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“Come on then.” With a tilt of my head, I stood. Cake in one hand and daughter in the other, we headed slowly toward the park’s entrance. My mind ran quickly through dinner options, finding that I wanted to impress Callie. Even if it was just to take her mind off of her mother for a little longer.
But when we reached the gate, I noticed the sounds of her heels had fallen off slightly. Ushering Marie through the gate, I glanced back to see Callie had stopped in the middle of the path and was scrolling rapidly through her phone.
Whatever she saw made her face fall drastically. The sight was like a physical punch to my heart, and pain lanced through my chest. I moved behind Marie, not wanting her to see Callie’s face.
Something was wrong.
And I had a terrible feeling she wasn’t going to share.
16
CALLIE
In one text, my unexpectedly lovely afternoon with Liam had soured.
Walking out of the part, Eli Talbot had sent one text that left my heart pounding and each breath scraping in my ears.
ELI: I’ll be calling you tomorrow, Callie. After you’ve celebrated your mother’s birthday. It’s about time we talked about arranging your repayment.
I shouldn’t have been surprised that he knew my mother’s birthday; after all, he was rich enough to know everything about me. Still, it was cold and slimy to think of him going anywhere near her, and I did what I could to put those thoughts out of my mind. It was more difficult than I was prepared for, especially since Liam noticed.
Not long after we entered his penthouse, he sent Marie off to wash up from the park and cornered me in the kitchen.
“Callie?”
“Mhm?” Being near him was so surreal. There was a strange disconnect between my desire to be with him, Kane, and Sawyer and what my life was turning out to be with Eli. One felt like a dream but I couldn’t decide if they were the dream or Eli was the nightmare. Waking up would risk losing one of them, and I couldn’t choose.
“What’s wrong?”
I turned my back on him and slid the birthday cake for my mother into his fridge. “Nothing, I’m good.”
“Are you sure?” Liam didn’t touch me but his presence lingered behind me, a comforting warmth that I wanted to sink into but couldn’t. It was too risky.
“Yes, I’m sure.” Fixing my best fake smile onto my face, I closed the door and spun around. “Honestly.”
“You didn’t look fine when we were leaving the park. You looked like someone had given you terrible news.” His brows pinched together and his boyish good looks turned serious. “Is there anything you need?”
Once again, the urge to come clean rose up like vomit. Could I tell Liam? He had a wild past and had been reckless in his youth. Maybe he would understand more than Sawyer would. Then again, he had a child to think about. Marie would come first, and my truth would be a one-stop ticket on the crazy train.
I wouldn’t want to be around myself, and if I were him, I definitely wouldn’t want my child around someone who had gained the weird attention of Eli Talbot.
“I’m just hungry.” Not a total lie. “It’s been a long day, and all this stuff with my Mom just has me hoping for a really good day tomorrow, that’s all.”
Liam didn’t look like he believed me, and even though his attention finally broke away from me, the worry remained in his eyes.
“If you’re sure,” he said softly. “You know you can talk to me.”
“I know.” My fake smile wavered. He was so nice—too nice—and I didn’t deserve it. Instead, I focused on Bianca’s theory that whatever Eli asked for couldn’t be that bad. Maybe it would even be something easy, and then my mother’s care would be secure.
“Daddy!” The tension broke as Marie came running into the kitchen with her cheeks pink from scrubbing. “I’m starving!”
And just like that, we moved on.
Sorting dinner was far more fun than I expected. We debated lightly amongst ourselves about what everyone was hungry for. Liam was easy, while Marie wanted Lasagna. Sadly, a good one would take far too long to make, so we went for something much easier: spaghetti with a meat sauce and more cheese than anyone should be allowed to eat.
Liam was in charge of the meat sauce while Marie and I worked on the pasta. With permission, I showed her how to test if the pasta was ready by throwing it at the white tiles on the wall to see if it would stick. More spaghetti than was needed ended up on the wall, but Marie’s laughter made it all worth it. Even more so when she launched a few strands at her father and a messy food fight broke out.
In the end, we had to boil a second batch of spaghetti, and I was still finding strands in my hair by the time we grated a boatload of cheese to go on top.
