Chapter 17
CHLOE
“You did what?!”
Talia’s screech is so loud I wince. “Uh, I moved in with him.”
“And…” my best friend prompts. “Say that other part again, too.”
“Slept with him.”
“Holy shit!” she screams, then continues to do so for a solid minute.
It’s loud and annoying and way overdramatic, but I find myself smiling anyway.
I think that has to do with how good I’ve felt ever since we slept together earlier this week.
While our conversation after leaving that seedy hotel was hard, things have actually been great since then.
Sure, it’s only been five days—a fact I didn’t mention to Talia since she’d kill me for not telling her earlier—but it’s a start.
“Well, how was it?”
“I only had two bags, Tally. It was a very quick move.”
“Oh my god.” She groans. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. The sex! How was the sex?!”
“Ew, Mom!” Ian yells in the background.
“That’s what you get for listening in! You’re supposed to be doing your homework.”
“It’s a Saturday!”
“Well, that’s what happens when you decide not to do it during the week.” She rolls her eyes. “Hang on. Let me deal with him.”
She sets the phone down on her bed, and I’m left staring at her ceiling fan as she wrangles her son back to the kitchen table to work.
“Okay,” she says a few minutes later, picking the phone back up and putting it way too close to her face. “Tell me everything.”
“I am not detailing sex with my husband for you.”
“Ugh, boo. But I’m, like, horny for it. It’s been too long.”
Talia hasn’t seriously dated since Ian came along, and while I wish she would put herself out there more, it’s not like I have any room to talk. I married the only man to ever be inside me.
“Can you at least tell me if you came?”
“Talia!” I scold.
“What? It’s an important question.”
I chuckle at her, shaking my head. “Fine, yes. I came. Are you happy?”
She squeals again, then shimmies her shoulders. “I’m very happy, but it sounds like you’re happier.” She wiggles her brows up and down.
“You’re ridiculous,” I tell her, but it doesn’t stop my face from getting hot.
“Girl, you are ridiculously giddy and blushing, and it’s so cute. You are so falling in love with him again.”
Her words shock me. “What do you mean by ‘again’? I never stopped loving him.”
“So you do know that, then.”
“What? Of course I know.”
“Well, you could have fooled me sometimes, like when you decided to come back from the London internship.”
My jaw slackens. “You were the one who pushed me to do it!”
“Yeah, but I didn’t tell you to stay gone for three years. That was your call, and I was shocked as hell when you did because it was obvious to everyone how much you missed him. Even your mother was urging you to go to Seattle for that interview.”
Shit. She has a point, and it’s a big one too.
While my dad eventually warmed up to Callum, my mother never did.
It was like she held some sort of grudge against him for “stealing my youth” or whatever.
It didn’t matter how many times I tried to tell her it was my decision to marry him and he wasn’t pressuring me; she didn’t care. She blamed him.
I was surprised when she approved of the internship to write, but for some reason, I didn’t bat an eye when she pushed me to go back to Seattle. Maybe I should have. Was she trying to tell me something? Was she trying to tell me to get my husband back?
I don’t know, but I do know I’m here now, and I’m not going to waste it. Callum and I still have a lot to work through, but I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and get right in the thick of it. But, like, maybe after this wedding.
“Okay, okay, enough sappy talk,” Talia says, reading my mood perfectly. “Your text mentioned a wedding. Does this mean dress shopping? Because I know you didn’t pack any wedding guest attire.”
“Ugh. Don’t remind me. The closest thing I have is that dress I wore on New Year’s Eve, and I really don’t want to be reminded of handsy Dirk the Dick all night long. But I also don’t want to go shopping. You know I hate it with a fiery passion.”
I was never a fan, mostly because finding something that fits my hips and short legs is nearly impossible. Throw in my big boobs, bigger butt, and my belly, and it’s damn near impossible.
“You do, but I have an idea…”
Talia keeps talking, and I halfway listen, but my eyes drift to the clock on the microwave.
I try my best not to smile when I see that Callum should be getting back at any moment.
My body buzzes with excitement at the idea.
I can’t recall the last time I felt like this.
Maybe five years ago? More? I’m not sure, but one thing I do know is I can’t wait for my husband to walk in the door.
“Um, hello? Did you hear me?”
I give Talia my attention. “Um, no. Sorry.”
