I look down at Cat. "I guess he wanted to say goodnight."
"Bad timing, buddy." Nash reaches down to pet him. "Why don't you go to your cat bed?"
Cat remains at Nash's feet, meowing.
"Does he need to be fed?" Nash asks.
"He still has food in his dish. I think he just wants to see you."
Nash secures his arms around me again. "He'll have to wait. I'm busy with someone else right now." He kisses me and his bare chest brushes against my skin, which feels incredibly good. If I don't stop this, we'll end up doing it.
"You were right," I say, pulling away. "We shouldn't do this."
"I never said we shouldn't. I just wanted to make sure you were ready."
I chew on my lip. "I am, I just...I just think it's a bad idea."
"I thought so too, but I'm starting to change my mind." His hands grip my waist and his head dips down to kiss my neck. It feels so, so good.
"Nash, we can't do this," I whisper.
"Tell me why," he whispers back.
"Because..." I close my eyes as he leaves kisses along the top of my shoulder. "Because you're only here for the summer."
"So are you. You go to school in Chicago. I live in Chicago. We'll both be there in the fall."
Shit. I wasn't thinking about that. To him, this must seem like the perfect arrangement. We're both here for the summer, then we both move back to Chicago in the fall. Except I'm not moving back. I don't go to school there anymore. And I don't have a house there. This is my home now.
I reluctantly push him back. "I'm just not ready for this."
His brows rise. "Ready for what? Sex? Or dating me?"
"Either." It's such a lie. If I wasn't such a mess, I'd gladly do both of those things with him. "You should go." It comes out rushed, because if I didn't hurry and get the words out, I wouldn't be able to say them. What I want is for him to stay. To not be alone in this house tonight. To have one night where I'm not alone.
"You okay?" He steps back, his eyes on mine, his hands gently holding my arms.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I force out a smile.
"You don't seem fine." He drags me over to the couch to sit down. "Callie, why won't you tell me what's wrong? I know you're upset about something, so just tell me. Maybe I can help."
"I'm not upset. There's nothing wrong." I get up and go to the kitchen to get my shirt. "I won't be able to come over in the morning. Lou needs me to come in early to make cupcakes for Princess Katie."
"Who's that?" he asks, standing up as I bring him his shirt.
"The girl who brought you the brownies. The hot blonde who wants to go out with you."
He slips his shirt over his arms. "She doesn't want to go out with me. Not after I brushed her off like I did."
"She won't give up that easily. She goes after what she wants until she gets it."
"She can try all she wants, but she's not getting me. I've got my eye on someone else." He comes up to me and plants a kiss on my mouth. "And I'm going to keep pestering her until she agrees to go out with me." He leaves his shirt undone and walks to the door. "See you tomorrow."
"Yeah. Bye." I go to close the door, but he turns around, holding it open.
"I forgot to ask. Can I have your dad's phone number? I want to talk to him about the sidewalk repair before I do it. Or your mom. Either one. You told your parents I'm fixing it, right?"
Panic takes over the blissful place I was at just moments earlier, causing me to focus on the buttons on my shirt. One, two, three, four...
"Callie?" I feel Nash's hand on my arm. "Why are you counting?"
"I wasn't counting."
"You were counting under your breath. Is it that math major thing again, because I gotta say, that's kind of odd. I don't get it."
And that's why I can't be with him. He wouldn't understand me and what I'm going through and what I have to do to make it through each day. The past few days, I thought I was getting better, but this just now proves that I'm not. He asked me a question and I shut down, counting without even realizing it.
Nash admitted it. It's odd. I'm odd. And not someone he'd ever want to be with if he knew the truth.
Chapter Fourteen
Nash
Callie still hasn't answered my question and she looks nervous, her fingers fumbling with her shirt as she tries to button it.
I take her hands and move them down to her sides. "Why don't you just leave it? It's late, and you're going to put your pajamas on as soon as I go, right?"
She nods. "Yeah."
Something's wrong. She's quiet, withdrawn, and she won't look at me.
"Callie, I need to talk to your parents before I fix the concrete. I need to make sure they're okay with it."
"They are," she says. "I told them."
"Okay, but I want to describe the process so they know what it'll look like when it's done. I'm repairing the cracks but the seams will show and I need to know they're okay with that. I don't want them suing me later."
"They won't sue you. They'd never do that."
"Is there any way they could come down here this weekend so they could see what it looks like before I finish?"