by Jill Shalvis
“I’ve already got one for her,” Olivia said.
Becca stared at Olivia and then laughed as a light bulb apparently went off. “Yes! I don’t know why I didn’t think of him sooner.”
“Because you’re having too much sex,” Olivia said, tapping a finger to her temple. “Sex brain.”
Callie sighed. “I really wish you’d both stop talking about sex. And I don’t want to find a—”
“Tanner’s perfect,” Becca said.
“—guy,” Callie finished.
“Yep, perfect,” Olivia said to Becca as if Callie hadn’t spoken. “They’re meant for each other.”
“Yeah, they are,” Becca said.
“No,” Callie said.
“Please tell me you think he’s hot,” Becca said. “Those eyes…Gah.”
Callie sighed. He did have some damn amazing eyes.
“I don’t know why we didn’t think of this sooner,” Becca said.
“We?” Olivia asked. “I already thought of it.” She pointed at Callie. “And your grandma thought of it too. She’s out there lobbying for the two of you.”
“Lobbying?”
“Trying to get everyone involved in matchmaking the two of you. It’s on her Tumblr.”
Well, crap. Callie hadn’t had time to check her grandma’s social media yet today. “I told her to stay out of it.”
Both Olivia and Becca burst out laughing.
“I don’t see what’s so funny,” Callie said.
Becca got herself together but was still grinning when she spoke. “Honey, your grandma…she doesn’t know how to stay out of it. Have you ever met her?”
Callie gritted her teeth. “I’m going to have to hire a babysitter.”
“You’re not mad, are you?” Becca asked.
“Yes,” Callie said. “But only a little bit at you.”
“Okay, good. So you’ll still make us more grilled chocolate sandwiches, right?”
Chapter 9
The next morning Callie told herself she had absolutely no reason to go into town. She could stay in bed and work from there. She certainly had plenty of it to keep her busy. Hell, she could bury herself in work if she wanted.
But she’d been doing that for years now, and that hadn’t gotten her anywhere.
Besides, she was hungry. And she hadn’t told Becca and Olivia, but grilled chocolate sandwiches were pretty much the only thing in her wheelhouse.
She could go to her grandma’s house and get breakfast and while she was there she could demand to know why she was doing exactly what Callie had asked her not to do.
But that was an argument she couldn’t have without doughnuts.
Which meant she needed doughnuts.
So go to the grocery store. She repeated this to herself as she dressed—in real clothes—and then again as she put on mascara and lip gloss. She had a hard time justifying that part but, hey, one never knew when she’d have to take a Skype call today, right? Might as well be prepared. She drove toward town. When she passed the grocery store, she said, “Whoops.”
And then kept going until she hit the bakery.
Just for the coffee and doughnuts, she told herself. And absolutely nothing else, like, say, sitting there waiting on a certain gorgeous, funny, ex-super-crush named Tanner Riggs.
She got out of the car and checked her hair in the mirror. And maybe applied more lip gloss. When she opened the door to the bakery, the delicious scent of coffee and baked goods immediately assaulted her. She paused to inhale deeply and then froze when she heard a blast from her past.
And not a good blast.
It was a male laugh that once upon a time had been the laugh of her fiancé. It was now the laugh of the guy who’d left her at the altar.
Whipping around, she eyeballed the street and found Eric about fifteen yards away, holding hands with a cute blonde as he walked up the sidewalk toward her.
An unreasonable panic gripped her. Or maybe it was dread. Without thinking, she ducked the rest of the way into the bakery, pressed herself behind the door, and peeked out the window.
It was early, she told herself. Maybe they were just on a stroll. And Eric was a dentist. No way would he come into the bakery. Surely he was bound by some dental decree to not step into sugar-infested bakeries. Besides, her luck couldn’t be that bad.
He headed for the bakery.
Damn it. She hated that after all this time she could still feel the humiliation of what he’d done to her, but there it was. And damn, that pissed her off. He’d literally left her at the altar, for God’s sake. And the only thing worse than that was everyone in town knowing it.
