Page 65 of Untroubled Heart

Liv scoffs. “These are my go-to brownies. I could make them with my eyes closed.”

“Ohhh, let’s blindfold you!” Maevyn claps, running out of the room, heading in the direction of my bedroom.

I take a few deep breaths before I look at Mason’s messages again.

@i.heart.mason: too far?

@i.heart.mason: Callie?

@itscallie: I wasn’t expecting that! I just had to lie to the girls so they didn’t question why I screamed.

@i.heart.mason: *laughing-face-emoji* sorry. I can’t help myself around you.

@itscallie: you’re not around me right now, so behave!

@i.heart.mason: but it’s sooo hard *smirk-emoji*

@itscallie: Mason!

@i.heart.mason: Fine! I’ll behave, but just know it really is hard. And I’m not trying to be funny now, it’s hard to keep my thoughts straight when you’re around because i do really like you

I rub at my chest, his words filling me with an ache that’s bred from want, confusion, desire, uncertainty … hope.

@itscallie: i really like you too

But where does that leave us?

Chapter twenty-three

I’ve been replaying what happened at the house with Callie yesterday ever since we were interrupted.

I’ve been with a lot of girls, but I actually haven’t spent a lot of time on foreplay. Not on someone else, at least. I’ve been the recipient because women have always fallen to their knees for me. I don’t think I was a selfish lover, but my previous partners and I just had different priorities at the time. Getting off. That was the start, middle, and end of it. There was a baser need to fulfil, but it wasn’t this primal urge to devour them. With Callie, I needed her all around me. I needed to drown in her, and just one taste wasn’t enough. One kiss. One touch.

The way I wanted her was so entrenched in my veins, I could have torn the skin off my bones just to have her, and now I can’t think straight.

It’s why I’ve been circling her block for the better part of an hour, and now that the sun’s gone down, I’m concerned I’ve entered stalker territory, but I can’t get myself to turn off the car and knock on her door.

My heart was in my throat last night, when we were messaging and I told her I liked her. There was nothing at stake the last time I dated. It was easy to move on when my high school girlfriend said she only wanted money and status. With Callie, though, it is not just my feelings at risk, but her security. There’s no way she’d continue working for me if we crossed that line and it all turned to shit. But I’ve never had these kinds of feelings for anyone else.

I didn’t even think it was a remote possibility to feel this way. I’d worry I was obsessed if it weren’t for the fact that my brothers look, talk, and act the same way about their wives.

Somehow, that scares me more.

What if Callie doesn’t feel the same? What if it’s just a crush on her side? A fleeting moment of fun? I don’t know how to trust the way she makes me feel seen, makes me feel brave enough to be reckless and vulnerable, but at the same time, I can’t ignore it.

I pass the end of her driveway yet again. There’s a single light on upstairs, and more light coming through a window on the ground floor. I feel marginally better that I didn’t have to peek into our employee records for her address, already knowing she lives in her brother’s house and that he lives next door with his girlfriend, Maevyn. I’ve been to Westley’s house once or twice before Callie lived in the city when I invited him, Lee, and Tristan to a football game. I have a weird talent for remembering how to find places I’ve only been to once before, and birthdays, but I’ll forget every meeting on my calendar.

Slipping into a parking spot along a park just up the road from Callie’s, I realise I can’t make this decision on my own.

ME:

I might be about to make a mistake, but I can’t find it in me to stop…

My head flops against the seat as I exhale a tight breath, waiting for one of my siblings to reply.

BETH:

I’ve told you a thousand times, you won’t pull off blond. Back away from the bleach.