Page 18 of Screwed
Shit. What the hell was that?
With an ache in her chest and heaviness in her limbs, she watched as Mama greeted him with a hug and a big smile. Shoot. They probably loved him more than they loved her. She let out a long breath and turned to her cousins to gossip about some mutual friends.
After they’d eaten from the lavish buffet catered by Vittorio’s, one of Houston’s most popular restaurants, Callie carried out her cake. She bit her lip as she carefully set it on the dining table and looked up at her mother. “Happy birthday, Mama.”
Other guests crowded around, exclaiming about the cake.
“It’s gorgeous, Callie!”
“I can’t believe you made that!”
Mama smiled and said, “How pretty, Callie.”
“It’s more than pretty,” Griff said, and Callie shot him a smile at his support. “It’s amazing.” He bumped her shoulder. “Seriously.”
“It’s a shame to eat it,” Aunt Emily said.
“Well, it’s made for eating,” Callie said. “I love to make things pretty, but in the end, they have to taste good. Mama, would you like to cut it?”
“You go ahead, honey.”
Callie paused, her vision blurring, her chest tightening. She blinked a few times, then picked up a big knife, cut a piece, and plated it. She handed it to her mother with a forced toothy smile. “Birthday girl gets the first piece.”
“Thank you.”
But Callie was aware by the time everyone else was done, again exclaiming about how good the cake was, Mama had taken only one small bite. She watched Mama set her plate on one end of the buffet along with other dishes from dinner.
Callie bent her head and looked at the cake on her own plate, her throat painfully constricted. Finally she’d found something she was good at, that she loved doing, and once again, Mama didn’t even care enough to pretend to be proud of her.
Chapter Four
“I need a date.”
Cash sighed and leaned back in his office chair, cell phone at his ear. “I heard you were an expert at Tinder. Maybe you need to try another dating site?” Yeah, that just made him want to punch something. He’d missed her so damn much when she’d been away, worried about her constantly, and when he’d heard about her Tinder exploits he’d had to stop himself from jumping on a plane to go do bodily harm to some French dude. But fuck, one day Callie was going to find someone again, and he was going to have to be ready. Christ only knew he’d had enough practice at that.
He’d called to tell her about the tattoo appointment he’d made for her for Saturday, not to hear about her dating life.
“No, no. Not like a relationship. I just need someone to go with me to this big charity ball tonight.”
“Tonight? Um, might be kind of hard to find someone on short notice like that.”
“I know. But I really don’t want to go alone.”
“I’ll go with you.” The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.
After a short pause, she said, “Really? You’d do that for me?”
I’d do any fucking thing for you.He swallowed those words and managed a casual, “Sure.”
“It’s black tie.”
“Forget it then.”
“Oh. Um—”
“Kidding. That’s fine. I still own a tux.”
“Thank you! Like I said, Isodon’t want to go to this thing alone.”