She’d assumed it no longer mattered, that she would be ready to face him if that happened, but apparently not.
She was not ready.
But she couldn’t deny that there was also a little part of her that hoped he’d seen her and he’d felt…what? Did she want him to feel guilt? Regret?
Yeah. She kind of did.
She also wanted him to feel…yearning. And a desperation that he’d let her go. Yeah, desperation would work just fine.
Eric and Blondie stopped a few feet from the bakery door. They were laughing, having a great time, and Callie held her breath, hoping they’d go away. Far, far away.
Instead, Eric pulled the woman in close and kissed her. Gently. Sweetly. He held her face while he did it and when he pulled back, he smiled into the woman’s eyes like she was his entire universe.
He’d never once kissed Callie like that.
Fine. Whatever. The good news was that now they were walking again, and with relief, she turned away from the window.
The bakery line was long as usual and she got into it, reminding herself to breathe as she casually eyeballed the room.
Tanner was at “their” table. He was watching her, head cocked, like maybe she was a fascinating and ridiculous reality show.
Terrific.
She tried to look normal. Like nothing to see here…
“Callie. It is you.”
This came from right behind her, and she nearly jumped out of her skin. Whipping around, she came face to face with—oh, perfect—Eric and Blondie. How had that happened?
“Hey there,” Eric said with an easy smile. And not a single flicker of guilt or regret or yearning or desperation.
Damn him.
“It’s great to see you,” he said, standing very close to the woman next to him. “Tina, this is Callie. I’ve told you about her.”
“Lovely to meet you,” Tina said, smiling with freakishly straight, white teeth.
But her smile was genuine and Callie tried to act normal. “Nice to meet you too.”
“I didn’t know you were back in town,” Eric said.
“Just for a bit,” she heard herself say. “Checking in on my grandma.”
He gave a fond smile. “Lucille. As insane as usual, I’m guessing?”
“She has reasons for her ways,” she said in quick defense. Apparently Callie could be irritated by her grandmother, but no one else—especially an ex—was allowed.
And speaking of her ex, he had the nerve to look pretty damn fantastic.
He also had a hand on the small of Tina’s back. A casual, affectionate gesture that insinuated intimacy and ease. Except he’d never been into PDA before, and certainly not with Callie.
And suddenly she didn’t want a doughnut.
No. She wanted an entire baker’s dozen.
Tanner had watched with some amusement as Callie had bolted into the bakery, plastered herself to the wall, and stared out the window as if the hounds of hell had been on her heels.
When she’d relaxed and gotten in line, he’d still been watching. So he’d had eyes on her when the couple had gotten in line behind her.
Ah, he thought, watching as he drank his coffee. Stiff posture. Fake smile. Quick hand over the hair.
Either an archenemy or an ex, he guessed. And since this was real life and not a comic book, he crossed archenemy
off the list. An ex then. The guy had his arm around the blond woman next to him and Tanner winced in sympathy for a pale-faced Callie. Her lips were curved but she wasn’t showing any teeth, and she also looked like she’d just swallowed something really sour.
That, or the ex was stinky.
Then the woman said something and the ex leaned in close to catch every word before tossing his head back and laughing.
Callie looked like she wished she had powers and could vanish.
Or maybe she was plotting the man’s murder.
She said something and started to leave the line without coffee or a doughnut, which told Tanner more than anything else how off axis she was, but it was her turn at the front of the line and Leah called out to her.
Callie stared blankly at Leah as if she couldn’t remember why she was there.
Leah’s smile faded a little bit and she reached over the counter to squeeze Callie’s hand. Then she quickly brought her a coffee and a box of doughnuts.
A box.
Tanner had to smile. Leah was good people. Really good.
Arms loaded, Callie turned to go but the guy reached out and stopped her with a hand on her arm.
Why didn’t the asshole back off? It was pretty obvious to Tanner that’s what Callie wanted, so why wasn’t he getting out of her face?
