Till The End Of Time (Secrets of Savannah Book 1)

by Belle Calhoune

  “I guess that makes sense. I know she was always fond of him when we were younger. I wasn’t aware that they had kept in contact over the years.” Surprise resonated in Olivia’s tone.

  “Turns out he’s been visiting her this whole time,” Callie said. It still surprised her that Jax had kept in such close contact with their old friend. Perhaps he was more sentimental than she had ever suspected.

  “Was it nice? I know sometimes you and Jax are at odds.”

  That was putting it mildly! Callie thought. As usual, Olivia was being tactful.

  “Umm…well something happened,” she admitted. “Actually, a few things. Miss Hattie told us this really sad story about her true love. His name was Samuel and he was killed in the line of duty during World War II.”

  Olivia made a tutting sound. Of all her friends, Olivia had always been the most sensitive. Callie thought it might have had something to do with growing up with a seriously ill mother who had dealt with a chronic illness until her death two years ago.

  “I always knew she had a tragic loss in her past,” Olivia said. “I could feel it.”

  “There’s something else.” Callie got quiet for a moment. She had no secrets from Olivia, but something about this made her feel a little shy. For so long Olivia had been telling her that Jax had feelings for her. She had always resisted that notion. Until today.

  “What? Don’t get all quiet on me.”

  “Jax asked me out on a date,” Callie confessed. Once Olivia began screaming, Callie held the phone away from her ear.

  “We can’t do this over the phone. I’m coming to meet you,” Olivia said, practically squealing on the other end of the phone.

  Callie looked at the clock on the mantle. It was only seven o’clock. She could order some Chinese and run out for a bottle of wine. “Hey, Olivia. Sleep over. It’ll be fun. We can have take-out and wine in our pjs.”

  “And dish about Jax!” Olivia said with a chuckle. “I’ll go pack a bag. See you soon.”

  Callie hung up with a feeling of exhilaration. It would be great to have her best friend sleep over, just like old times. How many nights had they whispered secrets between the hours of darkness and dawn? She felt a pang in her heart as thoughts of Morgan, Fancy, Hope and Charlotte invaded her senses. She missed them. Terribly. Olivia was her best friend, but the other girls had been a huge part of her life. She had once believed that they were forever friends.

  Tears pooled in her eyes. Could she have handled things better? When Fancy’s engagement to her cousin Case had crashed and burned, her friend’s world had turned upside down. And Fancy’s suspicions that one of her best friends had been the source of her pain had caused a huge division within the group of friends.

  It had hurt to know that Fancy had believed so strongly that one of them had betrayed her. And since Case had been hurt, her cousin Charlotte had been furious at Fancy on her brother’s behalf. The situation had become very complicated, with sides being taken and lines being drawn in the sand. It had turned into a huge, tragic mess.

  The beauty of knowing her best friend so well was that Callie could look at a take-out menu and order Olivia’s favorite dish with full confidence. A quick check in the cupboard revealed a bottle of wine from Mac’s stay in Savannah. Callie pulled some dishes out from her cabinet and placed them on the kitchen table along with utensils. She let out a laugh as she looked around. Entertaining in her cozy little guesthouse was miles apart from what she’d grown up with at the Duvall mansion. The truth was, she had never needed chandeliers and drivers, fancy parties or ball gowns.

  All she had ever wanted was to feel safe. After the trauma of her childhood and losing Mac, security had been her number one desire. A soft place to fall. Welcoming arms to greet her. To be loved wholeheartedly. And her parents had given her that love without question. But finding out she’d been deceived for so long and that she’d been adopted off the black market had changed everything.

  Before she knew it Callie heard a rap on the door. “Come on in,” she called out, watching as Olivia sailed through the door with a duffle bag slung over her shoulder. Callie walked over, meeting her best friend halfway. They shared a hug.

  “I’m so happy you came. I ordered Chinese food. It should be here soon.”

  Olivia looked around her. “This place looks even better than it did the other day. I love it.”

  “Me too,” Callie said with a grin. “It’s really starting to feel like home.”

  Another knock on the door heralded the arrival of the delivery man. Callie settled the bill then brought the food over to the kitchen so she and Olivia could dig in.

