She stood there for a few moments, staring at her phone and wondering if he would decide to text her back despite his goodnight. She vowed not to reply if he did. She’d just had a date with a handsome, decent guy. Exactly the kind of guy she had been looking for. And, most importantly, there would be a second date. She needed to stop whatever it was she was doing here.
I bet you’re still seeing it.
The muscles low in her belly quivered as she stared at his previous text message. The words were branded on her. She closed her eyes and released a hissing breath. After a moment, she closed out the screen and moved into her contacts so that she could edit his name again.
She changed him from Giver of Orgasms to Arrogant Cock. She told herself he would be less appealing that way.
TWELVE
Sunday dinner with her father and brother wasn’t quite everything she had expected it would be. There was no sweet nostalgia about coming home and cooking in the same kitchen she had been cooking in for the few years since she’d returned home.
Maybe it was too soon. She hadn’t moved out and been in her own place for very long and it felt almost like she had never moved out at all as she opened familiar drawers and cupboards. As she refreshed Dad’s and Hale’s drinks. As she brought them crudités and dip where they lounged in the living room watching a game on TV. She turned the mixer on high so that it whipped the potatoes to a nice, airy consistency, frowning at the explosion of shouts carrying from the living room.
It felt as though she had slipped through a wormhole. Like she hadn’t broken free at all. Like she was still in the same rut she was desperately trying to escape.
Except there was North Callaghan in her life now. He was very un-rut-like.
She scowled. He’s not in your life. He’s the opposite of in your life.
She finished preparing the rest of dinner over Dad’s and Hale’s exclamations at the TV. She had always marveled at them when they shouted and addressed the players. Did they think the players on TV could hear them?
When she called them to the table, it didn’t take long for them to start grilling her about work—apparently they had heard about the outburst at the courthouse the other day.
“I don’t understand why you can’t pick a different career, Faithy.” Hale smeared butter onto his bread as he offered this to the conversation.
Her father followed the observation with “Why can’t you just get married? Settle down and have a couple kids?”
“Woah, let’s not go that far.” Hale held up a hand and pulled a face that seemed to indicate how repellent that idea was to him. Probably because it meant that his sister would have sex. Her father might as well have suggested she start hooking.
She resisted snapping at her father. In his world, marriage and kids meant she wouldn’t work anymore. Her dad was very old-school in that capacity. It would never cross his mind she might want to continue working after starting a family.
Also, in his mind, Faith’s mom had loved staying home and being a wife and mother. Dying young and leaving all that behind had not been her choice. It had been her greatest regret. For Faith to protest this seemed like an insult to her mother.
She tore off a hunk of bread and liberally lathered it with butter. She deserved carbs right now. Dad kept talking and she endured it, opting not to tell them about her date with Brendan. It might lift their hopes too much.
And then there was the matter of her neighbor. She didn’t expect to have to avoid the subject of him. Her family knew nothing about him. Her anonymous neighbor would not cross their minds. They would never bring him up. She had Doris’s word that she wouldn’t say anything to Hale about him. But Callaghan had been on her mind so much lately that it felt as though he were another thing she was hiding.
Then her brother went ahead and surprised her. As though he could read her mind, he asked, “Meet your neighbor yet?”
Hale poured a generous amount of gravy over his mashed potatoes. It rolled close to the edge of his plate, threatening to spill over onto her mother’s plaid green place mats. That much gravy would leave her bloated for a week, but not Hale. Her brother was six feet five inches of honed muscle. Her mother had always pointed to their Viking ancestry as the culprit for their great size.
“No,” she said. Too quickly.
“No?” He looked up. “You been in your place over a week now and you haven’t met your neighbor.”
Yeah, that sounded odd. “I’ve been working late.” She shrugged, then felt relief as that led her father into a diatribe about her working too long and not getting out there and meeting her future husband.