Even now, my hands remembered exactly how her curves felt beneath them. My mouth remembered the way she tasted. Her whole body was imprinted on mine and I knew nothing could change that.
Before I’d had a chance to pull the Jeep to a stop, Elizabeth jumped out and ran toward Abraham. I cracked a smile at them and shook my head as I turned the engine off and climbed out myself.
My first instinct had been to hop out and run to Callie too, but I’d refrained. I knew I wouldn’t get the warm welcome Elizabeth was getting. She hadn’t answered any of my texts in weeks and hadn’t been in the lodge any time I’d been able to come by and check. I’d done just about everything I could think of to get her to talk to me and none of it was working.
I grabbed our bags from my trunk and headed toward the lodge. When I got around the front of the Jeep, I found the sisters surrounding Elizabeth, but I only had eyes for one in particular.
Callie had her arms wrapped around Elizabeth as I walked up to them. Her eyes met mine and widened for a moment before she looked away and took a step back.
Elizabeth turned to me and frowned. “Wyatt, you don’t have to do that. I can get them.”
I shook my head. “I got it.”
I nodded hello to Abraham and the other sisters before my gaze locked on Callie. I came to a stop just a few feet away from her and took a minute to rake my eyes down her length. “Callista,” I said. Dozens more words flooded my mouth, but I held them back. Now wasn’t the time or place for any of them.
With her eyes still on the ground, she said, “Hello, Wyatt.”
Only two words.
Just four syllables, but it was more than I’d gotten from her in almost a month and it was enough to send my heart racing again. Before anyone could notice, I nodded one more time and took off for the lodge.
I heard Elizabeth comment on the strangeness of our encounter, and my ears strained to hear a reply from Callie, but none came. With a shake of my head, I carried Elizabeth’s bags up to their room before heading toward my house to greet Mom and Wes.
I’d only be home for a couple days before having to go back out to Raleigh with Elizabeth, so I had to make my time count. I needed to find a way to get Callie to talk to me before I left again, or I’d be stuck spending another week hundreds of miles away with zero communication from her.
Me: It was nice seeing you today. Are you free sometime this weekend? We could get lunch somewhere.
I waited hours, and when no response came, I wrote her one more text before I went to sleep.
Me: You can’t avoid me forever. You know we need to talk.
Right before I hit send, I added one more sentence, knowing it made me vulnerable, but also knowing it might be the only way to get through to her.
I miss you.
***
I looked down at my phone for the dozenth time in the last thirty minutes and frowned at the empty inbox. I’d been waiting all day to hear back from Callie, but so far, I’d had nothing but silence from her.
It was late Saturday night, which meant I only had one more full day to spend trying to get her to talk to me before I had to leave again. But I was running out of options.
I’d already been up to the lodge for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but she’d been absent from every meal. I’d almost worked up the courage to ask her sisters about her at lunch but chickened out. I knew how private Callie was, which meant she wouldn’t appreciate me talking to her sisters about her. Besides, I was being a bit of a punk anyway.
I wanted to see Callie, but I was also terrified of coming face to face with her. Most of that stemmed from the fact that I had literally no idea what was going on or why she’d run away from me.
I’d thought things were taking a turn for the better with us.
After seeing her fight Aubrey, knowing full well I was part of the reason behind the animosity, I’d decided I was done running from her. Done running from myself. I wanted her, and I’d promised to do whatever it took to have her.
And when I’d kissed her in that bathroom, every emotion I’d worked to suppress came surging to the surface. Every desire, every wish, every late-night dirty thought ran through my brain and I knew I’d never wanted anything more than Callie McCoy.
Knew I’d never want anything ever again as long as I could have her.
And when she finally opened up to me, when she stopped fighting what’s always been between us and let me touch her, my whole world tipped back upright. I hadn’t even realized it’d been upside down for so long, but with Callie’s soft skin beneath my fingertips and her taste on my tongue, my entire universe aligned, and everything made sense.
Until we were done.
When the haze of our lovemaking subsided, I’d been ready to carry her upstairs and do it again, but better and for longer, when she ran away from me. I stood there in that bathroom with my pants around my ankles for far longer than was appropriate, absolutely stunned at the turn of events.
Now, she wouldn’t talk to me.
Now, she wouldn’t see me.
Now, I
