drift open, looking around to get my bearings. A heavy arm is swung around my waist, and a hard body is pressed against my back. Oh… Foster.
We must have fallen asleep after eating and watching the final episode of Southern Charm.
I shift, but his hand presses gently on my stomach, nudging me to stay where I am.
