35. Callie
Chapter 35
Callie
I had always known Adam’s game schedule was demanding, but nothing could have prepared me for it being my schedule also. When I lived with him in Seattle, I only went to the home games, and never Spring Training.
We’ve had games every day for a month—some with double headers. Then, right after that we all hopped on our chartered plane and flew to Texas for a week to play the Drakes.
We finally got back to Boston late last night and it’s so good to be back at my apartment. I’m not sure what’s better: being in my own bed with all my stuff, or the fact that, the moment Adam closed his door, Will abandoned his place to come get naked in mine.
“Callie, we need to get up.” Will speaks softly next to me as he lightly runs his fingers up and down my back.
I’m not sure what time it is, but when Will tried to get up earlier, I pulled him back down to sleep with me longer.
“No,” I grumble with my eyes still closed. “I want to sleep in so late that it’s embarrassing to talk about.”
Will chuckles. “What if I told you I had Alex deliver some tea to my place and they are sitting in front of my door right now getting cold?”
That gets me to open my eyes as I look up at him. “Which one did you get me?”
“Well, you’ll never know unless you let me get up.”
“Ugh, fine.” Rolling off the bed, I throw on a pair of leggings to go with Will’s shirt that I slept in. “I suppose I can get up and let my boyfriend make me breakfast shirtless while I sip my tea.”
“Whoa, now, that’s not what I said.” Will pulls up his gray sweats and he’s like a damn wet dream.
I walk over to him and pop a kiss to his cheek then run my hand down his chest and abs. “It’s what I heard.”
Walking into my kitchen, I smile because it feels so good to finally be home. We have home games for a whole week and I’m so happy I could cry. Keeping up this secret relationship hasn’t exactly been the easiest. It’s been impossible to find alone time to be together, except for when we sneak over to each other’s hotel room for the night. I do love sleeping next to him, but I want to be able to go on dates more. Show affection in public. You know, be that obnoxious couple people make fun of.
I know I told myself I would walk away when it felt too hard or interfered with my job, but I think it’s reversed on me. As much as I do love this job and want to keep it—I want to keep Will more.
We’ve been nothing but professional this past month, and Olsson has given us both high praises individually. Maybe it’s time we test Beck’s theory.
Walking past my island, I turn to Will. “Why don’t I grab the tea and you start breakfast. There should be some groceries in the fridge. Adam had me place an order with his guy to get some food delivered yesterday before we got back.”
“Was he able to get your stuff delivered because you never lock your door?”
“Okay, one, I resent that. And two, Adam has a spare key for emergencies so that’s how.”
“Mm-hmm.” Will gives my ass a little smack.
I roll my eyes as I make my way to my door. “Hey, what do you know, it’s locked. See I remember?—”
“I locked it last night, Blaze. Nice try.”
Damn it. I think he’s right. I don’t exactly remember what happened after I opened my door and immediately thought about being in my own bed.
I give Will a pointed look before I open my door and, much to my surprise, find Lucie and Reagan standing in the hall.
“Hi, Callie!” Lucie cheers.
Reagan holds out the tray of tea and I take it, unsure how to respond. “This was in front of Will’s door, but we’ve been knocking for a bit and then it dawned on us that he might finally be hooking up with the neighbor he’s been obsessed with for months.”
“I…um…”
“For fuck’s sake,” Will mutters, coming up behind me. “What are you guys doing here?”
“Please don’t even start, Will. We saw this coming from a mile away,” Reagan snarks.
“We had a group chat pressuring him to actually do something about it.” Lucie smiles.
“A group chat I left repeatedly,” Will huffs.
Reagan rolls her eyes and leans on my door frame. “Which did not help your case by the way. Denial is usually stage one.”
I chuckle under my breath and Will nudges me. “Watch it.”
I step back into him with a smile on my face. I don’t hate at all that his sisters are here. I liked them before any of this even got started. I’m not going to miss my shot at friendship.
“Will was just about to make me some breakfast, do you want to come in?”
Reagan and Lucie don’t waste a second before coming in and taking a seat on the island barstools.
Will leans down, wrapping his arms around my waist, and whispers in my ear, “Hey, I need my shirt back.”
“Hmm, so would it be rude for me to kick them out now?” I laugh before pushing off his chest. “I’ll be right back.”
After changing into one of my oversized cream sweaters, I walk back into the kitchen and toss Will his shirt.
“We didn’t mean to barge in on your romantic morning, but it seems someone has been leaving important details out of the group chat.” Reagan gives a pointed look to Will.
“I left that group, remember?” Will replies after pulling his shirt on.
Lucie rolls her eyes. “I remember. A group chat with a name I very creatively named, that you didn’t appreciate at all. But since you’re together now, I guess I should change it.” Lucie whips out her phone and taps on her screen. “Callie, give me your number. I’ll add you and maybe that will make Will stop leaving.”
Will closes the fridge with a sarcastic laugh. “Not likely.”
“Hey, do you not want to talk to me?”
Will sets down the milk and eggs on the counter then lifts my chin. “You, always. Them, sometimes. That’s what direct messages are for.”
