Chapter 26 Callum
TWENTY-SIX
CALLUM
The beast within me felt settled and satisfied as I walked through my home with Deena. She was wearing my clothes and carrying my scent—from sleeping in my bed and washing in my shower. She looked lovely, and I walked as if in a dream. Was life supposed to feel this good?
We were on the stairs heading toward the kitchen when Deena spoke. “So…what’s the plan?”
She let go of my hand to take the banister, so I put my own hand on the small of her back. “For what?”
“What are we telling your sister about us?”
“The truth.”
Deena’s gaze slid over to mine. Her brows arched. “Which is?”
I’m in love with you, and I’m never letting you go. I swallowed back that particular truth and gave her a tamer version: “We’re together.”
Spots of red bloomed on the apples of her cheeks, and she dipped her chin. “Okay.”
“Does that bother you?”
“No, it’s just…”
“It’s just what, Deena?” I prompted when she trailed off.
“I’m nervous,” she admitted, then let out a little laugh. “That’s all. The last time I met a guy’s family, I was twenty-two and trying to avoid going home for Christmas.”
The urge to discover who she was dating a decade ago just so I could make sure he never went anywhere near her rose up within me, and I squashed it—with difficulty. She was here now. With me. That was all that mattered.
“They already love you,” I reminded her.
“They barely know me,” she protested, then clamped her lips shut as we turned the corner and entered the kitchen.
Lila sat at the island, her feet dangling as she worked on another drawing. Erica looked up from her cup of green tea, a smile spreading over her lips when she saw us.
“Morning,” my sister greeted us.
“Morning,” I replied.
Beside me, Deena painted a smile on her face. “Good morning.” She stuck her hand out. “I’m Deena. I don’t know if you remember me—” She stopped talking when Erica began to laugh.
It was a genuine laugh, almost like the ones my sister would let out before she got sick. My sister clasped Deena’s hand in both of hers. “I remember you,” she said, still smiling. “How could I forget when Cal talks about you every chance he gets?”
Deena straightened, shocked. She turned to frown at me, and I rolled my eyes at my sister. “That’s enough, Erica.”
“Just to clarify,” Erica said, turning toward Deena with a conspiratorial smile playing over her lips, “‘every chance he gets’ is only actually once or twice. Mostly after I pester him about it.”
“I’m flattered,” Deena deadpanned.
An unfamiliar feeling squirmed through my gut.
It took me a second to recognize it: I was embarrassed.
But not in a bad way—not in the kind of way that made me angry and want to lash out.
I was embarrassed in a warm kind of way.
The way that ended with lots of laughter from people I loved who loved me right back.
My throat grew tight. “Throwing me under the bus before I’ve even had a cup of coffee,” I grumbled.
Erica’s smile grew, and she leaned toward Deena to say, “I could tell there was something between you the first time I saw you at his office. I did my best little-sister routine and annoyed Cal until he told me about you.”
I poured Deena a coffee and added cream and sugar the way she liked it before handing it over. She slid onto a barstool next to Erica and smiled at me in thanks. I took the opportunity to glare at my sister before turning back to pour myself one.
“What did he say?” Deena asked, and I could hear the smile in her voice.
Suddenly, I wasn’t so sure this was such a good idea. My sister loved gossip, and Deena was a wild card. The two of them in the same room?
Disastrous.
Then my sister went and said the worst possible thing: the truth. “He told me he was going to marry you one day, but you didn’t know it yet.”
I froze, wishing I hadn’t said those exact words to my sister the evening after she’d come into the office with Lila and the drawing.
But I had. It had been late at night, and my sister had found me in my home office going over a few last-minute details for a deal.
She’d gotten bloodwork results back and wanted to discuss them with me.
Well—she wanted to show me how good they were so I wouldn’t worry.
Then she’d sat down, and the gleam in her eyes had told me she had something else on her mind.
“Say what you need to say, Erica,” I’d told her.
She’d smiled at me a little like she was smiling right now, her eyes sparkling, a bit of her old self coming out to play. “That woman today,” she started, and I immediately knew she meant Deena.
“Who?” I’d asked, my eyes sliding to my computer screen.
Erica had laughed, her head shaking. “You like her, don’t you?”
She’d always been able to read me better than anyone.
Erica was the only one who didn’t look at me differently after Gracie died.
And when our parents had divorced and eventually passed, she didn’t drift away from me the way all my old friends and acquaintances had.
She’d stayed close. She knew me, and she still loved me despite all my flaws.
She was the best person I knew, and I was lucky to be her brother.
But it also meant she could read me like a book.
There’d been no sense in denying it, and besides, I hadn’t wanted to. So I’d met my sister’s gaze and dipped my chin. “I like her,” I’d confirmed. It had felt like a paltry, weak word to describe my feelings for Deena. It sounded wrong coming out of my mouth.
Erica had picked up on it right away. Her eyes had sharpened, and she’d stated, “You like her a lot.”
