“So where is she?”
“Fuck if I know.”
***
As night falls, I’m exhausted and worried out of my mind. Adam and I looked everywhere we could think of for Callie, and couldn’t find her. She obviously doesn’t want to be found.
And that just pisses me off. It’s not fair for her to worry us this way. Even a text to let me know she’s okay is all I need.
My phone rings in my hand and I answer before it can ring a second time. “Yeah.”
“It’s Charly,” my sister says. “What are you doing?”
“I just got home. I’ve been looking for Callie.”
“Can’t find her?” she asks.
“No, and I’m really worried. Do you know where she is?”
“Yep,” she says, totally throwing me. It never occurred to me that my own sisters might know where she is.
“Where is she?” I demand, standing and grabbing for my keys.
“I’m not telling.”
“Excuse me?”
She clears her throat at the sound of my voice. “She’s safe, Dec, but she’s hurt, and she just needs some time to think.”
“I’ve given her two fucking days,” I growl. “I’m tired, worried, and I need to see her.”
“And you will,” Charly says. “I’ll call you in the morning and let you know where you can find her. But for tonight, she needs to be left alone.”
“Fuck that, Charly. This is all way more dramatic than it needs to be.”
“For you,” she says. “You can be the knight on the white horse tomorrow. She just wants to be left alone for today.”
I sigh and sit back down, scrubbing my hand over my face. Christ, I can’t sleep without her.
“This isn’t fair, Charly.”
“Neither was not speaking to her for days, then going out with another woman,” she says. “I love you, and you will always have my loyalty, but the woman meant for you wants one more night to think, and you’re going to give it to her.”
“Does she hate me?” I whisper.
“She’s so in love with you she’s stupid with it,” she says. “I think you’ll figure it all out, and one more night won’t kill you.”
“Thank you for being there for her.” I love that my sisters like Callie. It’s important to me that they do. Because they’re going to have her in their lives for a very long time.
“I like her,” she says simply. “We all do.”
“I do too.”
“All I’ll say is this: when you do talk to her tomorrow, really listen to her. Okay?”
“Okay.”
Chapter Eighteen
Two Days Earlier…
Callie
I can’t believe he walked away. I mean, he didn’t even say anything; he just walked away.
I’m lying in bed the next morning. Actually, I think it’s almost afternoon now, and I just keep replaying the last twenty-four hours in my head, over and over again.
It’s beginning to feel like it didn’t really happen to me, and instead it was a bad movie.
But it did happen. Declan blew me off, and then went out with someone else, and instead of talking to me about it, he walked away.
Un-fucking-believable.
“Cal?” Adam says from the other side of the door, knocking softly. “Are you awake?”
“No.”
“Okay, I’ll tell Declan’s sisters to leave on my way out,” he says and walks away.
Damn it.
I peel the covers back and wince when I see the outfit of leggings and an old, stained cami, and then decide, who cares? I’m sure they own the same outfit.
They’re women, after all.
I walk out to the kitchen, and there they are, looking way too much like their damn brother.
“Hi, guys.”
“Hey, Callie.” Charly raises a brow and looks me up and down, then grins. “I have the same outfit.”
“It’s the standard girl outfit,” Van says, nodding. “So, I talked to my brother this morning, and—”
“I don’t want to know,” I say immediately, holding up a hand, already on the verge of tears. “I can’t do this.”
And now the tears do come, and I hate it.