Will winks before letting go of my face and grabbing a mixing bowl from the cabinet. “And before we get too far off topic, what are you two doing here anyway?”
Reagan scoffs dramatically. “Can we not come visit our dear brother who we haven’t seen in over a month? I mean, the audacity to not want?—”
“Reagan,” Will snaps.
“Okay, fine. We wanted to have a girl’s day and while we were going to stop by your place to say hi, we wanted to see if Callie wanted to come with us.”
“Me?” My voice sounds oddly high, but hell, who cares?
“You.” Lucie beams. “Full disclosure if our brother hadn’t told you how he felt yet, we were going to use this as a secret ploy to get you two together.”
“What the hell, guys?” Will stops what he’s doing and huffs. “What were you planning exactly?”
“Nothing weird!” Reagan exclaims. “Lucie’s making it sounds more like this extravagant plan. We were just going to take her out, talk you up, and you know, essentially lie to her about how great you are.”
I can’t help my laugh as Will gives his sisters the most dumbfounded look. “I don’t know how to respond to that. You get the first burned pancake.”
“I don’t want the burned one. What I said was nice!”
Will starts to mix the batter and shakes his head. “Half of it was nice, which is why you can get the first one, but then you added the lying part, therefore you get the burned one.”
I chuckle. “Why does the first one have to be burned?”
“He always burns the first one,” Reagan and Lucie say at the exact same time.
“Ah, jinx!” Lucie cheers.
Will simply rolls his eyes, then gives me a small kiss before turning to the stove to burn his first pancake.
“Even though our plan is no longer needed as you two are clearly together…” Lucie beams. “We’d still love for you to come with us.”
Be cool, Callie.
“Yeah, I’d love to.”
With that my phone dings on the counter with a message.
When Will Finally Dates Callie.
Lucie
I think I’ll update this name often! This is Lucie by the way.
Once we finish our pancakes, I quickly change and freshen up my hair and makeup for us to go out. As I spritz on a little bit of perfume there’s a knock on my bathroom door. Will leans against the frame in such an effortlessly sexy way.
“Hey, you about ready to go? Adam just messaged asking if I wanted to go work out, so I thought I might go ahead and let you have your day.”
“Yeah, I’m ready,” I say, putting down my bottle. Then the guilt hits me as I realize what I’ve done. I probably should have asked Will if this was okay, now that I think about it. This is our first day off in a while, he might have wanted to spend it together. I’ve been dying for quality time, and yet I just threw it out the window.
“It’s probably a little too late to be asking this, but is it okay if I go with your sisters today?”
Will raises an eyebrow with a frown. “Yeah, of course. Why? Do you not want to go? I can talk to?—”
“No, no, I want to go. We just haven’t had a day off in a while. I just kind of robbed us of spending it together.”
Will chuckles softly then pulls me to him by my belt loop. “Callie, I would have loved to have spent today with you, but”—Will reaches into his sweats pocket then holds up one of his cards from his wallet—“if you don’t take my card and spend a shit ton of money on yourself today, then we’re going to have a problem.”
Oh, man, if that’s not one of the sexiest things to say to a girl then I don’t know what is.
I take the card with a soft smile. “Thank you, I promise I won’t go too crazy.”
“Oh, you won’t be able to because that’s the card that my delivery boy check comes to.”
“I make one joke!” I laugh, and Will pulls me into his arms kissing my neck playfully, only making me giggle more. “Okay, okay, that’s enough.”
Will stops the kisses but doesn’t let me go from his hold. “Have fun today, and don’t let my sisters talk you into leaving me.”
“Will, you just handed me your card and said go spend a lot of money…I don’t think there’s anything they could say to make me do that.”
Will’s eyes go wide with an amused smile. “Oh, golddigger? I didn’t expect?—”
Grabbing his face, I shut up his little joke with my lips on his. Will’s hands thread through my hair as he turns me against the door frame, deepening our kiss.
“Hey, just so you guys don’t forget, Lucie and I are still here!” Reagan yells.
Will stops our kiss but doesn’t let go of me yet. He turns his head back toward the living room, so he’s not yelling in my face. “Let me get this straight. You show up uninvited, complain about my breakfast, then plan to take my girlfriend away for the day, and now this? Beggars can’t be choosers.”
“They are when they’re sisters!” Lucie yells back.
One realization I’ve had today is that I’ve been robbed. Robbed of having a sister. Do I love Adam? Yes, absolutely. And yeah, I’m glad I don’t have another sibling for my parents to abuse, but I wish I had a sister.
Reagan and Lucie are by far the most polar opposite people I have ever met, but I think that’s what makes their dynamic so great. It’s also been nice to be out with girls that I feel like I can let go with. The only girl I’ve ever had that with is Wyla, and I was worried I might not ever have it again.
For our last stop of the day we go to the nail salon Lucie loves for some mani-pedis.
“I went ahead and made you an appointment, Callie, because I kind of assumed we were going to kidnap you either way,” Lucie says as we sit in the big chairs. “Hope this is okay.”
“Are you kidding? This is perfect. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job, but I’ve been drowning in testosterone. I need this.”
