“I saw it in the firstDuke the Halls. It looked very...” He waved an elegant hand. He wasn’t wearing his wedding ring, which I couldn’t decide was a good sign or not. “Very quiet up there on the mountainside. Secluded. Anyway, don’t tell Nolan I’m here just yet. He’s so happy and in love right now.” He lowered his eyelids until his dark gold lashes rested on his cheekbones. “I don’t have the stomach for it tonight.”
I tilted my head back against the headboard. “Same, man.” I bumped his fist. “Sad boys for life.”
“So what is it?” he asked again. “What in the world could ever make Kallum Lieberman sad?”
So I told him. I told him every detail of me and Winnie. I told him about the picture from the Teen Choice Awards and Michael showing up on theSanta, Babyset like he was hot shit and how I’ve been falling in love with Winnie Baker slowly for the last twenty years and yet suddenly all at once. And how I fucked up and said the wrong thing and how I needed to prove to her that I could be the man she deserved.
When the whole story was laid out there crystal clear, he turned to me with watery eyes. “Addison Hayes really barked at you?”
“Yeah. It was terrifying.”
He sniffed. “I always liked her.”
“What about you? Nolan and I have been worried. The last time he had eyes on you was a year and a half ago. If you hadn’t picked up when I called on...”
“Brooklyn’s death day. You never forget,” he said.
“I was fully prepared to book a flight to LA and climb over your gate to check on you.”
“You would’ve been electrocuted,” he said simply before setting his beer on the nightstand. “I was feeling restless. And then I felt guilty for feeling restless. Shouldn’t I just be happy to be alive? I’m breathing. I can see her favorite view every morning. Should that be enough? But sometimes I wake up in that houseand I can’t catch my breath. It’s like... grief is sitting on my chest. I couldn’t leave, but I couldn’t stay.”
I gripped his thigh. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“I saw your text and yes, I know it was from months ago, but I fucking hate having a phone. For so long, every time I looked at it, I expected to see a text or a call from her, and then when I stopped feeling those expectations, I felt like an ass. Like I was letting go of some part of her... but anyway, I got your message and I thought to myself, ‘Vermont sounds like the kind of place where you could just disappear.’”
“You’re not a shitty person for moving on,” I told him. “I mean... if anything ever happened to Bee, Nolan would probably cope by fucking his way through the San Andreas fault line. You basically entered a monastery and took a vow of silence.”
“I did actually consider that,” he mumbled.
“I’m probably not in a position to give anyone advice right now... but Brooklyn would want you to get out there and live. She was all about the drama, of course, so your level of mourning would be fully appreciated by her, but she’d also want you to go out there and find a hottie or something.”
He pushed a hand through his hair, which went right back to being a lush, magazine-worthy mess when he was done. “Brook did love hotties... and I did download some dating apps.”
“Maybe be careful with those. Even on the invite-only ones, you never know who people really are and—”
“I know how stranger danger works, Kallum. I’ve seenCatfish.”
“I don’t know, man. The internet has changed the dating game, and you got together with Brooklyn when we were kids.” I changed the subject. “So if you’re not staying at the mansion, where are you staying while you’re here?”
“Here. Donna booked me a presidential suite, I believe.”
I laughed. “I’m pretty sure the only thing different about the presidential suite in the Edelweiss Inn is a foldout sofa.”
He stood with the kind of grace that reminded me he’d had the best dance moves of us all. “Well, I suppose I should see what luxuries await me. I’m sure you have an early morning. I’m wide awake. Still on California time.” He smiled to himself. “The boys of INK all under one roof.”
“Donna must be losing her damn mind.”
As he placed the empty craft beer can in the recycle bin—he’d always been painfully conscientious about recycling while on the road, and Nolan and I had never had the heart to tell him that most hotels just pitched everything into the trash—the necklace he was wearing under his shirt slid free and I saw what was on the end.
His wedding ring. Slender, platinum-bright. Glinting, like it had just been cleaned.
He saw me looking and gave me whatever passed for a smile from him these days. “I promise to listen to your advice—both about the hotties and being careful. And I don’t have any advice for you, but maybe don’t be sad forever, because that’smybrand.”
He walked out into the hallway where—sure enough—Krysta was waiting for him.
“M’lord,” she said with a smirk.
That got a little laugh out of Isaac, and with Donna being such a hell demon, I was glad to see the bodyguard bring a smile to Isaac’s face.
