She picked up her purse and fished out her keys.
“Can’t the ‘thing’ wait?” he asked.
She looked at him for a long beat. “No. The thing can’t wait.”
Call him slow, but he was finally getting that something was truly, seriously wrong. He sat up. “Did I hurt you?”
“Just now?”
He’d missed something. Something big. He got out of the bed. “Or ever,” he said. “Let’s start with that.”
She shook her head. “Definitely don’t have time for this.”
He caught her wrist. “Make time.”
“I have to go.”
He was getting that loud and clear. He was also getting that he’d fucked something up big time. “It’s important,” he said.
“I have to go,” she repeated.
“Later then. Today. We’ve got to take a group out for deep sea fishing, but I’ll be back by three. I’ll take you out on the water for sunset and then dinner.”
“A date?” she asked in a surprised voice, and regret hit him like a one-two punch to the solar plexus. Because of their work schedules and caring for Troy, most of his and Callie’s time together had been late at night in bed. “Yes,” he said, promising himself he was going to convince her that they could do better. That on top of that, they could actually work. “A date. I’ll pick you up by five the latest.”
She didn’t look impressed, but he couldn’t tell if that was disinterest or something else in her eyes.
“Please,” he said.
Another long assessing gaze and he did his best to look like something she couldn’t live without.
“I’ll meet you on the docks,” she finally said. “At five.”
And then she was gone.
Chapter 26
That afternoon Callie sat at her grandma’s kitchen table. She was simultaneously inhaling the cookies her grandma had gotten from the bakery earlier and watching the clock.
“You late for something?” Lucille asked.
“Nope.”
“You have a date with your hottie?”
“I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that if I do, everything I say will be used against me on a social media platform,” Callie said.
Lucille grinned. “You do have a date.” She clapped her hands together, clearly pleased as punch. “You two have decided to make a go of it. Am I right? Tell me I’m right!”
“Not entirely, you nosy woman. I’m merely meeting him at the dock at five.”
“For a date.”
“A small date,” Callie corrected.
“To make a go of it?” Lucille repeated.
“I don’t know.” Callie hesitated. “I want to, but—”
“No but! That sentence should start and end with ‘I want to.’”
“He doesn’t think of me in that way,” Callie said.
“Bullshit.”
“Grandma!”
“I’m serious, Callie,” Lucille said, and to prove it she even put down her cookie and leaned in, eyes solemn. “I’ve seen the way he looks at you.”
“Like I’m an amusement?”
“Like the sun rises and sets in your eyes.”
Callie blew out a breath. “He introduced me as Callie.”
“Well, honey, last I checked that was your name.”
Callie closed her eyes. She knew this sounded dumb. “Sam introduced Becca as his wife-to-be. Cole introduced Olivia as his girlfriend. Tanner then introduced me as just Callie.”
Lucille looked at her for a long beat. “Do you think you’re the only one who’s afraid of getting hurt? Do you think you’re the only one who’s uncertain about the future and letting someone in?”
“No,” Callie said. “Of course not, but Tanner—”
“—is just a man. A man who came back to Lucky Harbor to provide a steady family life for the people he loves. He doesn’t turn his back on anyone, ever, and I’ve seen how he looks at you. If he didn’t slap a label on your forehead, it’s simply because he didn’t know what that label was. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel anything for you. It just means that maybe he doesn’t know what you feel for him.”
Callie stared at her grandma. How many times had she told Tanner that their sleeping together “wouldn’t change a thing”?
A lot.
She’d never once let on that she had growing feelings for him. Which meant her grandma was right, she had no one to blame but herself.
“Honey.” Lucille took Callie’s hands in hers. “What is it you want from him?”