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He reached over and tugged on a strand of my hair. “I would get arrested for you … again.”
“I don’t think your parents or board members would appreciate that.” I would for sure get fired at that rate. No way would the Grangers tolerate such a scandal.
“I don’t give a damn.”
“Yes you do. You like your lifestyle, and there is nothing wrong with that.”
“Calista, you don’t know how much I’ve regretted walking away from you. The money. My possessions. None of it has made me happy. You and Quinn make me happy.”
I shook my head. “There’s no way you can know that. You’re just emotional right now because it’s the holidays and your brother just died. You’re talking crazy.” I couldn’t get sucked in, as much as I wanted to believe him.
He pressed a finger to my lips. “This has nothing to do with Jonathon. You saw the tattoo. My ranch and cabin. You have to see how much I’ve thought of you over the years.”
I didn’t want to see any of those things, but unfortunately, they were flashing as brightly in my mind as the neon payday loan sign we were parked under. “Please, just let me hate you,” I half pleaded, half teased. But really, it would make my life a whole lot easier if he could just be a jerk.
His finger dropped. “You can hate me for as long as you need to.”
I was kind of thinking like forever. Maybe. Probably. For sure possibly.
CALISTA
I CHANNELED MY MOM AND sat at the kitchen table, waiting for Stella to get home. I’d tracked her phone all night, only sleeping for short stretches while she did who knew what with the handsy man. They’d practically turned into snowmen while groping each other outside the motel. Then they left in her car and went through a drugstore drive-through to pick up an order. Hopefully it contained a lot of contraception. After that, they headed for the lake. We needed to pick up Quinn, so we didn’t follow them. Not that we wanted to. No telling what they were going to do in her car. All I knew was she had better sanitize it before she took Quinn to school.
The longer she stayed out, the angrier I got. While I loved parenting Quinn, I wasn’t her mother. I was supposed to be the fun aunt she got in trouble with. Stella was better than this, and I was going to call her out on this behavior before heading to the hospital for my shift. I didn’t care if she got angry at me for spying on her. Besides, I was the one who got tortured during the process by my charming ex doing his best to prove how wonderful he could be. He’d helped me keep a level head last night, and when I’d gotten too wound up, he’d turned up the radio and made me sing a Christmas song with him. We ended up talking—a lot. I recounted every year of med school and each rotation I did until I decided on emergency medicine. Tristan seemed fascinated by it all.
You know what fascinated me? How freaking unprincipled I was. Going back on the sock promise was like a gateway drug to me. Oh, and was I ever careening toward the gateway. If this kept up, Tristan and I would find ourselves getting really cozy for Christmas. But I had to resist, even if yesterday had been one of the best days I’d had in a long time too. Well, minus all the gross PDA and worrying whether my sister was a call girl. Other than that, it was pretty much perfect. But Tristan didn’t need to know that.
I picked my phone up off the table to check the time. I had to leave in thirty minutes. Plenty of time to ream my sister, who according to the app should arrive any second now.
While I waited, I admired the tree in the great room, glowing in the dark with all our handmade ornaments. A lot of love had gone into it. I looked at the angel on top, hoping to glean some wisdom from my dearly departed mother about what I should say to Stella. Maybe even some insight on how to deal with Tristan. I think I knew what she would say concerning Tristan. When your heart has reasons not even reason can make sense of, it’s called love.
I knew my heart had its reasons for loving him. Good ones, even. But our past didn’t make reconciliation reasonable. At all. In fact, it would make me a fool.
The beep of the keypad outside the kitchen door made me jump. I sat up authoritatively, ready to confront Stella.
She tiptoed in like a teenager who’d stayed out way past her curfew.
I crossed my arms, judging her messed-up hair and wrinkled clothes. “Hello,” I said smoothly, yet sinisterly.
She screeched and grabbed her heart. “What are you doing?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Waiting up to make sure you got home so Quinn will have a ride to school. You do remember that she goes back to school today, right?”
She ran a hand through her wild hair. “Yeah, of course.” She was a terrible liar.
I shook my head at her in disgust. “What’s going on with you?”
“Nothing.” She hustled off.
Oh, no. I wasn’t letting her run anymore. “I followed you last night. What the hell were you doing at Red Box Motel?”
She spun around, her nostrils flaring like a raging bull. “How dare you follow me!”
“Believe me, it wasn’t a pleasure cruise, watching you go at it with that guy in the parking lot. Did he pay you for your services?”
Her jaw dropped to the floor. “You think I’m a prostitute?”
“It has crossed my mind. What other reason would you have for going to such a disgusting place?”
