He grabs my phone from the nightstand and punches a series of buttons before laying it back down. “I deleted my number, and I’ll also delete yours from mine. We’ll just pretend we never met. By the time your vacation is over, you won’t even remember my name.”
“Wes, you’re being ridiculous. Would you just sit down and talk to me for a minute? I’m sure there’s a better way to handle this, but you have to be willing to trust me.”
“I couldn’t ever trust you.”
My mouth falls open, and I have a nearly uncontrollable urge to slap the shit out of him.
“I wish you the best, Callie.” He shuts the door softly, and his footsteps fade away down the stairs.
“WHAT THE HELL happened last night, Callie?” Makenna stands over me with her hands fisted at her hips.
I rub my eyes and squint up at her. “I’d love to tell you, but first you have to give me some clue of what you’re talking about.”
“Let’s start with this.” She shoves a folded slip of paper in my face.
I can see the shadow of words scrawled on the inside, and I have a feeling this isn’t good. I could easily bet a million dollars that I know who wrote this note.
Yep. I was right.
Shane,
Something came up with work, and I need to get back and take care of it. Since you don’t have anything else going on right now, I thought it would be good for you to stay here this week and hang out with Makenna, and you can just ride back with her. There’s not any sense in you only staying the weekend because of me. Sorry for having to bail on you in the middle of the night, but I doubt you’ll miss me. I’m sure Mak is much better company. Call me when you get back next weekend, and we’ll make plans to hang out.
Love you little bro,
W
“Well, if I had to guess, it looks like he had something come up at work, and needed to get back. It’s not unusual for him to work on the weekend.”
She plops onto the side of the bed. “Nice try. Tell me what really happened.”
I stare at her for a moment, deciding how many details I’m willing to part with. “Okay. Your scheme bombed big time, and I owe you a good reaming. But right now, I’d rather sleep, so pencil me in for later today.”
“Callie, I’m not stupid. I saw how you two acted yesterday, so I can’t believe for a second that it didn’t work. But I know something happened last night that freaked him out. Just tell me.”
“Are you both looking for someone to blame?” I sit up and throw my hands into the air. “Because Wesley Baxter sure as hell couldn’t possibly do anything wrong. Wesley Baxter can be a complete asshole and everyone just has pity on him instead of making him act like a damn adult and stop throwing temper tantrums. Wesley Baxter can treat people like shit because he’s been through a few rough patches in his life. That makes it totally forgivable. So, fine, I’ll be the damn scapegoat. I’m the jerk who tried to see through the bullshit and tried to make him fight for his own happiness. Somehow, through all of this nonsense, I’m the one who seems to be falling in love with the stupid bastard, and he’s too self-centered to even see it. Not that he’d care anyway because I’m not trustworthy. To sum it all up, Makenna, you can point your finger at me. He left because of me.”
Tears are welling up in her eyes, and her bottom lip is quivering. “Callie, I—I’m sorry. Wes is a good person, and he doesn’t mean to—”
“Stop right there. I can’t listen to any more excuses for his behavior. He’s a grown man, and he needs to grow a pair. Life sometimes sucks ass, and it hurts like hell. But when it knocks you down, you stand back up and dare it to knock you down again. And when it does, you get up again and spit right in life’s stupid face. Until you and Shane can see that he needs to grow the hell up, I don’t have anything else to say to either of you. I’m so over this crap.”
She jumps up and runs from the room, slamming the door shut on her way out. I can hear Shane asking her what’s wrong when she makes it downstairs, and I’m sure she’s telling him everything I just said about his brother. Bet that’ll make him just adore me.
Good, now I’m the one being an ass to everyone. Oh, well. If they’re going to accuse me of making Wes leave, I might as well get the satisfaction of earning it.
Almost two days down of this lovely vacation and five more to go. Awesome.
LONGEST WEEK OF my life. Without a doubt.
Imagine yourself at a beautiful beach house for a week with your best friend. There’s this gorgeous, mostly secluded beach and all kinds of neat restaurants and shops to go to. But you don’t go anywhere and don’t have anyone to talk to because everyone is giving you the silent treatment. Yeah, it’s been like that.