“Don’t want it to go to waste.” He wolfed down the cookies, then patted his flat abs. “Good thing I went for a run this morning.”
“Well, I guess I’d better clean up. After I do a few more pictures.” She moved a plate and snapped some more images.
“I’ll help.”
“You don’t have to. I mean thank you, but…” She met his eyes. “I’m fine.”
He nodded slowly. “I know you are, darlin’.”
They shared a slow smile, and Callie tried to ignore the sparks that heated her bloodstream. Damn. Last night she’d blamed that tug of attraction on all the booze. Today…she couldn’t blame it on anything. But it was wrong. Cash was a friend. In fact, he wasn’t even her friend—he was Beau’s.
When they had restored order to her kitchen, save for the boxes of goodies, she said, “Thank you for Mama Maybelle’s. And the help. And for looking after me last night.” She was still embarrassed that her memories of coming home were so murky, though parts of it had come back to her through the morning. Hopefully she hadn’t said or done anything that would be mortifying…like act on the attraction she’d felt. Ack.
“No problem. Glad you’re okay today.” He paused. “You ever need anything, you call me, right, Callie?”
“Sure. But I’m good.” She’d called on him too many times for help. She needed to learn to stand on her own two feet. Having married Beau right after college, this was the first time she’d ever lived alone, and she had to prove she could do this.
Macarons went into a glossy white cardboard box she’d bought at the baker supply store, and she handed it to Cash. “Here you go.”
“Hey, my mom’s birthday is next month. You think you could make a fancy cake like that for her?”
“Oh, I’d love to!”
“That’d be awesome. We’re still not sure what we’re going to do, maybe a small party. I’ll let you know.”
“Okay, great.”
“You still set on getting inked?”
“Yes.”
He shook his head but said, “Okay, I’ll make an appointment for next weekend, okay?”
“Sure.” Her smile felt glum. “I don’t have much else going on.”
He stood at the door, keys in his hands, watching her. Then he nodded. “Okay then. Bye, darlin’.”
She waited in the open door and watched him walk down the driveway, bakery box perched on his arm, and climb into his truck. Then she closed the door and turned back into her big empty house.
Now it felt even emptier without Cash’s big presence.
She wandered back to the kitchen, which smelled like vanilla and sugar, two of her favorite scents. Her cake wasn’t quite as perfect as she’d like it, but she knew it would impress people. Probably not her parents. If she wasn’t married to Beau and a member of the Junior League and busy organizing charity balls, she wasn’t a true Sutherland.
…
“Happy birthday, Mama.” Callie leaned in to air kiss her mother’s cheek. “I brought you this.” The cake was packed in a big white box, and she’d tied a pretty pink and purple ribbon around the box and into a big bow.
“I said no presents, honey.”
“It’s not exactly a present. It’s your birthday cake.”
“Ah, Callie, that’s so sweet.”
“I told Daddy not to buy a cake because I was bringing one. I can’t wait for you to see it.”
She carried the cake into the kitchen of her parents’ River Oaks home.
“Who else is coming?” she asked.
“Just family.”
Just family. Ha. That meant a full house, given the size of their family.
“Josh Junior,” Mama continued.
Of course. Josh was Daddy’s mini-me, working with him in the real estate development business Daddy had taken over from Mama’s family.
“And Griff is coming.”
“Oh my God! Really?”
Mama smiled, clearly happy to see her other son. “Yes. He flew from Florida just for the party.”
Mama and Daddy weren’t happy Griff had taken off for Florida years ago, when they thought he should have been working in the family business, but Griff had always been the black sheep of the family. Callie missed him so much, but she understood his rebellion. Where she’d tried so hard to please Mama and Daddy, Griff had enjoyed pissing them off. She and Griff had a bond, a feeling of being on the outside of their own family, while Josh Junior was the favored son.
“And Aunt Emily and Uncle Jason are coming, and of course Grandma and Grandpa Sutherland.”
“I can’t wait to see them. I love your dress,” she said truthfully. The black-and-white print dress draped perfectly over Mama’s slim frame. “Is it new?”
“Yes. From Manon. She told me she offered you your old job. Are you going to go back there?”
“I don’t know. Probably not.”
“What would you like to drink, dear? We’ll open the champagne later, but we can have a glass of white wine now if you’d like.”
