Page 101 of Screwed
He leaned back in his chair, his face impassive. Their eyes met and held. Tension sparked. “About what?”
Taking that as a yes, she closed the office door and approached his desk. She perched on the edge of a chair opposite him, her fingers curled around the handles of her purse set on her lap. Then she frowned. “What happened to your eye?”
He touched a finger to the bruise darkening the skin beneath his left eye. “Nothing. What do you want to talk about?”
She pressed her lips together briefly, then swallowed. “I came here to apologize.”
His eyes barely flickered, and he said nothing.
“I want to apologize for what I said to you that night at the Crab Festival. It wasn’t true. I didn’t sleep with you to get revenge on Beau for cheating on me.” She eyed him. She had no idea if he believed her. She closed her eyes briefly. “The truth is, I fell in love with you.”
His lips tightened. The air in the room thickened.
“I’ve always liked you. Well, at first I thought you were a standoffish jerk who disapproved of me. But when I was with Beau…I got to know you better. And I got to like you. As a friend. After Beau and I divorced, I…still liked you. And then after we slept together…I guess it’s a cliché, but my feelings changed.” She paused, her throat so dry she could barely swallow. She coughed. “You know what my life was like growing up. How I tried so hard to be what my parents wanted me to be. But it was never good enough. When Beau cheated on me, I felt like I wasn’t good enough for him, either.”
Cash made a rough noise, his eyes narrowing, tension lifting his shoulders. “Callie—”
“No, please, let me finish. I figured I wasn’t good enough for you to love, either,” she continued, painfully aware that her voice had gone high and shaky. “So I told you I slept with you for revenge because I was hurt. But it wasn’t true. It was insulting to you, and I feel ashamed of that.”
She swiped her fingertips beneath one eye where a tear had escaped, dammit. And then she stood and walked backwards to the door, seized with an urgent need to get the hell out of there, her words coming out faster and faster. “So, that’s all. I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am for what I said. And also I’m sorry that I put you in that position to start with. I know you didn’t want to go there and you felt guilty about it. I never meant to j-jeopardize your friendship with B-Beau…” She sucked in a breath. “Or…or your business. I know how much this business means to you. So I’m sorry about that, too.”
She gave a tight nod, a grimace that was supposed to be a smile, and reached for the doorknob.
“Callie—”
She held up a hand to stop him. “No. I had to get that out. Don’t feel sorry for me. I don’t want your pity.”
She turned on her heels and fled, sprinting out of the offices of Talmadge Hale, skidding to a stop as the elevator doors opened right in front of her. Tears blurred her vision, and she barely saw someone step out. She slipped in around him, smacking the button for the ground floor, then the button to close the doors.
She ran to her car and jumped in, breathless and trembling. Her hands were shaking so much she almost couldn’t get the key in the ignition, but she managed and hit the gas to reverse out of the spot, nearly sideswiping the car next to her. Then she peeled out of the parking lot with a squeal of rubber on pavement.
Okay. She’d done it. She drew air slowly into her lungs, then let it out even slower.
It was done.
Now she could go back to her life with a clear conscience.
And a broken heart.
For surely that had to be what that stabbing heat was in her chest. A wrenching, engulfing pain. Her hands trembled on the steering wheel, and she curled them tighter, gripping it until her knuckles turned white.
Wow. This hurt even more than when Beau had cheated on her.
Then, she’d felt betrayed and humiliated, yes. And that had been awful. But the love she felt for Cash was different from how she’d felt for Beau. She liked Cash so much, admired him for his loyalty and principles, his intelligence and talent, his dynamic energy and that big protective streak that annoyed his sister. She admired him for looking after his mother, for putting his sister through school, for having the guts to meet his father after being abandoned by him.
Knives twisted inside her, the pain of having hurt him—a good man, a man who’d supported her like nobody else ever had—and him not loving her in return and knowing he never would. Or if he did, he wouldn’t let himself because of their circumstances. The impotent rage and frustration of this whole mess burned through her.
But like Grandma had said, she was strong. She’d run away to Europe last time she’d been hurt, but this time she had something to stay for—her new business that she loved. Now she could throw herself into that and get on with her life, being her own person like she’d always wanted to be.
Stopped at a red light, she looked down at the tattoo on her finger, the lotus blossom that symbolized strength through adversity, growing up through muck to blossom in the sun. There’d always be a hollow emptiness where Cash should be, but she’d survived rejection before and was stronger because of it. She’d grow through this, too.
…
Cash stared at the door Callie had just bolted out of.
She was in love with him.
Really?
