Page 81 of Screwed
“Thanks.”
“Come on. Let’s sit. And you can tell me about it. If you want.”
They sat, and at first he didn’t say anything. She curled against him, and he slid an arm around her and rested his face against her silky hair. Her quiet patience as she waited for him to speak soothed the turmoil inside him.
“He seems like a nice guy.”
He felt her smile against his chest.
“I didn’t want to like him,” he admitted, stroking Callie’s arm. “I wanted him to be an asshole so I could keep hating him.”
“Yes.”
“We probably have stuff in common.”
She nodded.
“I still don’t know how he could have left us. I don’t think I could leave my children. If I had any. But I guess…you never really know what you’ll do in a particular situation until you’re actually in it.”
“That’s very nonjudgmental of you.”
He smiled. “Yeah. Thank you, darlin’.”
Her presence was such a comfort to him. It scared him a little. Because things were getting deeper and deeper with Callie, and he had to be careful. Remembering how much it had hurt when his dad left made him afraid that when things ended with Callie, he might not survive.
Chapter Eighteen
Cash arrived at his friends Chris and Rachel’s home the next Friday night for their engagement party. He and Chris had been friends since college, along with Beau and, of course, Callie. He’d gone on group dates with the two couples numerous times, although he was pretty sure he’d always been with a different girl each time.
No wonder Callie thought he was a player.
He and Chris still played football and hung out together, and Chris and Rachel included him in their parties and weekend outings. But everyone else had coupled up, and since he hadn’t been interested in dating anyone for quite a while, he’d turned down a bunch of their invitations lately. But he felt obligated to celebrate their engagement with them.
He’d rather be rolling around in a nest of fire ants than at this party, though, since both Beau and Callie were going to be here.
Fuck.
He and Callie had talked about this. He knew she didn’t really want to go, either. Chris and Rachel had stayed friends with Beau after the divorce, and Callie hadn’t seen much of them, but she liked them, and it was nice they’d invited her. Their engagementwassomething to celebrate. And it had been over a year since she and Beau had split, so it was time to move on and be able to see each other in social settings from time to time.
He got all that.
He just didn’t get hisownreasons for not wanting to go to this party.
The conflict inside him was eating him up, gnawing at his insides. On the one hand, it felt wrong to be arriving separately from Callie. She should bewithhim. And yet he knew only too well how crazy that idea was. How wrong. Maybe he’d been able to ignore the guilt that plagued him as he and Callie spent time alone together, but here tonight, with Beau present, the hopelessness of their situation was being shoved in his face.
He was aiming for fashionably late, hopefully not passing into dickishly tardy, so the party was well underway when Rachel opened the door to greet him.
“Cash!” She beamed. “Great to see you! Come on in.”
“You, too, Rachel. Here.” He handed over the expensive bottle of red wine he’d brought.
“Thank you!”
“Let’s see the ring. I hope Chris didn’t embarrass himself.”
Rachel laughed and extended her left hand. “No, I love it.”
Cash dutifully admired the ring, although it kind of made him wince. Rows and rows of glittering small diamonds surrounded a massive center diamond, and more diamonds crusted the band. “Wow. Chris did okay.”
