Page 56 of Base Block

“Shh!” Callum told him. “Rainey’s sleeping. Quiet.”

I could tell that he was trying to speak quietly himself, but he wasn’t great at that. When I walked out of my bedroom, both of them jumped.

“I told him not to wake you up,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

“I need to train him better. How was your trip?”

“Long,” he said, and the word turned into a yawn. “Good game, though.”

“It was great!”

He got a glass of water and swallowed it in one gulp. “I can’t ever get comfortable on that plane and go to sleep. It’s not that the seats are too small or a lack of legroom. It’s being so far above the ground.”

There were things he could have taken for that, but I didn’t suggest them. “I could rub your back,” I said instead.

“I’ll never say no to that, but don’t you need to sleep, too?” he asked.

That wasn’t happening anyway, so after we managed to quiet the dog, we trailed into the other bedroom. Callum stripped off his shirt and dropped the pants that I’d picked out for him, then fell face-first onto the mattress. The frame groaned.

“The next thing we have to buy is a big-ass bed, one where I don’t have to sleep diagonal,” he said. He had mentioned that before and I was in total agreement. I wanted him to be comfortable. “We could get a king-sized. Or is there one bigger?”

“I don’t know.” I started to rub and he also groaned.

“Hell. That’s so good.”

It did feel better that he was home. My heart had stopped pounding hard with what must have been anxiety. Victoria would show Beau, and he was my boss. People on the Woodsmen followed us, and they would see. All of them would see. And I couldn’t stop wondering what else was out there. I remembered some terrible stuff, and if Sage wanted to post that, too? How could I stop her?

“Hey.” His voice interrupted my thoughts. “Do you want to tell me now? I know that something’s wrong and it doesn’t seem minor.”

I stopped rubbing and put my face on his back, closing my eyes. “Sage posted a picture of me. She tagged our account and even though I got that removed, it was attached to you.”

“So?”

“So, I look high and my boobs are hanging out. And if she had one picture, then she has more.”

He started to turn over and I sat up. “So?” he repeated.

“All the people who follow us can see it,” I said.

“They’re mostly strangers.”

“The ones who aren’t strangers are people from the team, your coworkers and their families. Your bosses. I have a boss, too, and clients who could see it.”

“Everybody has dumb stuff in their past. How bad is it?”

I showed him and he sat up, scrutinizing the image. The screen glowed in the dark room. “Hell,” he said.

“I know. Millie didn’t use this because of how ugly I looked.”

“No, you’re not ugly. But you’re so skinny and pale,” Callum said.

I nodded. “I’m like a hag. I never used to care, though. I never bothered with how I looked unless Damian got mad about it.” I hadn’t cared about myself at all.

“You look like you were sick. It reminds me of when I first saw you.”

I nodded again, more miserable. “I’m sorry. Sage has been threatening me—”

“What?”