6. Callie Rae
Callie Rae
I suggested six o’clock knowing Jesse’s attending a networking event tonight. My palms are molded to the steering wheel, working to slip the Range Rover inside the white lines.
The black matte and natural wood of the building peeks behind the large planters I’m parked in front of. I push the engine stop button, then flip the visor down to inspect my appearance.
My hands tousle the soft curls of my hair. I smooth the frayed pieces, adjusting the lapels of my denim jacket right after. I connect the pad of my finger to my slick lips, gently rubbing the berry lip gloss I applied earlier.
In hindsight, I probably should’ve changed out of my work clothes. But I spent too many minutes imagining every possible direction this conversation could go. By the time I exhaled a substantial breath, my nerves were too chewed at to care.
And I needed to leave to meet Brant.
Needed?
Or wanted?
I blow a breath out, snapping the visor back in place. Reaching over the console, I grab my crossbody to exit the car.
My head whips when I skate my stare across the parking lot. In the near distance, I catch Brant calmly strolling up to my Range Rover. His long legs trek along the blacktop, hands concealed in his jeans pockets. He struts through his masculinity, his head casually poking around. Unfazed.
Confident.
Cool.
Grown.
I swallow thickly, swinging the door out before my stilettos hit the ground.
“H-hi,” I say as I stand.
He palms the metal frame of the door, caging me in on one side. “Hi.”
I almost cower, thrown off by his deep tenor. He inhales just as my chin tilts toward him, and I barely recognize the man staring back at me.
Man.
We’re locked in place for a beat. Our eyes give nothing away as they sink into one another. But the energy is fired up. Ready to dismantle and destroy everything I thought I knew on this side.
My breath shortens, and I drop my gaze out of fear.
“You didn’t bail on me,” he finally states.
My chin sweeps up, the woody scent of his cologne flipping my belly. “I wouldn’t have suggested this place if I was gonna bail on you,” I murmur softly, pinching my stare. “That’s just silly.”
I skate my eyes down the length of him, chest inflating before I land on his face again. I’m not sure what I expect, but it’s not the intensity settled into his scruffy jaw.
A panicked breath slips from me. My chest only loosens when I catch his gentle eyes, and I finally step away.
Brant latches the door in place just as I glance at the tinted sky. The last golden rays of the day wisp across the cerulean canopy. Then I spin with the nudge of the crisp air.
“Your hair is short,” I blurt.
I shed a faint smile, my hand waving around his face.
“I haven’t seen it like this since we were thirteen. But now …” A nervous snicker leaves me before I gesture a finger to his jaw. “Now, you have all this facial hair. I-it’s so different.”
A smirk crawls over his lips, his eyes sinking past my shoulders. “Your hair is longer.”
I breathily laugh as my chin dips. My fingertips play with the ends of my locks, and I decide it’s safer to keep my attention here.
“Yeah, I’m not sure what I think of it just yet. I haven’t had time for a haircut recently. Between my job and keeping up with the house, I hardly have time to do anything nowadays. I know it needs a good trim, I swear I do. I just haven—”
“I like it, Callie.”
My head perks up when my name rolls off his tongue. Tears knock the rear wall of my eyes, my chest slackening as the crook of his mouth curls up. And before I can ingest my next breath, I’m crashing into his arms.
I glue my cheek to his steel chest when he squishes me against him, and a single tear wrings free.
I’m free.
I’m free.
It’s like being liberated from an iron cage you could never break yourself out of. For ten years, I’ve been punished. Forced to tread the waters of our hiatus, never knowing when or if I was ever going to swim out of it.
But I finally have.
I’m home.
He found me.
Just like he said he would.
My eyes flutter closed when his rough palm cradles the back of my head. It’s not a provocative stroke, but a soothing one as his digits caress my scalp.
He always fixed me with a simple touch, and I guess it’s true what they say.
Some things never change.
“As much as I want to hold you, we should probably go inside.” His lips graze the hair at the top of my head. He inhales, and a shiver trickles down my spine. “I’ve been waiting to ask you a lot of things. Been waiting to listen to everything you have to tell me,” he murmurs.
I grin, nodding through a sniffle. “Yeah, okay. That sounds good. Really good.”