Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
CALLUM/CASH
Now
Broken Angles the ring conspicuously absent. My heart rate speeds up and red starts to cover my eyes.
What the fuck, Livianna?
“Guns, she was with Sebastian fucking Holloway last night.”
“Cash.” Bren points at me through the screen. “Don’t lose the plot. This isn’t about what she was doing last night. You know she’ll have a simple, innocent explanation for why she was with that dude.”
“So, you already knew and didn’t tell me?” I raise my eyebrows and stand straight. “The shit I went through was staged by someone. How the fuck can she explain away having dinner with a fucking predator?”
“Predator?” Bren’s face screws up. “How is Sebastian a predator?”
Knowing I can’t tell him all I know about the douchebag without exposing myself, I backtrack. “Guns, he’s friends with Zara, and you know what she did to us.”
“Yeah, I get it, but don’t get caught up in that because the pictures of you are a lot more scandalous than Sebastian and her leaving a restaurant.” Bren’s right about the optics, and I hate every second of understanding it.
The kissing photos don’t even crack the top three things tearing through my head right now. Sebastian Holloway was with Livianna last night, seemingly having the time of their lives as they walked out of Geoffrey’s together. That’s a fucking problem if I’ve ever seen one.
He has always wanted her. What he would do, given the chance, isn’t information I can put in front of Bren without destroying the carefully built walls I use to keep my secrets.
“Cash.” Bren taps the screen. “I need you focused on what matters right now.”
“He had his arm around her, Guns.” I move over to the table that’s in an alcove off the kitchen and sit.
Bren drops his hand. “He was walking her out of a restaurant, and they used to work together. They’re friends. You’ve got a kissing photo running in forty-eight outlets, and you’re spiraling over an exit hug. Get your head right, bro.”
“My head is right.”
“Your head is?—”
Livianna steps off the bottom stair. I end the call with him without saying goodbye. I’ll deal with Bren later.
She hasn’t registered me yet. Still moving on instinct, she drifts to the coffeemaker and reaches for a mug. Her hair is loose and slightly tangled. She’s wearing my old tour shirt, the hem landing mid-thigh.
Damn, she’s fucking sexy, but I’m pissed, so that falls to the wayside.
I take a calming breath. “Hey, love.”
She spins around and knocks the cup sideways, grabbing it before it goes over the edge. “Shit! I didn’t know you were down here. I thought you were gone.”
“Yeah? I’ve been up for a couple of hours.” I set my phone down.
“I didn’t hear you come in last night.” She turns back and pours her coffee.
“You were already out cold.”
She wraps both hands around the mug and faces me. “How did the show go? Did you like the new talent?”
“We’ll talk about that in a minute.” I cross my arms over my racing heartbeat. “How was your night?”
She takes a long, slow sip. “It was a quiet night.”
“A quiet night?” I furrow my brow. “From what I saw, it wasn’t quiet at all. And I know this because I came across a picture this morning.”
“What?” She lowers her drink. The ease between us doesn’t survive the next breath.
“You and Sebastian Holloway.” I stare hard in her direction. “Geoffrey’s. Last night.”
She takes her time setting the cup on the counter. “When did you see that?”
“This morning, going through everything that ran about me online.” My stomach twists. “We’ll get to mine later. Sebastian first.”
“Callum, I can explain. It’s nothing bad, I just?—”
“When did you make plans with him?”
“Yesterday afternoon.”
“Why?” I rise to my feet, growling deep from my chest. I hate to admit it, but my rationale is gone. “Are you looking to bring him into our lives in some way? Do you miss him, or something fucked up like that?”
“It wasn’t like that.” She shakes her head with fire burning in her eyes. “I would never do anything like that to you, and you know it.”
“Why did you meet with him, Lily?”
“I’m not having this conversation before coffee.” She glares, telling me this is not the right time, but I don’t care.
Coffee can fucking wait. This can’t.
“You’re already having it.” I march to the island. “How did your dinner plans come about?”
“I called him, and I don’t regret it.” She grows a few inches taller.
“Why, Livianna? You know how I feel about him.”
She sets her shoulders back. “I needed information, Callum. You don’t tell me jack shit, so I went elsewhere to get the lowdown.”
“What are you looking for, Lily? Someone to hurt you?” My pulse pounds hard through my veins.
“No! Sebastian wouldn’t do that, and I want to know about things I can’t remember, Callum.” A tear slides down her cheek. “I need to know about the last five years of my life.”
“Are you kidding me? Sebastian is dangerous. You know this.”
“No, I don’t.” She collapses into herself, wrapping her arms around her waist with her head down. “I don’t know what’s real anymore.”
I should soothe her, but my hotheaded brain has other ideas. “Your engagement ring is real, yet you’re not wearing it. What the fuck, Lily? Do you wanna marry me or not?”
She straightens her spine, all the fight coming back to the color of her bright red cheeks. “Of course I want to marry you. That’s not even a question.”
“Then where’s your ring, Livianna?”
“It’s in my purse. I didn’t want to draw attention to our engagement yet. You know they’ll be relentless when they figure it out.”
“You went to dinner with Sebastian Holloway, took your ring off, and didn’t tell me you were going.” I plant both hands flat on the counter, leaning toward her. “Not one word.”
“I knew you’d react exactly like this.”
“So your solution was to go behind my back?”
