28. Callie
Chapter 28
Callie
Well this day has taken a drastic turn and it’s not even nine in the morning. I fully anticipated not handling my first interaction with Nic very well when we ultimately crossed paths again but that? I did not expect that.
Punching him was an out of body experience. A very freeing experience. but I surprised everyone—myself included. Now I’m begrudgingly following Adam and Will to one of the college locker rooms to hash out this entire issue.
I guess it’s good I’m getting this out now. If dating Will could get me fired, assaulting a player at a game would be ten times worse…even if he deserves it. Maybe the guys can help defend me to Olsson, if it comes to that.
Walking in, Adam huffs when he realizes he can’t lock the door from the inside. “You probably have ten minutes before people start showing up. I don’t know if any will come in here, but hit us with it, Cals.”
I’m a little surprised Adam hasn’t questioned Will being here for this. But I’m going to follow his lead and not question.
“Okay, but I’m asking you to just listen to me first. Start to finish.” I raise an eyebrow and wait for them both to nod.
Let’s get this off our chest.
“It started at Mom’s extravagant Easter Egg party almost two years ago. Mom was on the hunt for a potential husband for me, like she had been since I was seventeen. Over the years I had mastered different ways to shut it down: annoy them with my incessant talking or ‘lack of manners’ but when one of the dads had too much to drink and got a little too touchy?—”
“ One of the dads? !” Adam yells. Will doesn’t look happy, but he already knew about this.
“Why do you think I started kickboxing in college? When I thought my only option was to break his nose, Nic showed up. He pulled me away from it in the diplomatic way Dad would have loved.
“Fast forward a month, we started dating. He was playing for Sutton’s minor team so he was only half an hour outside New Haven. I was in my last semester for my master’s and things were going great for the most part. Then I graduated, got the job at Dad’s financial firm, and Mom and Dad were finally off my back. But things with Nic started moving too fast.
“Nic was getting really pushy about marriage and getting shared bank accounts. Begging me to break into my inheritance even though I told him repeatedly I didn’t have access until I turned twenty-five. After a few months I tried to compromise and I moved in with him. But it only got worse. I tried pushing through because it kept Mom and Dad at bay and there was no way I was moving back to that hellhole.”
“Callie—” Adam can’t help himself at that part.
“Let her finish,” Will snaps.
Adam runs his hands over his face. “Sorry. Go on.”
“Thank you. So, right before New Years, Nic completely blindsided me by proposing at a family dinner. I said no,” I add immediately because I can see the riot going on in Will and Adam’s eyes. “That, naturally, did not go over well. There was a lot of yelling, and a lot of name calling on all fronts. Nic’s family starts blaming our family for being the reason I said no. That went over like a ton of bricks and all hell broke loose.
“Nic’s parents kicked me out of our apartment that, apparently, they were paying for. Dad was furious at the scene he thought I made, and I had to sleep in my car for a few nights until everyone calmed down. When I showed up to work the following Monday there was a whole new problem.”
“God, it gets worse?” Adam looks up at the ceiling but holds up his hands. “I know, I’ll be quiet.”
I take a deep breath. This part isn’t going to be pretty. “I have always loved photography, and I was really able to explore my skills with it during college when Dad wasn’t breathing down my throat twenty-four seven. And when things were good between Nic and I, I might have taken some…inappropriate pictures of myself.” I cringe, avoiding eye contact with both of them.
“At the time, it didn’t seem like a big deal, but with me trying to give everyone space for the weekend before getting my stuff, Nic decided to print hundreds of copies. He put them everywhere at work. Every department, every lobby, desk, office, bathroom—everywhere had naked pictures of me. And I know what you guys are about to say—that’s very illegal. But dear ol’ dad informed me that I would officially be homeless and fired if I pressed charges. Apparently I needed to ‘save face,’ because it was my fault for taking the pictures to begin with.
“For some fucked up reason, I agreed with him. I don’t know why, but he’s my dad so I just went with it. I, at least, tried getting all of the photos back, but that was absolutely impossible. As you can imagine—based on the touchy douchebags I mentioned earlier—the harassment started. Every woman in the office looked at me like I had a scarlet letter on my chest and every man thought I was a porn star. No one attacked me directly, but the sexual harassment became bad enough I knew physical advancements weren’t too far off.