Instead, the guy said something to her, smiled, and then leaned in even closer, looking like he planned on kissing her cheek.
Callie instantly recoiled, her body language screaming “go away.” Jesus. How was the asshole missing the fact that she didn’t want him to touch her, much less kiss her?
Then it went fubar.
As Callie pulled back, she tripped over the blonde’s foot and stumbled. Her coffee went flying one way, her box of doughnuts the other way. Luckily neither hit anyone, just the floor, but the mess was pretty spectacular.
People scattered, including the ex and the blonde. They walked out together arm in arm, holding their coffees, not paying much attention to the carnage they’d left behind.
Shit. Tanner rose and moved toward Callie, who was now attempting to clean up.
“Don’t,” she said when he crouched at her side to help.
He took the box from her and scooped up the last of the mess.
“Tanner—”
“Shh,” he said. He took the entire mess to the trash. When he got back to Callie, she was standing right where he’d left her. She had crumbs down her front along with a few splatters of coffee.
“Did you burn yourself?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“Sure?”
She stopped shaking her head to nod it.
“Come on,” he said. “I’ll get you another breakfast.”
This seemed to snap her out of it. “No,” she said. “Thanks, though. I think I’m just going to go back to bed and start the day over another time. Like maybe next year.”
He smiled and ducked down a little to look into her pretty green eyes. “You’re not that person,” he said softly, taking her hand. “You don’t bury your head in the sand.”
“Oh, you’d be surprised,” she said with a humorless laugh. “I can bury my head with the best of them.” She pulled free, but she did it slowly, almost reluctantly, not jerking away as she had with that other guy. “And you do remember me from high school.” She said this in an accusatory voice that told him she’d been steaming about that since he’d last seen her.
“Of course,” he said.
“Of course.” She snorted.
“That’s funny?” he asked
“No one remembers me from high school. I was the nerd, the bookworm.”
“I remember you,” he said firmly.
“Yeah, probably because some of your fellow football players paid me to do their homework.”
“Yeah, they did,” he said. “Because you were cute.”
She blinked as if he’d stunned her speechless and he smiled. “But you were off limits to me.”
“Why?”
“For one thing, you were way too good for the likes of me,” he said, and had the pleasure of seeing her quick smile.
She had a really great smile when it included her eyes. “So who was he?” he heard himself ask.
“Who?”
He gave her a get-real look.
“Oh, you mean that guy who was just here?” she asked.
“No, I mean the Easter Bunny.”
She sighed. “My ex-almost-husband.”
He remembered what she’d said during their love-wasn’t-for-her talk. I got all the way to the altar before I got beat to shit. Hell. “That was the guy you were engaged to?” he asked.
“Right up until the day he got cold feet,” she said way too casually.
He craned his neck and eyed the door. He couldn’t have gotten far. “Want me to go beat the shit out of him?”
She laughed. “Yes, please.” Then she stared at him. “Wait. You’re kidding, right?”
Not in the slightest.
She took in his expression and laughed again, this one low and a little bit ragged. “That’s the nicest thing anyone’s asked me in a while,” she said, but she shook her head. “And thanks but no. I’m good. I’m actually going to get going. See you.” Then she turned and ran right into two people coming in the door.
Tanner grimaced for her as she backed up, apologized profusely, and tried again.
To be safe, Tanner stepped forward with her, setting a hand on her back, guiding her out after opening the door for her.
“Sometimes,” she muttered, “I’m pretty sure my guardian angel drinks.”
Tanner spent the rest of the day on the boat with Cole, working on the boat’s mechanics. They were head deep in the engine compartment, grimy from head to toe, when Cole suddenly piped up with “So you’re going for Callie?”
Tanner lifted his head so fast that he cracked it on the boat frame. “Shit. Damn. Fuck.”
Cole grinned. “Yeah. It’s true.”
“What’s true, that you’re an asshole?” Tanner asked, holding his head. “Sonofabitch, that hurt.”