“I’m going to marry her one day,” I’d said simply. Those words had felt better than the first few as they’d rolled off my tongue. They’d felt like the truth.
Erica’s shock was gratifying. “Does she know?”
“Not yet,” I’d answered, then changed the subject to talk about her care plan. There’d been nothing else to say about Deena in that moment. Deena was mine, and my sister would find out eventually. The sooner she got used to the idea, the better.
Now, a month and change later, I was regretting my rash words.
I turned in time to see Deena’s eyes widen. Her fingers were curled around her mug, but she hadn’t taken a sip yet.
“Erica,” I rumbled, glaring at my sister.
“What?” she replied, angelic. “Isn’t that what you said?”
“I’m never telling you anything ever again.”
“He’s so dramatic, isn’t he?” Erica said to Deena, a wide smile on her face. She took a sip of her tea and met my gaze, an evil, amused look in her eyes.
“Can I be your flower girl?” Lila asked, first to me, then to Deena.
Deena opened her mouth and closed it again.
“We’re not getting married,” I said gently.
Yet. My sister’s eyes glittered; she’d heard the unsaid word.
I turned to Deena, unsure of what to say.
After last night, there was no doubt in my mind.
I would marry her, or I would die alone.
I wouldn’t lie to her, and I wouldn’t insult her intelligence by pretending my sister remembered our conversation wrong.
But she spoke first. “Your proposal skills need work,” she told me.
“Is that a yes?”
“No.”
I grinned, fast and sharp. She arched a brow, her eyes glimmering with amusement. “Next one’ll be better,” I promised.
“Low bar.”
Erica barked out a laugh. “I like her,” she announced.
“Me too,” Lila piped up to say. “You helped hang up my drawing.”
Deena finally took a sip of her coffee, and I caught the faint grimace that flitted across her expression.
“No good?” I asked.
She shook her head. “It’s fine. I just—I don’t know. I think I’m losing my sweet tooth. Sweet things just taste off these days. I’ve been drinking my coffee black lately.” She lifted her mug. “But this is perfect.”
I took the mug from her and dumped it down the sink while she tried to protest, then got her a fresh one. “Here. Next time you don’t like something, you tell me.”
Erica’s gaze bounced from me to Deena and back again, but her mouth stayed blessedly closed. I didn’t need her scaring Deena away with the contents of our private conversations.
Deena took the coffee, tasted it, and gave me a smile. “Much better,” she said. “Thank you.”
“Can we have pancakes for breakfast?” Lila asked, putting her crayon down to bat her little eyelashes at me. “With chocolate chips and syrup?”
I sighed. Going up against these three women was a losing battle. “Sure, kiddo,” I said, then looked at Deena. “What would you like to eat? I can make eggs Benedict.”
Her eyes brightened. “You can?”
I shrugged. “Sure. You like bacon?”
“What kind of question is that?” Deena asked. “Of course I like bacon!”
She and Erica laughed, and my own lips kicked. Then Deena added, “I’m still in shock about the whole eggs Benedict thing. You’re going to make it from scratch?”
“Cal is an amazing cook,” Erica said, and it was the first decent thing she’d said all morning.
“He is?” Deena’s eyes were wide.
“Oh, yeah,” Erica answered. “He doesn’t do it much, but his food is incredible.”
Deena’s gaze met mine, and the way she looked at me made my heart clench. She looked…
She looked how I felt. Like she was in love with me, and every new discovery about me made her fall a little harder.
I smiled at her, and then I got to work feeding the three most important women in my life.
My day only got better when I went into work, called Deena and the HR team into my office, and announced that the two of us were in a relationship.
“Do what you need to do with the paperwork,” I told our HR manager, who nodded as her gaze darted between us.
Deena tried to glare at me, but I could see the small, pleased smile on her lips and the flush warming her cheeks.
When the meeting was done, Deena lingered after the Human Resources team left. “I guess my asking you to scrub my email from the company’s servers is a bit pointless now, huh,” she said.
I gave her my best, most wolfish smile. “I’m printing that email and framing it for my office wall.”
She clicked her tongue. “I guess everyone’s already seen it anyway,” she murmured. Her cheeks were flushed, and she let out a big, gusting sigh.
I came around my desk and took her in my arms. “What do you need?”
She blinked at me.
“To feel safe, Deena. Do you want me to tell everyone I’ll fire them if they so much as mention the word ‘crush’ in your presence?”
“Oh yeah, that’ll help,” she answered sarcastically, laughing. “No. I just…I don’t need anything. I’ll get over the mortification eventually.”
Tightness stole over my chest. I pressed a kiss to her forehead, wishing she’d let me carry her burdens for her. But this was Deena. I wouldn’t have fallen for her if she weren’t exactly as she was.
“I need to get to work,” she said, tilting her head up to accept my kiss.
“I’m taking you out to dinner tonight.”
Her eyes were soft, and her lips relaxed into a tender smile. “Can’t wait.”
This was it, I realized. This was the beginning of the rest of my life. For the first time since I was six years old, I found myself looking forward to the future.