Peyton tucked her hair behind her ear and then crossed her arms, waiting for an explanation to his early morning visit. “Again, can I help you with something, Callum?” she asked with an irritated tone to her voice.
“Will you be at the hotel today? I stopped by yesterday but you weren’t there. Marissa called and sent over some drafts of the dance floor, some selections on silverware, and other ideas,” he said.
“Wait.” Peyton uncrossed her arms. “Why didn’t she just email them to me? Why is she going through you?” she asked, slightly offended.
“I almost lost them The Spencer-Dayle, so I owe it to them to make sure everything is ready. And Marissa wants constant updates and having Oscar up my ass will get her them. So, will you be at the hotel today?”
This time, it was Callum who folded his arms over his chest. She noticed that he was wearing a green, long-sleeved shirt. It was cool out, but she wasn’t sure if it really warranted a long top.
Peyton closed her eyes, knowing that what she said next would affect the next few weeks of her life. She would be working close with the man who had broken her heart and betrayed her trust.
“Yeah. I’ll be there at around eleven,” she answered.
Callum’s lips curved upwards. “Sure. I’ll see—”
“Peyton, where’d you put the bread?” Graham yelled, making Callum stop.
His smile faded. “I’ll see you at the hotel at eleven,” Callum said before she watched him walk down the steps towards the house across the road.
“See you then,” Peyton whispered to herself.
When Callum entered his house, Peyton closed her front door, her forehead pressing on the stained glass. She closed her eyes and reminded her heart to stop the achy throbs it was doing. It was business between them. But she couldn’t help but feel dejected by the events that had occurred over the past couple of days.
He’d said that he’d never let her fall in love with him, that love wasn’t on the table between them. The seventeen-year-old in her died inside. In a perfect world, Callum Reid wouldn’t have left her on that early Monday morning.
“He’s gone?” Graham’s voice had a layer of concern in it.
Peyton took a deep breath before she turned and smiled at him. He was still shirtless. “Quite the performance you gave there, Graham.”
Graham nodded with a victorious smile. “I could do a whole lot better. You tell me when I need to go another level and I’ll have you on a wall, kissing me.”
She burst out laughing.
“What? You don’t think we’d make him jealous if he saw us kissing?” Graham cocked a brow.
She chuckled at his confusion. “I don’t think we’d make him jealous, Graham. Not when he doesn’t care. This is all just for my forgiveness. He doesn’t want me. Now, did you actually make me breakfast or was that part of the performance, too?” Peyton took a step forward and gave him her best puppy-dog eyes.
His hands cradled her face. “Froot Loops are in a bowl, waiting for you, and your tea with lemon is there, too.” Then he kissed the top of her head.
“God, you are perfect! I’m going to marry you,” Peyton said once he let her go.
“You’d make me a really happy man, Peyton Spencer.”
“At least I’d make someone happy to be with me. We still on with that promise of ours?” She looked down at the promise ring on her left hand. A ring he’d given her a year after Callum had left town.
Graham took her left hand and bent down on one knee. “Peyton Spencer, do you still agree to marry me if we both go unwedded by the time we’re forty?”
She let out a laugh as the excitement twinkled in his blue eyes. Then she tilted her head and smiled at him. “You did put a ring on it…so I’m still kinda promised to be married to you.” He got up off his knee and wrapped his arms around her. The feeling of Graham’s solid and strong heartbeat against her ear was one that made her chest warm.
“No Jay and no Callum. It’s us, Peyton. You and me.”
She smiled because it was always just them. No one could ever out-love the love she had for Graham.
“Always.”
Peyton checked the time on her watch. She still had twenty minutes before she had to meet Callum at the hotel. She would get there before him and work through a game plan on how to deal with him. Life could not alter in any way since he had returned. This town was no longer his to call home and her heart was no longer his to claim. She shivered against the cold wind as she walked through the lane of trees and up the hill that led to the lake.