  “Why don’t we put our pjs on like the good ole days,” Olivia suggested.

  “Right,” Callie agreed. “Then we can sit in the living room and talk while we chow down.”

  After both women had switched up their clothes, they sat down on the rug in the living room and set up their food on the coffee table. Between bites of chicken fried rice, lo mein and sweet and sour chicken, the girls began to gab about the events of earlier today.

  “So, tell me exactly what happened,” Olivia said, her beautiful features radiating excitement. With her wide, expressive eyes and mocha coloring, Callie thought her best friend was as stunning as any supermodel. If Olivia hadn’t been a petite 5’4, Callie imagined she might have taken the runways by storm. But rather than Olivia, it had been Fancy who had become the cover model after leaving Savannah and reinventing her life in New York City.

  “After we were wrapping up things after tea Jax asked me if I wanted to go out with him tomorrow night.” Olivia let out a squeal. “To say I was stunned is a huge understatement. I don’t have to tell you how up and down our friendship has been over the years.”

  “Rocky to say the least,” Olivia murmured. “But I’ve always believed that where there’s great friction there’s something else resting under the surface. Romantic tension I suspect.” Olivia grinned at her.

  “Thank you Dr. Freud,” Callie drawled. “What a wonderful analysis.”

  “Come on! Get to the good part, Callie. What did you say to him?”

  Callie huffed out a breath. “I said…yes.”

  Olivia covered her mouth with her hand and let out a strangled sound of glee.

  “Can you believe it?” Callie asked. “I was sort of on the spot and Miss Hattie and Pearl were egging Jax on. I had a hunch that there was some matchmaking going on.”

  “Knowing Miss Hattie I wouldn’t be one bit surprised.” Olivia shook her head, an expression of wonder etched on her face. “Fess up, Callie. You must want to go out with Jax, otherwise you wouldn’t have said yes.”

  There it was. The truth staring her right in the face. Olivia knew her better than almost anyone in the world. She’d also grown up with her and watched the dynamic between her and Jax. And while she might be able to fool someone else, it wasn’t even remotely possible to pull the wool over Olivia’s eyes.

  Callie bit her lip. “You’re right. Lately…I’ve been curious about Jax. There’s something…I don’t know how to put it. It’s like there’s something there between us that wasn’t there before.”

  Olivia clapped her hands together. “I knew it!” she said triumphantly.

  Callie swallowed a spoonful of rice. “Don’t go there. I don’t think I can bear it if you tell me I told you so.”

  “But I did!” Olivia protested. They shared a look and burst into laughter.

  Callie ended up laughing so hard it made her belly ache. This is how it always was between them. One look in the other’s direction had them in hysterics.

  Callie held her side. It felt so nice to laugh like crazy as if nothing in her world was in disarray. She was tired of being angry and heartbroken. She wanted to laugh and kick up her heels. “You want to know a secret?” she asked in a low voice.

  “Of course,” Olivia said. “That’s what best friends are for.”

  “I can’t stop thinking about Jax….and our date t
omorrow night,” Callie blurted out. “And it feels so odd to be thinking of Jax in that way.”

  “What’s odd about it? Have you seen Jax lately? He’s gorgeous.”

  There was no doubt about his looks. It was everything else that worried Callie. The fact that he worked for her father—for Duvall Investments—didn’t sit well with her. Lionel Duvall concerned himself with the bottom line, which was money. Oftentimes, everything else just fell by the wayside, including emotions and feelings. Jax was being groomed by her father in the ways of business. Callie wouldn’t be surprised if he was trying to make Jax one of his top executives. Even though Luke worked at the family business, Callie knew his heart lay elsewhere. One of these days her brother was going to have to lay it all on the line and tell their father he didn’t want to run the company once Lionel retired. Luke was stuck and she felt badly for him. As the only male heir to Lionel Duvall’s vast business enterprises, he was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps.

  “It’s a little odd to go out on a date with Jax when we’ve been friends for most of our lives.”

  Olivia frowned. “Callie. What’s really going on here? What are you so worried about?”