“I tried talking to Dad, ya know, the CEO— our father —about it but he just said, ‘You get treated how you act.’ So, I walked out of the office, broke into Nic’s house, took what I couldn’t live without, and flew to you.”
Finally, I take a deep breath. I thought that it would feel good to get this off my chest, and I guess it does. But it also kind of feels like it’s moved from my chest to my stomach. I just told the two most important men in my life my darkest moments. Shit’s starting to feel real heavy again.
Pulling my lips together to let them know I’m done talking, both Adam and Will look at me completely shell shocked. I get it, it’s a lot to process, so I wait.
“I-I, hmm…” Adam struggles to start. “W-Why didn’t you ever tell me? I’m your brother, Callie! Why didn’t you tell me?!”
“Hey, calm down,” Will tries to say when Adam’s voice starts getting louder.
“No, I will not calm down! Callie, you went through all of that and never said a fucking word! I was a phone call away! Why?!”
“Because you escaped, Adam! You fucking got out. You think I didn’t know where your bruises really came from? You think I didn’t hear the curses or yelling? I wasn’t pulling you back into any of that. Coming to you last year was my last resort. My last Hail Mary. So, no, I didn’t fucking tell you.”
The room goes dead silent. Adam’s whole body, my bear of a brother, deflates in front of me. He turns around and grabs one of the wooden bats and swings it repeatedly against the closest locker.
The first loud bang sends shivers down my spine and Will pulls me tight to his chest, holding me until the bat finally breaks.
“I’ll pay the school back for that,” he says with no emotion in his voice, then walks out without looking back.
When the door slams shut, another jump runs through me and Will holds me tighter.
“It’s okay, he just needs to cool off.”
“And you?” I place my chin on his chest to meet his eyes. “Do you need some space?”
“Callie, I’m going to need zero space. Holding you here is the only thing keeping me from going on a murder spree.”
I snort a pained laugh. “I’d be your alibi.”
Will places his hands on either side of my head. “Listen to me. If your dad ever calls you, hand me the phone. If Nic tries to talk to you at games, you come find me. Hell, call in fucking sick for every Chicago game. Never subject yourself to those assholes again. I don’t care if you want to walk away from whatever is happening between us tomorrow, if I ever find out that you brought yourself back into their fucking mess, I will hunt you down and bring you back to me.”
“Kidnapping? Rather bold move.”
“Don’t joke, Callie. I’m serious. I’d throw away my entire career if it meant you not going back to that. Promise me. I need to hear you say that you’ll never let them have any hold on you ever again.”
My heart aches in my chest and I feel like there’s this baseball of emotions stuck in my throat. “You know, I did some online therapy back in Seattle, and for a while I was so angry. I wanted to get back at everyone, I wanted them to feel the pain I felt. But then my therapist told me that sometimes the best revenge is just having a happy life. That took me a while to come to terms with and it’s easy for me to forget sometimes, but that's what I want—a happy life.”
Will sighs and places a kiss on my forehead. His lips linger and I shut my eyes, breathing in this moment.
“I want that for you too, Blaze.”
The day drags by. The training camp ends at noon and Adam refuses to look at me. The car ride back to Jett and Wyla’s is painfully silent. Dinner is tense with only the four-year-old talking up a storm because, thankfully, she has no idea how to read the room.
After dinner Jett takes Adam and Will to his gym for a “workout.” Everyone knows it’s a ploy to give me and Adam a little space from each other. It feels weird fighting with him like this, if we could even call it fighting. Avoidance? Irritation? Disappointment, maybe? I don’t know. But every part of me wants to apologize to him. I know I don’t need to, and even if I wanted, I can’t bring myself to do it. I remember how upset I was when I was old enough to understand where Adam’s injuries really came from, but he never told me. I stand by my decision to leave him out of it.
“Here you go.” Wyla holds out a glass of wine then places two bottles on the coffee table. “Stevie’s finally in bed, and I say you’re due another good cry paired nicely with a merlot.”
I take a big gulp while staring aimlessly in a daze. “You hate merlot.”