I rest my head back on my chair, shutting my eyes briefly before I hear, “Callie?”
Looking up, I find my fellow weirdly-named girl. “Ah, Jensen! Hi,” I cheer.
“Oh, hey Callie!” Jensen waves, walking over to us.
When we met at the restaurant she was wearing a long-sleeved button-up, but as she takes her jacket off I see both her arms are full of tattoos.
Jensen smiles and takes the open seat next to me. “One thing I refuse to give up is a mani-pedi. Self-care, and all that.”
“Heck yeah, I like you,” Lucie says leaning over to wave at Jensen. “Hi, I’m Lucie and this is my sister Reagan.”
Reagan leans over next and adds, “We’re Callie’s boyfriend’s sisters.”
“Oh?” Jensen looks at me with her eyebrows pulled together with a silent question.
“New guy.” I laugh. “Not the rando from the bar! Jensen, are you kidding? That man was a nightmare.”
Jensen relaxes in her chair. ‘Thank God, I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to be your friend if you went back to that loser after I helped you escape him.”
“I’m sorry, escaped?” Reagan asks. “We’re so going to need this story! Is this the date you went on before Will?”
“He told you I went on a date?”
Lucie nods. “Yeah, he left the group chat after I told him that Harry and Sally dated people before they got together.”
Jensen chuckles next to me. “Oh, like from the romcom?”
“Yes, I love a good romcom!” Lucie beams. “But you know Will never told us what happened that night.”
Reagan leans back up in her chair. “Callie, we’re going to need the full rundown here. Leave out any mentions of bedroom times with our brother but otherwise spare no detail.”
Jensen leans up next but grabs the attention of one of the workers. “Hi, we’re going to need some wine over here.”
“Oh, yes we are.” I laugh. “I’m glad we’re going to be here for a minute because I promise you, I couldn’t tell a short story short if I ever tried, so keep up. I’m going to ramble.”
Recapping everything that happened from the post-birthday miscommunication, to the not-a-date date, to the speech—which Lucie was really proud of Will for—to not being able to actually date, to now. I leave out the bedroom details and the downfall with my ex, but otherwise they are all caught up. It only took the whole damn appointment for me to get through it.
“Okay, hold up.” Reagan waves her now freshly manicured hand around across from me at the drying table. “So, you’re telling me that we’ve been hanging out all day and you didn’t tell us that you’re not actually allowed to date our brother?”
I wince a bit at her tone. “I’m sorry, I was just really enjoying some girl time, and with you guys I don’t have to keep it a secret, so it was nice to just not have to think about it.”
“No, that’s totally fair,” Reagan says. “I’m just shocked. Listen, if you need someone to tell your boss that’s a stupid rule, then hi, use me!”
“Me too,” Lucie adds.
“Count me for the trio,” Jensen says as she blows on her nails.
“Believe me, I’ve thought about it myself. And Will offered the same thing. I find it really sweet that you all had the same reaction.”
Lucie snorts a laugh. “Well, that’s not really that shocking considering he’s totally in love with you.”
Butterflies flutter in my stomach immediately. I want nothing more than to have her expand on that thought, but my phone starts to ring with the man in question's name on my screen.
“Hey,” I answer, putting him on speaker so I can keep my nails under the light. “Everyone can hear you so keep that in mind.”
“Okay, Callie. Thanks for the heads up.” Will laughs. “So, fair warning for you, you’re about to get a text from Adam. A couple of the guys are wanting to go to the bar tonight, same one we went to the first night after we got here. It’ll be pretty chill if you guys want to come. If not that’s fine, but my sisters are invited as long as they keep their fucking mouths shut.”
“Hey, we’ve been team Callie and Will from the start. We’re not going to be the fuck-ups,” Reagan snarks.
“And isn’t he the one who got y’all busted with the teammate?” Jensen backs up Reagan.
“Okay, I’m not sure who that was, or how they know about that,” he says pointedly, “but that was a genuine mistake. Anyway, I’ve got to go to Beck's. A couple of the guys are meeting over there to play PlayStation first, but I’ll see you tonight?”
Glancing at the girls, Reagan and Lucie nod first, but then I look at Jensen and she points back at herself. “Wait, me too?”
Reagan nudges her with her elbow. “Yes, you too, dummy.”
“Yeah, we’ll be there. Talk to you later.”
“Okay, see you soon.”
The call clicks off, and my phone immediately buzzes with a text that I’m sure just came from my brother.
Lucie pulls out her nails and carefully checks them to make sure they are completely dry. “Do we have time to go back by your place, Callie? I’d love to change into that pink dress I bought today. Since, ya know, hot baseball players will be there.”
Clicking on Adam’s message I read it through. “Oh yeah, he said they’d head there around seven, so we have plenty of time. Oh, and Jensen if you don’t want to come you don’t have to. I just?—”
“Eh, it could be fun.” Jensen clicks her nails on the table. “I’m all dry. If you don’t mind, can you send me the name of the bar and I’ll meet you there?”
“Yeah, no problem.” I shoot the text to her real quick then remind her. “Wear something sexy. There will be hot baseball players—just one of them is secretly taken.”