“Sure.” She could probably handle one glass of wine after her excesses the other night.
Mama poured wine and handed her a glass. Then the front door opened and voices carried through to the back of the house. “Oh, someone is here. Excuse me.”
Mama’s high heels tapped against the hardwood floor as she hurried off.
“Hey, cupcake.”
Callie turned to see her father enter the kitchen. He was handsome at fifty-four, his still-dark hair thick and shiny. His short beard and mustache were neatly trimmed, but his eyebrows were as wild as always.
She smiled at the childhood nickname. Apparently she’d loved sweets since birth. She moved toward him for a hug. “Hi, Daddy.”
When she’d learned that he had cheated on her mother more than once, she’d felt let down and betrayed. She’d lost respect for her father. But she’d come to realize that while her parents had been together thirty years, they weren’t exactly the poster couple for love matches. From some things her mother had said after she’d revealed that news, Callie now believed that her father had likely married Mama for her wealthy family’s social and business connections. That seemed to work fine for Mama, too.
But he was still her daddy, and she loved him.
“I had lunch with Beau the other day.” Dad poured himself a glass of bourbon. “He says he misses you.”
Callie’s eyebrows flew up, and she swallowed a sigh of annoyance. “Too bad he didn’t miss me when he was screwing around with all those other women.”
“Language, young lady.”
“Oh please, Daddy. I could say much worse.” Her jaw tight, she took a small sip of her wine.
“He was the perfect husband for you, Callie.”
She stared at her daddy. How could Beau be perfect when he was a cheater? But that just showed what her father valued in life. Beau’s family connections and business acumen were apparently what mattered most.
Even though lately she’d been questioning the extent of her feelings for Beau, nobody wanted to be cheated on. It was humiliating and insulting. It only reinforced her belief that she wasn’t really worth loving. Her parents had basically ignored their children while they went about their lives, hiring expensive nannies and sending them to swish summer camps. She’d tried so hard to be perfect so they’d love her, and when she’d married Beau, she’d finally felt their approval. Her divorce put a sharp end to that.
“Let’s go see who’s here,” she said quietly, moving past her father.
More and more people were arriving, filling the spacious living room with laughter and chatter. She greeted her brother Josh with a lukewarm hug, then turned to her cousins, keeping a smile firmly in place.
When Griff walked in, she flew across the room to greet him.
“Callie!” Her brother gave her a long squeeze.
“I’ve missed you so much, dammit.” She sniffled and smiled up at him, her chest full of emotion. They’d kept in touch, but it
had been too long since she’d seen him. “Whoa. You need a haircut.”
He shook his head, grinning. He now wore his long blond hair pulled up into a bun that she was sure Mama and Daddy despised. But she had to admit, it suited him.
She gave his shoulder a punch and whispered, “How could you leave me here alone with them?” She rolled her eyes at their family.
“You can handle them. Plus, you left, too, taking off to Europe all on your own.” His eyes crinkled up at the corners. “So, I heard Kristy threw you a divorce party.”
“Yeah. Crazy idea, but it was fun. How long are you staying?”
“Just tonight.”
“Damn.” She pouted. “That’s way too short.”
Their conversation was interrupted by Mama hurrying over to greet Griff, and then Mama dragged him off to see Grandma and Grandpa Sutherland, who’d driven in from White Willow Ranch. Callie studied Daddy and Josh Junior as they watched Griff with identical narrowed eyes from across the room. Yep, neither of them was rushing over to see Griff. Callie’s shoulders tensed.
She answered questions from her extended family about her European trip, as she hadn’t seen most of these people since she’d gotten back a month ago. She told them about the little flat she’d rented in Paris while working at the patisserie, the things she’d learned, the sights she’d seen.
Much discussion at the party centered around worries about the oil industry. The crash in the price of oil had definitely caused some turmoil in the Sutherland family. Although the price of oil had revived briefly last spring, it had recently plunged to a new low. The Sutherland fortunes weren’t at risk, as the family had diversified, but the economy in Texas as a whole was affected, and even Daddy was concerned about his real estate development business as other companies scaled back on expansion plans.
The doorbell rang again. Mama was busy talking to Uncle Aaron and his son, Callie’s cousin Nash, so Callie moved to answer it.
