“I don’t know.” A lie. She wanted him, all of him.
“I’m going to ask you again,” Lucille said gently. “What is it you really want from him? Nothing? A good time? Everything?”
“Everything,” Callie whispered.
Lucille smiled and squeezed Callie’s fingers. “Then tell him. Tell him tonight.”
“You think?”
“I know.”
Callie’s heart leapt and bounced against her ribs some. In a terrifying but good way. Was she ready for this?
Yes. God, yes. And this time when she looked at the clock, she rose. “Here goes nothing.”
“Or everything,” Lucille said.
Or everything.
“Don’t forget some lip gloss,” Lucille called after her. “And it wouldn’t hurt to tame the hair a little.”
“Grandma!”
“Just sayin’…And you’re going to put real clothes on, right?”
Callie glanced down at her yoga pants and sweatshirt. Shit. Yeah. She needed real clothes. Because tonight she was going to be her own client, and she would never let a client meet her future groom in sweats.
She stopped at home and put on her cutest pair of skinny jeans. She did have to lie flat on the bed to zip them up, but they looked good tucked into the boots Tanner liked.
She got to the docks at a quarter to five. Habit. Normally she prided herself on being early and prepared, but today she would have liked to have been the one being waited for.
The boat was moored but empty. The hut was closed. The warehouse, locked.
The guys weren’t still out on the water but they weren’t here either.
Telling herself not to look at her phone again, she sat to wait.
And wait.
But Tanner never came. He just…didn’t show. And it was like standing at the altar all alone waiting for Eric all over again.
Waiting for someone to love her.
Chapter 27
Tanner sat in the principal’s office next to his son, who was also sitting, holding an ice pack to his eye.
The principal was glaring at the both of them balefully. “I thought we agreed that this behavior couldn’t continue,” she said in that principal-to-errant-student tone that made Tanner feel fifteen all over again.
Troy said nothing.
Tanner had docked the boat half an hour ago and found messages waiting for him. One from the principal that merely said “Need to see you in my office ASAP.”
One from Elisa saying “Got a message from the principal, need you to handle it.”
Not surprisingly nothing from Troy, not one little peep.
Cole and Sam finished up with their clients as Tanner headed to the high school.
And here the three of them sat.
“I’m going to have to take more severe action this time,” the principal said.
Tanner ignored this and turned to Troy. “What happened?”
“He hit a fellow student and started a fight,” the principal said.
Tanner didn’t take his eyes off Troy. “I’m asking my son.”
Troy lifted his gaze to Tanner’s, his eyes registering surprise that his dad would listen to him over the principal.
Tanner gave him a small, reassuring nod. He wanted the truth, and he wanted to hear it from Troy.
“After school a couple of the guys were picking on someone,” Troy said. “Saying mean stuff, pushing. I told them to knock it off but that only made it worse.” He paused. “And then when the person they were teasing was tripped and fell, spilling all their stuff, I stepped in and pushed back for them.”
“The boy you pushed hit the railing and got a cut lip,” the principal said.
Troy didn’t look apologetic about this. In fact, there was a flash of fierce pride.
“How did you get the black eye?” Tanner asked him.
“The kid I pushed jumped up and punched me.”
Tanner made a show of looking around the office. “And where is he?”
The principal folded her fingers together. “He’s not here because he didn’t start it.”
“Yes, he did,” Troy said. “And it’s not the first time. Last week he stole stuff from someone. Important stuff.”
“Like?”
Troy went mutinously silent.
“Troy,” the principal said disapprovingly. “I have four witnesses who say you pushed Caden into that railing. Not a single witness said that you were stopping him from picking on someone. Or that something got stolen.”
“Because you asked the guys that were with Caden. You didn’t ask the person they were picking on,” Troy said. “And anyway, I got their stuff back already so it doesn’t matter.”
“And who are we talking about?” she asked. “Who’s the kid who’s being picked on and stolen from?”