Chapter 33 Blake
BLAKE
Cal’s hand never leaves the small of my back as we traverse the room. He smiles and engages with all the guests, easily connecting with them, complimenting me and subtly dropping in the importance of tonight’s charity auction.
“You told me you’ve never done this before,” I murmur as he steers me around to an open cocktail table, his palm still splayed possessively above my ass.
“I’ve never done this,”—he motions his glass gently around the room—“but I have done plenty of school fundraisers and art shows where my entire focus is to make sure the kids are front and center.”
“You’re as brilliant as you are handsome in this tux,” I tell him, the words spilling freely after drinking half my drink that’s far more than the half a shot I’d taken earlier.
“When’s the last time you ate?” he asks, snagging a couple of hors d’oeuvres from a passing waiter and handing the plate to me.
“Sorry, I’m not usually hungry when I’m wallowing,” I snark, my lips a little looser than I’d like as his eyes narrow.
Dammit.
“You can take it out on me later,” he says as he pulls a chocolate bar from his pocket and places it into my hand. He remembered.
I want to object, to tell him I still need to think things through, but then how would I explain the way I can’t help but lean back into his touch, or how I’m completely rapt by his thoughts and opinions.
Am I giving in too easily?
The video on my phone feeling like a lead balloon in my pocket says otherwise because he’s right. I could ruin him, strip him of his privacy and all that entails.
But it’s an empty threat, and one that makes my stomach roil for reasons that have nothing to do with my food to alcohol ratio.
“I want to see your studio,” I murmur instead, leaning in closer, as I watch his pulse hammer wildly in his throat. “I want to watch you paint.”
“I think I’d like that,” he muses, a soft smile ghosting over his lips. “I painted you.”
“You did?”
“The night we went to the diner and then sat out under the stars. I couldn’t get the image of you out of my mind. You looked perfectly serene, and I wanted to remember that moment.”
“That sounds awfully romantic for what was supposed to be temporary.”
“I think I always kind of knew it wasn’t.
” Spinning the glass on the tablecloth, he continues, “My sister and I had such a different childhood, always traveling and never being anywhere long enough to make friends let alone put down roots. I’ve always wanted stability; it just never seemed possible. ”
“You had it with Liam,” I point out, his head tilting side to side as he ponders this.
“Yes and no. Liam was a free spirit. He loved adventure and nonconformity in a way that left me feeling exhausted. It was like I was always in this weird in-between space of settled and not settled.”
“I’m boring so that helps…” I deadpan, but instead of laughing he huffs, his grip on me tightening as his eyes lock on mine.
“You’re not boring. You’re brilliant and thoughtful, sexy and sweet, and absolutely filthy in turn.
You gave me a safe space to land and made it be okay that I needed quiet but didn’t want to be alone.
You’re the one I want to come home to every night and the one I want to wake up to each day, and I’ll deal with your blanket and mug and the sheets I already put back on the bed because I—"
“Dance with me?” I interrupt, because I’m not ready to hear him say it.
“Sure.” Disappointment radiates off him as I lead Cal toward the dance floor. It’s mostly empty as the predinner music is more subdued.
“Stop looking so sad.”
“I thought I was pulling off wistful.”
“Not a chance.”
“I was just thinking this event is incredible and I wish—”
“You can’t do that either,” I huff. “You’re here and I’m trying, but I can’t just erase the last few weeks like they never happened.”
“I’ll take pissed but forgiven. I can definitely work with that.”
“You’re trying to wear me down when I’m exhausted.”
“I’ll definitely go down on you if that’ll help,” he murmurs, our joined hands tucked between us as our free hands rest on each other’s lower back.
It certainly wouldn’t hurt…
I shiver, the visual already making me half hard just thinking about it. I’m about to tell him as much when a voice sounds from behind me.
“Looks like you got your man and like my suspicions were correct.” My grandfather’s deep baritone rumbles with amusement as I turn to look at him, his foot tapping to the music at the edge of the dance floor.
Only to find he’s not looking at me.
But at Cal.
“Grandpa, this is Cal.”
My grandfather winks at him. “We met in the bathroom.”
Met in the bathroom…
“I’m sorry, did you just say…”
“Technically true.” Cal blushes furiously. “He helped me with my tie.”
“My grandfather tied your bow tie?” I ask Cal, a little dazed as my heart takes off at a sprint.
Is this a sign?
This looks like a sign.
“Looks damn good if you ask me.” The old man chuckles but all I can see is the hope on Cal’s handsome face.
“I didn’t know he was your grandfather, but I was about thirty seconds from setting the damn thing on fire when he offered to help.” Cal clears his throat. “All those video tutorials flew right out the window.”
“And what did you tell my grandfather when he asked you what you were doing here?”
“He actually asked if I had a hot date and I told him I’d be lucky if you’d even talk to me.”
“That it?”
“Yes, but what I really wanted to say is that I needed to win back the guy I fell in love with before I lost him forever, and that my Hail Mary is this tux because you said you’re a sucker for a bow tie.”
“It’s a pretty good line,” my grandfather supplies helpfully.
“Is it a line?” I ask Cal, his hand tightening on mine.
“No, but you told me not to say it.”
“I quit my job and I’m putting my house on the market, so that makes me jobless and homeless. What do you think about that?”
“I think it sounds perfect. I’ll retire you outright, and conveniently, I know a great place you can move into right away.”
“I hate your kitchen.”
“Then it looks like a great starter project to keep you busy.”
Could it really be that easy?
“Cal?”
“Blake?”
“Oh, just kiss him already,” my grandfather goads as Cal’s eyes catch on mine, a playfulness simmering in their depths.
“Not until he says he forgives me.”
“No pressure,” I tease but instead of returning my sass, I can feel that little piece of his confidence wane again.
“There’s no pressure. That’s not—”
“Stop. Talking,” I mutter quietly so only he can hear. “I’m still pissed.”
“I know but I can fix it. I can fix us.”
“Don’t break my heart again, because if I forgive you and you do, you’ll have to deal with Ellison.” The statement results in a full-body shiver that means he gets it. And he gets me.
All of me.
“Baby, please.”
“I forgive you.”
“You—”
His eyes widen and my grandfather whoops as Cal releases me, his hands moving up to cup my face as he slants his mouth over mine. My entire being melts into him, and I feel like I’m whole for the first time since I left Blackstone Falls.
It’s everything I’ve ever wanted.
To love.
And be loved in return.
Asking him to be my fake boyfriend might have been reckless, but falling for Calvin Spence is the smartest thing I’ve ever done.