“That’s true. That’s why I made me this.” Wyla reaches for another glass that I didn’t see from the side table. “Jack and Coke, you know I love a good whiskey.”
The laugh that bubbles out surprises me. “You drink that; I'll stick to this.” I refill my glass with a gracious pour.
“So, you told them, huh?”
“Yup, it didn’t exactly go over well, as you can see.”
“Adam just needs to work through it. I’ve learned some shocking things that my sisters went through, and it rattles you. Learning that the people you thought you knew struggled so heavily and you had no idea—it’s hard to move past.”
Taking another big sip, I sigh. “I get it, but Wyla, you know why I didn’t tell him, right?”
Wyla’s the only person who has ever heard the full story. We had a night similar to this one back in Seattle. By bottle two I started crying profusely and let everything out. The next morning when she made me breakfast and forced a gallon of water in me, I made her swear to never tell Adam.
“Yes, of course I do. It’s also the reason I've never told Jett either.”
“You didn’t?”
“Nope. I promised you I wouldn’t tell anyone, and you were no longer in that situation, so I didn’t feel like it was my place to tell anyone else.”
“Aw, Wyla. You’re the best.” I rest my head on her shoulder. “I think you're the first real girlfriend I’ve ever had.”
“I’m honored. And full disclosure, if you did try to go back to that whole fucked up situation, I was going to rat your butt out in a heartbeat.”
A small humph of a laugh finds its way out.
“Let’s talk about something that’s more important than the assholes in your past. Let’s focus on the good and tell me all about you and Will.”
My head comes off her shoulder. “There is no me and Will, remember?”
“Mm-hmm, okay, tell that to your lady boner.” She laughs and sips her drink.
“Damn it, see this is why it’s not going to work. I know I’m going to blab it to someone and we’ll be fucked.”
“But at least you’re getting fucked.”
“Wyla!” I smack her shoulder and laugh. “That’s true though.”
I take another sizable gulp of my wine when we hear the front door open. The guys file in and the tension still feels thick, but at least it’s out there.
Will comes in at the front of the group and gives me a soft smile. Man, what I wouldn’t give to get any form of affection from him right now.
I’m entirely sure that thought comes across my forehead in neon letters because as he walks by, he squeezes my shoulder. It’s small—it’s something.
Jett pulls Wyla away next, and Adam plops down in her seat with a sigh.
“Adam, if you take a bat to anything in my house I’ll kick your ass,” Jett says.
As Will walks up the stairs he adds, “And if I hear you yell, I’ll hit you with a bat.”
Adam mutters curses under his breath and I can’t help but chuckle.
“Okay, but if any of you wake Stevie, I’ll kill you then bring you back to life so you can put her down to sleep again.” Wyla points a look at each of us. Damn, why did her threat feel the most genuine?
When everyone clears out, Adam places his hand on my knee. “I’m sorry, Cals. I wasn’t a good brother to you today and honestly, I don’t think I ever have been.”
“Adam—”
“Just hear me out. I never allowed myself to think about what could have happened to you when I left. I thought keeping that little bit of communication between us was enough. And this whole year I’ve never asked what happened out of the fear that the guilt would eat me alive and that was so fucking selfish.
“I spoke wrong earlier when I said you should have told me—Callie, I should have asked. I knew what that man was capable of, but I was too scared to ask.”
Taking a deep breath, I inhale every word then exhale all the pain out. Reaching for the opened bottle I top off my glass and hand the bottle to Adam. “Here, I don’t have another glass but the bottle works just fine.”
“Damn right.”
Both of us swallow down a good bit and when Adam makes a sour face I chuckle. “God, that’s awful.”
“Hey, it’s alcohol.” I shrug and take another sip. “I like it.”
Adam shakes his head and puts it back on the coffee table. “Then I’ll let you handle that.”
Resting his elbows on his knees, Adam runs his hands over his face. “I really am sorry, Callie.”
Sitting up I set my glass down as well. “I know and I appreciate the apology. We unfortunately can’t change what happened, but I feel good about where it led us.”
Adam finally looks up and a small smile tugs at the corner of his mouth. “Yeah, me too.”