Chapter Nine #2
Sherlock jumped down. Grace curled her legs under her and leaned against the couch, making herself cozy.
She threaded her fingers through her hair, twisted it into a bun, then let it go.
Long strands fell loose and framed her face.
He wanted to touch her hair. His fingers itched to thread through its silkiness.
She remained just out of reach, but it wouldn’t be hard to dip his mouth under the spot hidden by her hair and nuzzle until she arched her neck.
A tightness that he’d tried time and time again to forget squeezed his chest. What might life be like if he had simply settled down and had a person to come home to? What if Grace had been that person?
“Do you remember when you met Dominic?” she asked.
The fog clouding his reasoning immediately lifted at the mention of her ex. He managed, “Mm-hm,” and dragged in a sobering breath.
“You and Hayden were on leave and visiting home that weekend,” she said. “Dad grilled burgers. The sun was baking us alive.”
“Yeah, I remember.”
She closed her eyes and lay her head against the back of the couch. “You and Hayden knew it wouldn’t work out, didn’t you? You knew on that very first day.”
He rolled his bottom lip into his mouth. He and Hayden had thought the situation with Dominic would run its course within a matter of weeks. If not sooner. Not for a minute had either of them believed she’d marry the guy.
Dominic Marino had been as far from the right man for Grace as Callum could have fathomed. He had struggled with keeping his mouth shut more on that day than he had with Grace in his entire life.
“You can say if you knew, Cal. You saw the red flags, didn’t you?”
Red flags weren’t the only thing he saw that day. Callum simply saw red. “I mean…” He gestured broadly, not sure how much help hindsight would be. “He told you which cheeseburger to eat.”
Her forehead furrowed. “You remember that? Major red flag. I was so, so stupid.” Sherlock returned to her lap with a sailing jump and nuzzled against her robe. Grace fluttered her fingers down his arched back. “Do you know what love bombing is?”
“You don’t have to explain yourself.”
“Every single thing he did was a surprise. Not just a surprise. Like, a surprise.” She used her hands to mimic explosions.
“The extravagance of it all. City hopping. Dining out. Jewelry. Fancy private jets. And it wasn’t even the money or the flaunting of everything that had my attention.
God, that makes me sound so superficial, but the relationship was just a nonstop onslaught of attention.
I was drowning in dopamine. I couldn’t breathe.
I couldn’t think. I couldn’t do anything except hang on. ”
Callum didn’t know what to say.
She absentmindedly petted Sherlock and let her eyes roam the living room as if hoping to find comfort or safety. He could offer that. He needed her eyes to lock onto him again. But she refocused on the cat, unable to find whatever she was looking for.
“I don’t know why I’m telling you all this.” The cat kneaded its paws on her leg.
“Because you trust me.”
She tugged her bottom lip into her mouth. “Do you think I’m an idiot?”
“No way.”
Her eyebrow arched, and she shot him a pointed look.
“Stubborn, maybe, but not an idiot.”
The corners of her mouth lifted, and Grace laughed quietly. “Maybe so.”
“The more I learn about how you were protecting yourself—even if I think you should have done it differently—the more I realize how much thought you’ve put into your situation.”
Silence hung between them. He liked her laugh and couldn’t remember what it sounded like growing up. He supposed he sounded different as well. But that wasn’t where his head should be. Callum licked his lips and refocused on the conversation. “Why won’t you update your parents about Dominic?”
Her gaze fell. “That he found me? For the same reason I didn’t tell them what was happening while I was married and before Dominic was arrested.”
He let the silence hang. She would give him more. He just had to keep his mouth shut. Callum bit the inside of his cheek and knew whatever she was about to say would hurt.
“I’m embarrassed,” she finally admitted. “I’m ashamed.” Her eyelashes fluttered. “It was such a cliché, and I should have been smarter than I was. And now,” her voice cracked, “after everything I’ve put them through since I left, just to have it all fail? That’s too much.”
Her shame sliced through him. He ached to comfort her, but a darker part of him ached to destroy the source of her pain.
“Don’t look at me like that. I can’t stand the pity.”
“It’s not pity,” he promised, though he didn’t know what it was.
She reached for her wrist, but the bracelets were gone. “When you were younger, did you ever imagine what your life would look like? Where you would live? Or did you always know it was the Army?”
“I’m not in the Army anymore.”
“That wasn’t what I asked.”
“Good. Because that’s complicated.” He grinned to play down the topic. He wouldn’t explain to her what had happened. Not tonight. Maybe never. It would change the way she looked at him. He shifted the conversation to her again. “I didn’t imagine much. But I bet you did. What was it?”
She shook her head with a sheepish grin. “That I’d have a cute house. Flowers in the front. A little vegetable garden in the back. Someplace safe. Like where we grew up. A friendly neighborhood. Not too big. Not too small. With lots of happiness and laughter.”
“You can still have that.”
She scoffed and rolled her eyes. “I thought you said I wasn’t an idiot. Because we both know that’s not in the cards for me anymore.”
“When all of this is through—”
“Which will never happen.”
“Grace—”
“Callum. You don’t orchestrate your own funeral to—”
“We can fix it.” I can fix it.
“Even if you could, Dominic is too possessive. He never quits, and now that he knows… It’s game on.”
“When all of this is through, I promise, you will have your cute house with all the flowers and laughter you want.”
She met his gaze and held it. Just like when she first joined him on the couch, his stomach tightened. She searched his eyes. He didn’t know what for but would gladly give it to her if he could figure it out.
“You shouldn’t promise things like that, Cal.”
“Too damn bad.”
Her fingers knitted together as she shook her head. “You’re wrong.”
“You’ll have a home surrounded by your friends and family and whoever else you want. Kids? Husband?” A husband? “Two dogs and a cat? The whole shebang. Whatever you want. When we’re done with this, I promise you can have that.”
She stared as if he were speaking another language, as if he were offering hope.
The longer she stared, the more determined he was to make it happen for her.
Grace Willoughby had her whole life in front of her.
Screw the ex-husband. Callum would take care of Dominic and hand over her life back. “I promise, Grace.”
The tick-tock of the grandfather clock suddenly seemed too loud.
Her chin dropped. “I’m so tired.”
Did she mean tonight? Or tired of her life?
She gave Sherlock one last pet, tugged her robe tight over the flannel pajamas, and offered a quick goodnight as she fled upstairs.
Grace was a runner. A hider. She probably couldn’t imagine how things would get better. Fixing her life wasn’t Callum’s job, but damned if the urge to smooth the edges didn’t make itself known every time he took a breath.