She hangs up and hands me the phone.
"He's pissed," she says.
"I know."
"Not about us being together. About us lying to him."
"I know."
"He wants to talk when we get back."
"Yeah. I figured."
She sits back down on the bench. Drops her head into her hands. "This is a mess."
"It's my fault. I should've just told him the truth."
"We both should've."
I sit beside her. Take her hand. She doesn't pull away.
"We can fix this," I tell her.
"Can we? Because right now it feels like everything's falling apart."
"It's not. Luke's just hurt. He'll understand once we explain."
"Will he? Because from where I'm sitting, we just proved him right to worry. We went behind his back exactly like he was afraid we would."
"He said he was fine with us being together."
"And then we lied to him about it. That's different."
She's right. We betrayed Luke's trust. Not by being together, but by hiding it.
"I need to go home," she says. "Tonight. Face this head-on."
"I'm coming with you."
"Ethan—"
"I'm not letting you do this alone. I'll pack. Tell the client I need to finish remotely. We leave in an hour."
"You don't have to do that."
"Yeah, I do."
She looks at me. Really looks at me. "Why?"
"Because you drove twelve hours to be with me. Because I'm done running. Because Luke deserves the truth and I'm not going to make you deliver it alone."
Something in her expression softens. "Okay."
"Okay."
We go back to the hotel. I pack while Callie showers, make calls to the client, and arrange to finish the last week remotely. Everything moves fast. Efficient. No time to second-guess.
By three, we're on the highway heading south. Callie drives her car and I’m right behind her in my truck. It’s going to be a long twelve-hour ride.
