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Callum stared back at her, unimpressed. “You’re my sister. You called me on my personal phone. You didn’t sign a retainer, much less pay my fee.”
“I assumed it was pro bono.”
“I asked you to keep this between us,” I said to the side of her face.
She set her jaw. One thing that she and Callum had in common was their stubbornness. “And I told you I would help you.”
“Help with what?” Callum asked. He didn’t look surprised to find out that the help Renee was asking for was actually for me. I wondered how much he knew about Jason Cain.
The idea made my eyes narrow sharply. It was bad enough that I couldn’t forget the way that asshole had put his hands on me. I didn’t want anyone else imagining it. Feeling sorry for me.Shining up their white knight armor and polishing off their old motto:I told you so.
“Help with nothing.” I clipped my words short. A sharp staccato. If it was a song, I’d be plucking the guitar strings instead of strumming. I pushed away my uneaten burger and stood up. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have just shown up out of nowhere. I’ll leave.”
“Wait a second,” Renee said angrily, pushing her chair back too.
“Where are you going?” Callum stood up too.
The siblings’ voices climbed over each other, but I was rapidly putting distance between me and them. I was halfway through the living room before they circled the table to follow me. I was pulling open the front door while they were still putting on their shoes. And I was out in the driveway before I remembered I didn’t have a way to leave.
A long internal cry offuuuuuuckechoed in my head as I considered my limited options. I could go back and look like a damn fool, or I could keep storming off. The second option wasn’t great. Unless I wanted to walk all the way back to the bus stop, I wasn’t going to get far.
Still, I was too mad at Renee for ratting me out to her big brother to admit defeat, so I started off in the direction of the Hellmont Springs sign. It was about a half mile walk to the entrance of the neighborhood, and maybe another five miles to the main drag that divided the town in half. I couldn’t quite picture it, but surely there was some seedy hotel tucked in next to the Wal Mart or behind the Exxon station.
I hadn’t gotten far when I heard the footsteps. They were too heavy to be Renee, and she knew better than to come after mebefore I’d cooled off anyway. I tossed a glare over my shoulder at the tall, imposing figure behind me. “Go back home, Callum.”
He was too well-bred these days to sneer like I remembered him doing when he was seventeen, before he started dating Emma Harding of the Waterford Village Hardings. Still, I caught a trace of it in his voice when he said, “This isn’t my home, Quinn. I’m here because Renee said you needed help.”
“Bullshit. You’re here because you couldn’t pick up your own damn kid on time.”
Callum’s green eyes hardened. He didn’t like that. Callum had never liked anyone noticing that he wasn’t perfect. I could see him debating what to throw in my face. The fact that his wife had died and therefore he didn’t have help? The fact he was the youngest partner in his law firm and therefore he wasbusy? But no, I could see him decide. He wasn’t going to fight with me. That’s what I wanted.
“If you don’t want my help, I’ll go.”
“I don’t want your help,” I said immediately.
“Fine.” Callum stopped dead.
I stopped, too, and rounded on him. He didn’t look disheveled, never that. But the unexpected chase and the argument had his chest rising and falling faster than before. His mouth was a hard line from holding back all the things he wanted to say, his brows slanted together in a way that belied his calm tone and made him look almost angry.
Even though I was still riding high on my own righteous fury, I had the weird urge to see Callum react. To see his carefully controlled composure crumble.
Callum decided this conversation was over and turned on his heel. “The nearest hotel is ten miles away,” he called over his shoulder.
“I’ll sleep in the tree house,” I called back.
“Great. See you around, Quinn. Glad you don’t need help after all.”
His voice was sarcastic in that last part, like he was so sure that I needed him. It made me want to take my flip flops off and throw them at the back of his perfect head. The only thing that stopped me was the fact he was right. I did need him. I needed all the friends I could get right now, especially friends with entertainment law degrees.
Callum was nearly back at the driveway before the huge lump that was my pride finally went down my throat and I began walking after him.
“Wait.”
He turned, as I knew he would. Callum might be pissed at me. He might think I was the same teenage idiot I was when I left. But he would never leave me hanging.
“Maybe I need a little help.” My steps slowed as I reached him, but I didn’t stop until we were almost toe to toe. “I can pay.”
A quick, irritated head shake. “You’re family.”