Her eyes narrow. “Just because I want to acknowledge it: rude. However, I will let it slide because I know you’re daydreaming about your steaming hot sex with your husband.” She starts kissing the air, pretending to be us making out.
“It’s times like these I cannot believe you’re raising a kid.”
She laughs. “Yeah, me either.” The phone jostles as she moves around.
“Anyway, as I was saying…as jealous as I am that you’re out in the gorgeous Pacific Northwest making friends with hot hockey wives while I’m stuck in Snoreville, Tennessee, I think it might be a good idea to ask one of them to go shopping with you.
As you said, you hate shopping, so why not take a buddy? ”
I consider her suggestion, but those same old feelings from before I left creep in.
All the doubts and worries and voices telling me I’m not good enough to be friends with successful women like that scream so loudly I barely remember promising Talia I’ll think about it and getting off the phone with her.
It’s only Callum’s key turning in the door that rattles me from my stupor.
“There you are.” He smiles at me, kicking his shoes off and crossing the apartment in a flash. He bends and presses a kiss to my lips. “Mmm. I missed that.”
I giggle. “I just kissed you like three hours ago.”
“Three hours is a long time when I’ve missed you for three years.”
I don’t have time to process his words before he’s kissing me again, this time longer and harder. I fist his shirt, ready to pull him right on top of me and let him have his way, but my growling stomach ruins the moment.
“Good thing I ordered us lunch on the way up here, huh?” he says when he pulls away. He pets Percy, who is lying right beside me and has been all morning as I work on a new piece. “Extra dumplings, and it should be here in about thirty minutes.”
“You’re amazing, you know that?”
“I’m aware.” He nods toward my laptop. “Work?”
“Yes. Just a freelance job. Working on a piece for a small press in Tennessee. Nothing too wild.”
“How’s it going?” he asks, moving to the kitchen and pulling a bottle of electrolyte water from the fridge. He gestures, silently asking if I want one, and I shake my head.
“So-so,” I tell him, but honestly, it’s a mess, and I’m struggling to come up with anything of substance. I have a feeling that has a lot to do with me wanting to spend all my time with Callum instead of working.
“Need to talk through it?” He hands me a Diet Coke, then settles onto the couch next to me while Percy gets up and heads to the spare bedroom. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
I hold up the drink I didn’t ask for. “This. Be honest with me—did you keep these around for me?”
He pauses, then sighs, running a hand through his hair that’s looking extra light today. “Busted.”
I grin, set the opened drink on the table, climb onto his lap, and kiss him.
He smiles as I pull away. “Well, hi to you too.”
“How was practice?”
“Good. The guys are trying to sort out a new power play with Thomas going down, but I think we’ll figure it out.”
The Serpents are still in a really good spot for the playoffs, but last night, one of their players got hurt battling one of the league’s best teams and is expected to miss at least the first round of the postseason.
It was hard to hear the news of losing a teammate to injury, especially in the first intermission, but they went back out and played like they had something to prove and won the game 4–2 in regulation.
He squeezes my thighs. “Did you do anything other than work this morning?”
“I talked to Talia.”
“Yeah? And how did she react to the news of you staying here?”
I tip my head. “How did you know we talked about that? Is there a camera in here?” I look around, glancing at the empty corners. “Are you spying on me?”
He laughs. “No, I just know you, Clover.”
He’s not wrong. Callum has always understood me in a way that was almost scary. It was as if he saw right through me, down to my soul, and I felt safe with him in a way I’ve never felt with anyone else.
“I mean, you did tell her, didn’t you?” he asks when I don’t say anything.
“Yes.”
He grins smugly. “I knew it.”
“Shut up.” I glare at him, but all he does is continue to smile. “Anyway, she, uh, she actually suggested I ask the girls to go dress shopping with me. You know, for the wedding.”
“Okay, one: it’s really weird to hear you say ‘the girls.’”
I don’t even bother arguing. It is weird. I’ve only ever had one true friend in my life—Talia—so having a group of women who actually want to hang out with me and that I want to hang out with is…odd.
“Two: I think that’s a great idea. I know how much you hate shopping.”
Talia said the same thing. It’s so nice having two people in my life who know me so well, but it’s strange because there are so many moments where I feel like I don’t even know myself. How can they and I don’t?
“You getting lost in that head of yours, Clover?” He taps my forehead lightly.
“Maybe a little.”
“Anything I can help with?”