  Callie put her spoon down on her plate. “Jax…lately he makes me feel things that make me nervous. I’ve been stuffing those feelings down and pretending that they aren’t there, but they are.”

  “You’ve never really had much of a romantic life,” Olivia said. She held up her hands. “Not that I’ve dated a bunch myself, but you’ve always avoided it.”

  “If you remember what I told you about my childhood, you’ll understand why.” Callie winced. “I still have memories of the way my stepfather would slap my mother around. And after a while she allowed him to do it to us so he wouldn’t do it to her. Only those slaps turned to beatings…whippings. Child abuse. Charming, right?”

  “She did the wrong thing. But from what you said she was an addict, right?” Olivia asked. “It’s not an excuse, but it sounds like your birth mom was really messed up.”

  Callie thought back to all the times her mother had been so zoned out that she’d allowed their stepfather, Frank, to discipline them the way he saw fit. She had been passed out in the bedroom or so high she couldn’t see straight. Callie had resented her birth mother for so long, but deep down she knew that she still loved her mother on some level. Moreover, she loved the mother she had been prior to hooking up with Frank, who had been a devil.

  “Yes, she was an addict. In the end she paid the ultimate price for being with someone like Frank. He was the scum of the earth,” she said fiercely. “What he did to us…Mac especially?” Callie shuddered. “I know as Christians we’re supposed to forgive, but I still struggle with that concept as far as he’s concerned.”

  “He was a coward,” Olivia said, her eyes flashing with anger. “Abusing children, giving drugs to women to make them dependent…and then taking your mother’s life in a murder-suicide. He was a monster. But Callie…even though there are Franks in the world, there are also great men out there…look at both of your brothers. Luke and Mac are wonderful.”

  “They are,” Callie agreed. “God really blessed me on that score.”

  Both her brothers were amazing men. True. Loyal. Kind. Loving.

  “Even knowing that, it still scares me to think of falling in love. It sounds lame but it’s true. Mac even gave me a speech about it at the airport. He thinks I’m hiding myself away from love.”

  Olivia raised an eyebrow, then gently coughed. “Well, you are, sort of.”

  Callie sputtered. “And what about you? You’ve dated here and there, but just like me, none of ‘em seem to stick.”

  Olivia met her gaze. She titled her chin up as if she was preparing to defend herself. “It’s hard to fall in love with someone new when my heart is already taken.”

  Callie’s utensil made a clanking sound as it landed on her plate. She let out a gasp. “Olivia! Not still? After all this time?”

  Olivia let out a hollow laugh. “I’m nothing if not loyal.”

  “But it’s been…how long? Almost ten years at least since you’ve seen him.”

  Olivia ducked her head down. Her cheeks were turning a rose color. “It’s not something I can help. Hunter imprinted himself on my soul.”

  “Is this a forever type of thing?” Callie asked. She had never been in love herself, so to hear that Olivia was still pining away for someone who had grown up with them and left town almost a decade ago was shocking.

  Hunter Rawlings had been the bad boy of Savannah. He had grown up poor and a little bit defiant. Underneath his brusque façade he had been a sweetheart. Olivia had fallen in love with him as a teenager. When he had roared out of town on his motorcycle at the age of eighteen in order to make his way in the world, Olivia had been devastated. And those feelings hadn’t budged. Not one little bit.

  Callie made a tutting sound. “Between the two of us we’re a pair of idiots. I can’t seem to make myself vulnerable to a man, while you’ve been pining away for one for a decade. Not sure which one of us is worse.”

  “It’s not a contest,” Olivia teased. “At least you have a date tomorrow night with a very eligible and good looking bachelor. One who has the hots for you.”

  Callie couldn’t help but laugh at Olivia’s turn of phrase. “That remains to be seen,” Callie quipped. “Just because he flirts with me doesn’t mean he feels anything romantic for me. As far as we know, this could just be a game for Jax. He does love the thrill of the chase.”

  Olivia let out an indelicate snort. “Jax wouldn’t do that to you, Callie. Face it. He’s interested in you. And he has been for a while now from what I can tell.”

  “No pressure,” she murmured. She wanted to go out with Jax tomorrow night and not worry about anything deeper than two friends going out for a casual night on the town. So what if she had been crushing on him a little bit lately? She wasn’t going to fret about it.

