16. Caleb
Chapter sixteen
“Burning the midnight oil, OG?”
I look over my glasses to find Isabelle leaning against my office door.
“James Huxley approved the new plans for Smoke and Barrel. The commercial building company Mason recommended can get started now. I’ve just sent the all-clear to Gage, he’s already got the contact details for the company.” I lean back in my chair, tossing the glasses on my desk.
Isabelle drops into the chair opposite me with an assessing gaze, fiddling with the pink stone hanging around her neck.
“What was the final verdict on the chandeliers?”
I chuckle. “No wagon wheels.”
“Gage must be getting excited,” she says with a small smile.
An amused snort escapes me. “I’m not sure Gage knows how to get excited.”
Isabelle shifts in her chair, cheeks reddening, but I don’t have the energy to think too hard on it. The last week has wreaked havoc on my brain. I’ve come to refer to my life as before Lex and after Lex.
Before Lex, my mind was focused on business and family.
My life was neat and organised. I knew where I was going and how I was getting there.
After Lex, I can’t stay focused to save my life, and yesterday I came to work wearing different coloured socks.
I’m a fucking mess and I can’t figure out why she has this hold on me.
“Are those cufflinks meant to be mismatched?” I look down at my wrists, where Isabelle is pointing. One light blue shirt sleeve is pinched together with a silver square bearing a H monogram, the other with a black heart.
“Fuck!” I bury my head in my hands, leaning my elbows on the desk.
“You’ve seemed distracted lately, OG. Is there anything I can help with?”
I drag my hands down my face, resting my chin in my palms as I study Isabelle’s receptive gaze. Maybe talking will help my scrambled thoughts.
“I met a woman.”
She smiles. “Go on.”
My fingers drum against my cheek as I inhale deeply and unleash the weight that’s been pushing down on me.
“She was different. I’m used to women throwing themselves at me, and I’m constantly pushing back, reminding them I’m not in it for anything more than a night.
With Lex, I couldn’t get enough, she was so responsive and”—I pause, hunting for the words—“genuine. It wasn’t just bodies getting lost in mutual satisfaction, it was free-falling.
Her hand in mine, and just letting go. She didn’t know I was a Heart.
I think she’s the first person to look at me as Caleb.
She must have heard about my reputation or something, though, cos once she filled in the blanks, she pulled away.
” I laced my hands behind my head. “I just don’t know how to let go of it. ”
“Why can’t you pursue something with her?” she says, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world.
“Well.” I chuckle. “For starters, I don’t have her number.
I met her at The Wayside, and she hasn’t come back.
I know because I’ve been sitting like a loser at the bar most nights since we met.
She came back once, but later that night, her friend recognised me, and that’s when she shut down.
” I stand up, walking over to the bar cart set up in the corner and pour myself a drink.
When I sit down on one of the couches, Isabelle joins me at the other.
“I know where she lives, but it feels like crossing a line to show up at her house. She said it was just fun, so I’m sure she’s moved on, but I don’t get the impression that was usual behaviour for her.” I take a deep breath. “Besides, I don’t date.”
“Just because you haven’t dated before, doesn’t mean you can’t start now. Maybe you were just waiting for the right person to make you want that.”
Her words mimic the thoughts that have crossed my mind over the last week.
For the first time, I don’t want my usual interaction with a woman, I want more.
I just don’t know how to go about it when I know she won’t come back to Gage’s bar so that I can tell her she’s different.
Any assumptions she made about me and my past, they don’t apply to her.
Maybe I should do something to let her know I’m thinking about her and would be open to something.
Fuck, I don’t even know how to navigate something like this.
I’m not this guy. Maybe her friend, Claire, will show up at The Wayside again, and I can ask her to pass on a message.
Ugh, that’s so high school. I feel like a fucking mess right now.
“Oh, I forgot to mention I had lunch with Kate in accounts today. She was trying to find who to send an invoice to for approval before we took off, and I didn’t recognise the name either.
It was for Connors Construction. We managed to find the site address as one of Tenley Callahan’s buildings, but I don’t have any projects with her for that site. ”
“You can approve that, or send it to me, that’s, ah, that’s a personal project.”
“A beauty salon?” Damn her attention to detail.
“When I couldn’t find them in our system, I called the company. There was a burst pipe, and a gentleman by the name of Trevor was told to send all invoices to us. ”
“Yep, that’s right.” I walk back over to my desk, putting my glass of whiskey on the coaster beside my mouse.
Deflecting the conversation, I bring up my emails, noticing a new one pop up from Dylan Morgan. He and his sister have accepted my invitation to Gage’s gathering at the casino next week, where we’ll run through our contract and sample the whiskey he has for Gage.
I hear Isabelle blow out a breath and start to make her way towards the door. “Just make a move, OG. What have you got to lose?”
With the way my world has already been turned upside down by her, potentially everything.
“A restraining order would look pretty bad for my reputation if I just start showing up uninvited to people’s houses.”
Isabelle pauses, one hand on the doorknob, the other pulls her woven handbag further up her shoulder. Her blonde curls are tied up with a bright pink scarf today. “You’ve been invited over before, though?”
I roll my lips together and nod.
“I think you’re just scared to make a move. Scared to put yourself out there.” She opens the door and starts to head out. “I think you’d rather run into her somewhere neutral and see what she says or does. Because if you want it more than her, you’ll feel like you’ve failed at something.”
My heart races at Isabelle’s words. Is that what this is?
I’m scared to put myself out there in case it doesn’t go my way?
I’m invested and I don’t want it to fail.
It makes sense, the way Isabelle puts things.
It’s why we get along so well. She understands me, and for that, I trust her.
I still don’t know what to do about it, though.
“So, how—”
“Maybe you should visit a beauty salon.” She smiles, her cherub pink cheeks bubbling with the motion.
“I knew there was a reason I hired you.” I smile back .
“Because I’m full of good ideas?”
“No. You’re just good.”
She gives me a wobbly smile. “Thanks, OG. See you tomorrow.”
Isabelle leaves, and I go back to my dizzying thoughts of Lex.
Drumming my fingers against the desk, I look back at my computer.
Dylan Morgan’s email is still sitting there.
Underneath his name is the logo for his tavern, an anchor with the name Jedidiah’s written in what looks like rope.
And just below that, slightly smaller, is a trident.
The letters LM are written over the staff.
It must be a simplified version of the Legacy Malt logo.
But it just makes me think of Lex. The little trident tattoo on her shoulder.
I wonder what it means to her. All her little nautical tattoos. She told me she uses the beach by her house every day. A true siren called to the water. It makes me smile, easing the tension in my stomach. Thoughts of her confuse me in the same way they settle me.
Going anywhere near her house is too bold. She already told me she won’t be back at The Wayside. So that leaves only one choice: I need to go back to that beauty salon.