Chapter 17
We sat around our usual table during Tuesday night trivia, snacking on wings and platters while talking between questions.
Wes’s sister Haley joined us that night since she was on break from school.
She and I seemed to hit it off the first time we met, bonding over our terrible dating history and bad luck with relationships.
I didn’t know how she was related to Wes.
Where he was as cocky as the king of spades, she was self-effacing and unpretentious. He was sour. She was sweet.
“So, how’s the dating game going for you?” Haley asked.
I snorted. “It’s more of a joke than a game at this point.”
She chuckled as she took a sip of her drink.
“You can say that again.” Beside her, Wes parted his lips to seemingly butt into our conversation, but she held up a hand to stop him.
“No comments from the peanut gallery are necessary.” She looked at me again.
“Wes likes to lecture me about how I shouldn’t be dating. ”
My brow furrowed as I looked at him. “Why the hell not?”
“I do not lecture you,” he snapped back at her, ignoring my question. “And I didn’t say you shouldn’t date. What I said was that maybe giving yourself a break would be good for you, and I stand by that.”
“And who the hell are you to tell her that?” I countered.
He smirked. “Her older and wiser brother.”
“Wiser about the subject of relationships when he’s never had one a day in his life,” Haley scoffed. “Make that make sense.”
“I don’t need to have had a relationship to know that all of the guys you date are fucking douchebags who don’t deserve the time of day from you, yet you can’t seem to help yourself when they throw a few pretty words in your direction.”
“Are you saying that as a big brother who actually believes that or a big brother who doesn’t think any guy is good enough for his sister, no matter who they are?” I asked, my tone dripping with sarcasm because I already knew the answer.
“Both,” Wes spat.
I rolled my eyes. “Uh-huh.”
“I don’t even know how you got involved in this conversation,” he grumbled.
“You’re the one who butted into our conversation, not the other way around.”
Beside Wes, Gabe shook his head with a familiar exasperated grin as the two of us fell into one of our verbal sparring matches.
This was why it was so easy for us to hide the fact we were fucking from our friends.
Because nothing about our dynamic had changed but that one aspect.
He still got under my skin. I still pissed him off.
We still argued for the sake of arguing.
We glowered and glared. We annoyed each other.
But we also had sex from time to time. And they were none the wiser.
After trivia ended with us coming in first place, Haley took off, and Gabe and Wes went to play a game of pool.
As I finished my drink, a thought crossed my mind.
I glanced over to see Lucas smirking as he whispered something in Callie’s ear that had her blushing and giggling.
I’d vomit on the spot if she wasn’t my best friend, and they weren’t so fucking cute.
“I hate to interrupt this disgustingly adorable public display of affection between you two…but, Lucas, I need a word.”
Lucas chuckled as he pulled away from Callie’s ear, and they both looked at me with lovesick grins. “Yes?” he asked.
“I demand to have Callie to myself on Friday night.”
He arched his brow with a smirk. “That so?”
“Yes,” I answered matter-of-factly. “You’ve been hogging her, and we’re long overdue for a girls’ night.”
“Yeah?” He leaned back in his chair and draped his arm over the back of Callie’s as he tilted his head with a grin.
“And what’s in it for me?” I leveled him with a glare and an arch of my brow.
“I was only joking. Calm down. If she wants to have a girls’ night, she certainly doesn’t need my permission. ”
I nodded. “I knew I liked you.”
“Have at it,” he said with a smile before twirling a strand of her blonde hair around his finger. “But she’s coming home with me Saturday.”
I rolled my eyes with a good-natured grin. “Deal.”
Callie chuckled as she looked between us. “You two certainly know how to make a girl feel wanted and loved.”
I watched Lucas turn his head to look at her again and saw the way his eyes softened when they met hers…and something inside my chest tightened before I quickly forced it away.
It wasn’t that I was jealous—jealous wasn’t the right word.
More like…envious. I was incredibly happy for Callie and Lucas.
Truly, I was. After everything she’d been through, Callie deserved that happiness more than any person I knew.
But watching their epic second-chance love story play out before my very eyes was just another reminder of something I wanted but didn’t have—that I’d never had.
And something about that moment felt like a sudden sign that I’d been right. That all-consuming kind of love they shared, that others in my life had…it just wasn’t meant for me.
At that point, I just needed to learn to accept it.
Friday afternoon, Callie and I walked inside her house carrying copious amounts of bags—mostly full of junk food—for our girls’ night. We raided the snack aisle at the grocery store, and then I made a pit stop at the bakery on our way back. Because it was no longer just a simple girls’ night.
I left work early and headed over to her place to pick her up and go to the store to load up on snacks.
I didn’t expect to find her running down the street a few blocks over from her house; I had to look around to make sure she wasn’t being chased because that was the only reason I could fathom her running at all.
I knew something was up, and when she got in my car and we started down the street, she told me she’d been running to clear her head. Then, she dropped the best bombshell on me. She made the decision that she was staying in Bayport.
I was so excited that I nearly gave Callie whiplash and almost crashed my car. And our night went from a regular girls’ night to a whole-ass celebration.
“I can’t believe you’re really staying,” I beamed as I unbagged a small box containing a red velvet cake.
Callie chuckled. “I can’t believe you bought a whole cake.”
“It’s small. And worth it. We’re celebrating!”
I’d dreamed about the day my best friend would come back and stay for good, but for so long, it had been just that—a dream.
Sure, we talked almost every day, and I visited her plenty of times over the years, but it wasn’t the same as having her home.
After ten years, I came to terms with the fact that it would likely never happen.
But now it was, and I couldn’t be more excited.
And I knew I wasn’t going to be the only one.
“When are you going to tell Lucas?”
Callie smiled. “I thought about calling him, but I want to tell him in person. He’s coming over tomorrow afternoon, so I’ll just tell him then.”
“He’s going to be so happy,” I said. “And he and I will have to come up with some sort of visitation schedule. Like fifty-fifty custody or something.” She snorted, and I offered a grin. “But for real…he’s going to be ecstatic when you tell him.”
“It’s so strange.” Callie sighed wistfully as she leaned against the counter. “I remember thinking I’d never come back to this place, let alone live here again. And don’t even get me started on me and Luke…”
“The universe works in mysterious ways, buttercup.”
“You can say that again.”
I glanced around after we put everything away. “So, I take it you’re not planning on putting the house on the market anymore?”
“No,” Callie said with a sad smile. “There are too many memories here, and I know it probably sounds silly, but…it makes me feel close to them.”
I knew the “them” she was referring to were her mom and dad. I smiled. “It’s not silly at all. And who knows? Maybe Lucas will want to downsize from his gigantic mansion on the cliff and move in here with you.”
Callie chuckled with a shrug. “Maybe.”
“Your probate is almost done, right?”
“Yeah. Wes actually called me Monday—he’s getting everything together to help me file her final return—and said it shouldn’t be too much longer.”
“And then you can start to put it behind you.”
Callie smiled softly. “Yeah.”