  “And if you decide Jax really isn’t your style, you can let him down easy,” Olivia suggested. “That way there won’t be any hard feelings.”

  Callie nodded, although her mind was whirling with the possibilities. Let him down easy? Ha! Olivia was assuming that Callie was going to be the one leading things. What she was really afraid of, the thing that she couldn’t put into words—not even to Olivia—was that she was terrified that she would fall for Jax. Really, truly lose herself under the weight of all his magnetism and charm.

  As she began clearing up the remains of the Chinese food, Callie reminded herself of Mac’s words that he had shared with her at the airport. Remember to keep your heart open to the possibilities.

  Mac had never steered her wrong before. Despite her jitters about the wisdom of having agreed to Jax’s invitation, it was exactly what she planned to do on her date with Jax. She would leave the door to her heart slightly swung open. That way, in the event that things went south between them, she could always slam it shut so she didn’t get hurt.

  “At the end of the day, you have to show someone that you care about them. Even if it’s hard, go out on that limb. Shout it from the rooftops.”

  Jax Holden

  Chapter Five

  It had been extremely difficult for Jax to focus at work all day. His mind was filled with Callie and the plans he had in store for her this evening. He felt like doing a tap dance in the middle of his office. This was going to be the first real opportunity he’d had to woo the woman he adored. For the last hour he had been doodling on a piece of paper rather than doing actual work.

  Jax loved working for Duvall Investments. It thrilled him to be working with stocks and bonds and to help people make their money grow. Jax felt grateful that despite his father’s financial scandal, Lionel had continued to employ him and entrusted him with vast amounts of money. Lionel Duvall had so many branches of his business that it made Jax’s head spin. He admired Lionel in so many ways, despite the fact that he was now discovering that his family life was a
nything but idyllic. Lying to Callie about her birth brother was abominable. He prayed that one day Callie might be able to forgive him.

  It made his chest hurt to think of Callie having been ripped away from Mac. An image of a young Cassie flashed through his mind. With her wide, innocent eyes and beautiful features, she had been a very attractive child. How anyone could ever abuse a child was way beyond his understanding. It hurt his heart to know all the pain that Callie had endured before being adopted by the Duvalls. If he could he would take all that pain and heap it upon himself rather than allow Callie to suffer. That’s how much he adored this woman. He thought of the verse from Proverbs 3:15. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare to her.

  That was it in a nutshell. No other woman compared to Callie Duvall. He feared no other woman ever could. Sometimes that knowledge scared him.

  At seven o’clock sharp Jax arrived at the guest house to pick up Callie. He had phoned her earlier in the day to tell her to wear something appropriate for a nice dinner out on the town. When Callie opened up the door to him, he had to stop himself from letting out a hoot of approval.

  Reminder. You are not a Neanderthal. You are a southern gentleman.

  “You’ve never looked more stunning,” Jax said, unable to take his eyes off Callie.

  “Thank you,” she murmured. “You look pretty dapper yourself.” He looked down at his navy jacket and grey slacks. He was glad that he’d picked this attire. He hadn’t wanted to look too overdressed. At the same time he had wanted Callie to see that he’d taken pains to look nice for her.

  Callie wasn’t the sort of woman who would respond to something like a wolf whistle or a shout of appreciation. She was sophisticated. But she was also the type of woman who could kick off her high heels and run like the wind on the beach. He loved all her nuances.

  You sound like a girl.

  One of his best friend’s voices buzzed in his ear. That’s exactly what Case Duvall would say if he could hear Jax’s inner thoughts. Case—Callie’s cousin—was a straight shooter. He was a great friend but he often enjoyed giving Jax a hard time. That dynamic went all the way back to their childhood. He was the golden boy if ever there was one. Ever since they were kids, Case had been the best at everything. He’d mellowed out over the years, but he still had that golden touch. Jax hadn’t bothered to tell him about taking out his cousin this evening. Case was still jaded about ending his engagement to Fancy, one of Callie’s closest friends. Or at least they had been until Case and Fancy’s wedding plans had erupted in a scandal that had destroyed their love story and taken down friendships.