Her ex-husband stood in the doorway with a small wrapped gift in his hands.
“Beau.”
“Callie.” He gave her an up-and-down look. “Hi.”
She wanted to close her eyes and drop her chin to her chest. She hadn’t really thought her parents would invite Beau. But Jesus tap-dancing Christ, here he was. She couldn’t even make herself smile as she stepped back. “Come in.”
She could do this. She was over him. It had been more than a year since they’d split up and longer than that since he’d broken her heart. She’d been gone much of the last year, so she hadn’t seen him a lot. But she was over him.
“You look beautiful, Callie,” Beau said in a low voice.
“Thank you.” She kept her tone light. He looked good, too. He always had. His dark-gold hair swept across his forehead. His square chin, firm lips, and high cheekbones gave him an elegant look, and his body was big and fit in his tailored suit. Like Cash, he’d played college football, which was how they’d met, and he’d stayed in shape since then.
“I was hoping I’d see you tonight.” He kept his tone quiet. “We should talk.”
She frowned. “About what?” The divorce was final, everything had been sorted out by their attorneys without animosity or fighting, and there was nothing left to talk about.
“Us.” He met her eyes. “I miss you.”
“Oh right.” She’d already heard that from Daddy, so her jaw didn’t hit the hardwood floor. “I think you’re just confused.”
His forehead creased. “What?”
She waved a hand, smiling. “You don’t miss me, Beau. If anything, you miss being married. But you’ll find some other sucker, er, some other woman to settle down with. Now come on in and say happy birthday to Mama.”
She breezed past him and into the living room, heading for the bar at the far end, where she poured herself another glass of wine and gulped half of it down.
Eeek. She’d better control herself. She had to drive home. There was no Cash here to rescue her tonight. She turned to see that Beau had followed her. He was walking toward Mama, but his eyes were on her, his expression somber and thoughtful.
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, I so don’t want to go to this thing alone.”
“Why are you even going?”
“It’s for a good cause.” She sighed. “Also, Manon is heavily involved in it, as a breast cancer survivor and as a fashion businesswoman, so I bought tickets and I have to show up. Plus I’ve spent the last week in my kitchen baking. I need to get out.”
Jesus. She was going crazy with the baked goods. “Okay, yeah, too much time in your kitchen bonding with that KitchenAid appliance is probably not healthy.”
Her laugh was sof
t and sexy. “Probably not. I’ll pay you back in cookies for going to the charity event with me. I made these freakin’ awesome salted caramel shortbread ones.”
“Oh man.” His mouth watered. “I’m down with that. What time should I pick you up?”
“Cocktails are at six. It’s at the Garden Oaks Country Club.”
Of course it was. Cash was still on the waiting list for a membership but golfed there with Beau, whose family had been members of the club for years. With its pricy membership fee and long waiting list to join, it was one of the most prestigious country clubs in Houston. He didn’t give two fucks about prestige, but he had to admit that knowing the right people was important in business.
“You sure you don’t already have plans for tonight?” Callie asked.
“Nah. I’ll pick you up.”
These swanky galas weren’t his favorite thing to do, but he’d gotten used to them, thanks largely to Beau. Cash hadn’t grown up in the same kind of affluence Beau and Callie had, but since he and Beau had become friends as freshmen at UT, he’d been introduced to that world. Now, as partners in a company that was successful in no small part due to all those connections in the business world, Cash had accepted that schmoozing was a necessary evil.
He ended the call and dropped his cell phone to the desk in his office, gazing out the window overlooking the busy West Loop. Traffic flowed by this sunny Friday morning, and he knew it was already hotter than Hell’s basement on the day of reckoning outside the cool air conditioning of the office building.
Talmadge Hale Consulting specialized in electric transmission and distribution, which was Cash’s area, and oil and gas processing plants, which was Beau’s. They’d recently been awarded a project to design the replacement of about a mile and a half of 26.4 kilovolts overhead conductor along Kirby Drive. The project also included the design for a lighting system to meet Texas Department of Transportation standards.
This was another in a string of huge projects they’d successfully bid for over the last couple of years. They’d worked their asses off, both of them driven and competitive, and their company had grown rapidly. They’d increased their staff to keep up with the workload but still put in a lot of late nights working hard to meet deadlines.
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