“I didn’t go behind your back.” She swipes a rogue tear from her face. “I made a decision about my own life.”
“With a man I’ve told you I don’t trust.”
“He tried to kiss me once at a concert, and you know I don’t care about him that way. You say you don’t trust him and expect me to accept that, but I know there’s more to it. Your reaction is too overboard for there not to be more.”
My stomach churns, knowing what he’s capable of. “I’m asking you to trust me, Lily.”
“And I’m asking you to trust me back.” She stomps over to me, stopping a foot in front of me. “I needed actual answers about my life that I can’t access on my own, Callum.”
“What kind of answers?” I hold her gaze. “Whatever you needed to know, why didn’t you come to me first?”
She pulls back into silence and holds it, giving me nothing. I wait her out, but she doesn’t crack, and doesn’t give me a single inch.
Emptiness fills my chest. “Fuck, Lily. You don’t trust me.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.” I turn and peer out the window. “You had a question about your own life, and you called Sebastian Holloway before you called me. That tells me everything I need to know.”
“It’s not that simple, Callum.”
“Then help me understand.” I face her. “Tell me why you went to him instead of coming to me first.”
She stares at me, long and steady, keeping in a reason I can’t reach. It isn’t guilt behind her eyes. No anger either. Whatever it is, she has decided I don’t get to know. And that is worse than all of it.
The tension between us has teeth digging into our flesh. Neither of us tries to end it. Livianna maintains an unwavering gaze directly upon me. Her facial expression, which she employs when a conversation has reached its definitive end, is firmly set.
Fuck that. I glare back because I’m not done, and she knows it.
Her phone lights up on the island. She clocks it before I do.
Her chin drops toward it for half a second, and then she pulls her eyes back to mine as if she’s deciding something. The phone buzzes again.
I gesture to it. “You should get that.”
“I will.” She reaches across the island and wraps her hand around it without breaking eye contact. Her face gives me nothing when she reads the screen. “I have to take this.”
“Go ahead.”
She turns her back to me and answers. “Hello.”
I stay where I am against the island with my arms crossed and my jaw locked, noticing the set of her shoulders without being able to read a single thing from them. Her posture shifts in a way that tells me whoever is on the other end of that call isn’t just anybody.
“Yes, I’m fine.” She takes a pause. “No, I promise. I just woke up.”
Her voice drops half a register. Not enough to hide from me, but enough to tell me she doesn’t want to have this conversation in the middle of the kitchen with my icy glare on her back.
Too bad.
“I understand.” She turns slightly, not enough to face me, just enough to angle away. “That’s not a good time. Can we push it out by two hours?”
I keep my arms crossed and wait.
“No.” She moves her hair over her shoulder. “Not today.”
Whoever it is doesn’t seem to accept that answer. She shifts her weight and drops her head forward. Her entire body changes shape, pulling inward, taking on something that seems too close to the weight you carry for someone who matters.
“I said I need more time.” Her voice firms. “Please give me until this afternoon.”
The call ends after a short goodbye. She sets the phone down on the island, takes one long breath, and turns back to face me.
I don’t move. “Who was that?”
“Someone from work.” She reaches for her coffee mug.
“Which someone?”
If she says Jaxon, I’m gonna lose it. I’ve got way too much going on to deal with him pining over her.
She takes a slow sip before answering. “Someone I need to deal with this afternoon.”
“Who?”
“Callum.” She sets her coffee down. “Can we finish one argument before you start another?”
“I’m not starting anything.” I step toward her. “We’re finishing what you walked away from.”
She tilts her chin up and holds her ground. Nothing.
“Who called you, Lily?”
She shrugs. “Nobody you need to worry about.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“What can I say, Callum? You’re looking for a fight this morning instead of actually trying to communicate with me like a grown adult.”
I stand a few inches away from her. “Try again, love.”
“Callum.” She steps back. “It was a work call on a Tuesday morning. That’s all it was.”
“Name.”
She plants her hands on her hips. “You’re being unreasonable.”
“I’m being direct. There’s a difference.” I drag my teeth over my lower lip. “Who was on the phone, Livianna?”
The silence stretches out long enough to have its own weight. She stares at me, jaw set, and I stare back. Neither of us moves until something behind her eyes shifts just enough to tell me she’s done calculating.
“For fuck’s sake, Livianna. It’s not that hard of a question.”
“Fine.” She lifts her chin. “It was Jaxon.”
The name lands in the center of my chest and burns there.
“Jaxon.” My heart rate speeds up, but I keep myself as level as I can. “Your mentor calls you on a Tuesday morning before you’ve had your first cup of coffee?”
“He’s thorough.” She doesn’t flinch. “You know that.”
“It’s not even eight o’clock.”
“You know I start my day early, and so does Jaxon.”
“That doesn’t give him the right to call you when you’re not at work.”
“Oh, and now you’re trying to dictate what time people can get a hold of me.” She rolls her shoulders back.
I stand taller. “That’s not what I’m doing.”
“What’s your problem with Jaxon? He’s been giving me time he probably doesn’t have just to help me save my company. Why is that an issue, Callum?”
“From what I can tell, this man’s presence in your life exceeds what any typical business arrangement would call for.” I shouldn’t say what I’m about to, but I have little impulse control right now. “Is there more to it than just him helping you?”