“Because I was scared,” she admits, her voice barely audible over the leaves rustling around us from a strong gust of wind.
“Scared of what?” I give her hand a squeeze.
“Plenty of things when it comes to you.”
Such a Lana answer. “Pick one.”
“I’m afraid what will happen once you leave again.”
“What if I stayed?” The question bursts out of me without any hesitancy.
Smooth, Cal.
She blinks. “What?”
“I’m not in a rush to go anywhere, so what if I stuck around Lake Wisteria for a while?”
Her forehead pinches. “Why would you do that?”
“Isn’t the answer obvious?” I tuck the fluttering strand of hair behind her ear before tracing the soft curve. Her breathing shifts as she looks up at me with her large brown eyes that reflect the moon above us.
Her lips part, and I find the idea of kissing her impossible to ignore. I lean forward and capture her mouth with mine, swallowing her gasp.
The kiss ends as quickly as it began, yet she breathes heavy like she just ran a race.
“You want to stay?” The words rush out of her mouth.
“Only if you want me to—”
She initiates the kiss this time, cutting off the last bit of my sentence with her mouth pressing against mine. The buzz starts at my lips and travels down my spine.
Kissing Lana feels like the world started spinning again. Like I’ve been frozen in place until she reentered my life, tilting it back on its axis.
I’m not sure how long we kiss for. At some point, she breaks away to straddle my lap. We both groan when she grinds down against my cock. Her head drops to the side, so I kiss my way up her neck, teasing her until she ends up rocking back and forth against me.
Everything about our kiss feels different. New. Hopeful.
And I want to make sure that hope never dies. No matter what it takes.
35
ALANA
“You can’t seriously be going on a vacation with Cal of all people.” Violet launches a dart at the circle she drew directly over Cal’s face marked with a 50. She found the photo of Cal in a suit and tie on the Kane Company’s webpage and printed it out for our emergency girls’ night.
This time, I wasn’t the one who called the meeting. Delilah and Violet did after I told them the news about Dreamland and our vacation next week.
“You try telling Cami no after he offered to take her to Dreamland. She has been begging me to go ever since she saw that commercial on the TV two years ago.”
“Why would he even offer a trip like that in the first place? What does he get out of it?” Delilah takes a sip of her drink before standing and grabbing a dart from the table. Today is a good day for her and her arthritis, so she wants to take advantage.
“Besides increasing his odds of getting into Alana’s pants?” Violet snorts.
A little too late for that.
I shoot her a look. “Say what you want about Cal and me, but I know he is doing this because he likes Cami. I can see it in the way they interact. The thing they have is…special.”
He is everything I want in a partner and more.
Delilah’s frown deepens. “Oh, no.” She and Violet spare a glance at each other.
“What?” I ask.
“You’ve got that look in your eyes.”
“What look?”
“The I’m falling in love with Callahan Kane look.”
I laugh. “What kind is that?”
Both Delilah and Violet try to imitate it and fail miserably, which causes us all to break out into laughter.
“I’m not falling in love with him.” At least I don’t think I am. We have only just started taking the next step, so there is no possible way I would be falling in love. It’s way too soon.
Right? A small swell of panic builds in my chest, right above my heart.
“I don’t know…” Delilah rocks back on her shoes.
“Trust me. I would know seeing as I’ve already done it once before.”
“That’s the thing about falling in love. You don’t exactly expect it to happen until you’re crash landing into someone else’s arms, wondering how the hell you lost the battle against gravity in the first place.”
Shit.
Alana Valentina Castillo, you were supposed to be smarter. Wiser. Stronger.
There is no way I would do something as stupid as fall in love with the same man twice, right? My heart throbs at the very idea.
“I know you’re both worried…” My voice stays neutral despite the anxiety growing by the second.
“Only because we love you and don’t want to see you suffer because of Cal. Again,” Violet adds.
I shake off the nerves. “This time is different.” With him cutting back on drinking and his commitment to trying to secure a place in my life, it would be stupid to ignore his efforts, even if we still have a long way to go.
“How? You don’t even trust him,” Violet says with a soft voice.
“Violet…” Delilah warns.
I cross my arms. “I trust him enough to live with him.”
“But you don’t trust him enough to take care of Cami on his own,” Violet counters.
“Trust takes time.” Delilah gives my hand a squeeze.
My head hangs. Deep down, I know Violet and Delilah are right. Cal and I can play house for as long as we want, but that won’t change the fact that I still don’t fully trust him.
Trust takes time. Delilah’s words replay in my head.
I hope so.
I return from girls’ night to find Wyatt and Cal caught in a death stare match. They both sit on opposite sides of the living room, the tension bleeding from both of their hiked shoulders.
“Glad you’re back. Can you call off your guard dog now?” Cal doesn’t look in my direction.
Wyatt’s muscles strain beneath his T-shirt. “I’m a babysitter, not a guard dog.”
Cal’s eyes narrow. “You wouldn’t even let me read Cami a bedtime story.”
“Because I’m the one who usually does it when I watch her.” Wyatt pokes his chest.
“Well, she didn’t ask you, did she?”
Wyatt’s jaw ticks.
Good God. Watching the two of them get jealous over who Cami wants to read a bedtime story with is too much, even for me.
My ovaries, on the other hand, are living their best life.
“Thanks for watching Cami. I appreciate it.” I pat Wyatt on the back.
Merlin comes out from under the couch to rub his body against my leg. I reach down and run my hand across his silky coat. It only took Merlin a week to warm up to Cami and me, thanks to the fancy cans of tuna I bought him.
“Hey there,” I coo.
“You have a cat?” Wyatt’s head swings in Cal’s direction.
“Yup.”
I carry the cat into my arms and wave his paw in the air. “Say hi to Merlin.”
And you were worried about Cami getting attached…
Wyatt’s eyes right. “Merlin? Wasn’t he King Arthur’s mentor or something?”
“Yup.” Cal’s jaw clenches.
“That’s cute, Percival. Who knew you had a King Arthur kink?”
“I called him that because the name reminded me of my mom, asshole.”