Page 66 of Screwed
“Okay.” Daddy glanced at Beau. “I’m leaving. See you this weekend at the country club, Beau.”
“Yeah. Good night, Joshua.”
“You can leave, too.” Callie focused on her cookies.
“Callie.” Beau moved closer. “I hate seeing you doing this.”
She squinted at him. “Doing what?”
“Working like this. Running a business out of our home.”
“Myhome.” She gritted her teeth.
“It’s ridiculous. Our divorce is ridiculous.”
“Oh my God. We are not doing this.”
“Callie. What if I told you I still love you?”
Heat flashed through her veins. “No, no, no! Don’t even say that. You cheated on me. You don’t love me.”
He made a frustrated sound. “Why do you keep throwing that in my face?”
She stared at him in disbelief. “What is even happening here? Our marriage ended over a year ago.Thisis ridiculous. Just leave, Beau. Please. We have nothing more to say to each other, and what I do with my life is none of your business.”
Beau’s face tightened. Then he turned and left.
Callie slumped against the counter, her knees buckling. Tears welled up behind her eyelids, and she drew in a long, slow breath. Well. That had been unpleasant.
She’d never be as good as Josh Junior in her parents’ eyes. Yet she wasn’t as much of a rebel as Griff was. He’d given up caring long ago. She didn’t like the bitterness he carried, but she knew it protected him from being hurt. Maybe she needed to be tougher, like him.
She was working on that.
She hadn’t expected her parents to be excited about her plans. She hadn’t expected them to really even notice. She definitely hadn’t expected them to be so opposed to it. What was she hurting?
Oh yeah, their image.
She thought about their reactions and how maybe, just maybe, Daddy would grudgingly admit she knew what she was doing. Beau, not so much.
She also hadn’t expected Beau to try to tell her he still loved her. A string of curses ran through her head. What was that about? But at least she knew for sure that she was over him, because she hadn’t even been tempted to take him seriously.
She contrasted his reaction to her starting her own business to Cash’s. Cash had been surprised at first, but interested, and then totally supportive. He hadn’t tried to talk her out of it.
She shouldn’t be thinking about Cash, though it was hard not to after everything they’d shared last weekend. A longing to talk to him and hear his steady voice and encouraging words swept over her.
She did need to talk to him about the party for his mom.
So she picked up her cell phone and dialed his number.
He answered with, “Hi, Callie.” Obviously she was programmed into his contacts. Warmth spread through her chest.
“Hey. Guess who was just here, trying to talk me out of this crazy bakery idea?”
After a beat of silence, he said, “Your dad?”
“Yep. And Beau. They’re both horrified that I’m doing something so demeaning.”
“Demeaning? Bullshit. You’re an artist.”
