“Nonsense. You’re both reasonable people. Go on up there and talk to her. I’m sure you can get things sorted out.”
“Nothing can fix a bad lay, Ma,” Wes said with a smirk.
Lightning fast, I reached over and punched him in the arm. He deserved worse, but I’d have to settle for that.
“He’s wrong about the lay, but he’s right about nothing fixing this. I think it’s over, Ma. I just need to move on.” I reached for another cookie and she smacked my hand away. For a woman who wasn’t a werewolf and had no extra abilities, she sure could hit hard.
“No. I’m not accepting that. I like Callie and I want her to keep coming around, so you need to go fix things. I don’t care if you need to beg, grovel, or just pick her up and kiss her. You go make things better and then bring her down for a visit. I want her to see how well my snapdragons are doing.”
My head spun with everything Mom said as I tried to settle on just one thought.
She wanted me to fix this, no matter what the outcome. I guess I could do that much for her. I owed the woman my life, the least I could do was make sure things weren’t awkward between me and Callie anymore so she would still visit and at least one of us would get to spend time with her.
I stood up and snatched another cookie off the tray. “All right, Ma. I’ll try one more time.”
Chapter 28
Callie
Heartbreak.
I’d used to think it was an exaggeration.
A personification.
Hearts can pump blood, they can race in your chest, they can clog, they can stop beating, but how can a heart break? It’s not like someone reached in and snapped it in half. It just never made sense to me before.
Now, everything was different.
Now, I could feel the fissures in my heart, the cracks and gouges made by a careless man who’d been reckless with it.
I still blamed myself partially. Wasn’t it my idea to not give up on him? To give him a second, third, and then fourth chance? I was the idiot for not learning the first time. Wyatt Carter couldn’t be trusted. Not with this. Not with my fragile heart.
I covered the abused organ with a shaking hand as tears continued to trickle down my face. I used to try to stem their flow, but that took too much effort. No matter what I did, the moment I was alone in my room, the heartache I’d walked around with all day would gather in my eyes and leak down my face.
I sat on the bench next to the window that overlooked the field where the enforcers practiced and tried to figure out where things had gone so wrong. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized they were never really right to begin with.
How many times did a man have to walk away from me before I accepted the fact that he was never going to stick around? Apparently, that answer was four.
My phone buzzed and my fingers itched to check it, but I knew who it would be, and I knew I shouldn’t read it.
Wyatt had been texting me for weeks, his messages getting more desperate as time went on. I’d typed out so many responses to him and never sent a single one. Even now, there were things I wanted to say, things I wanted to yell at him, but I didn’t. I couldn’t. Because beneath all the anger was an ocean of hurt, and I was currently filling it with my tears.
My phone vibrated again, and I glanced at the lit-up screen before turning away. I knew it would just be more of the same. He’d have some lame excuse for the way he acted, and I, being so infatuated with him, would believe all his pretty words and welcome him back into my life.
Well, no more.
It was time for me to cut the cord for good and be done with him. No matter how much it hurt. No matter how wrong it felt. No matter what my heart screamed in the silence of my bedroom. I needed to let him go if I was ever going to get me back.
My phone vibrated again, and curiosity finally got the best of me. I wiped the tears as best I could so I could see straight. Pulling up my messages, I read them one by one.
Wyatt: Please, just give me 5 minutes. After that you can ignore me again.
Wyatt: Callie, you need to let me make this better. Please.
And finally, the text that sent my heart into my throat and my hands trembling.
Wyatt: I’m outside your door. Let me in.
I glanced at my bedroom door with wide, frightened eyes. He had to be bluffing, right? There was no way he was really up here, where anyone could see him.
I heard a soft knock before my phone vibrated again.
Wyatt: If you don’t let me in, I’m going to knock loud enough that your sisters will hear, and I know you don’t want that.
Blackmail.
He was freaking blackmailing me right now.
Rage raced through my veins as I jumped up from my seat and stormed across the room. Without thinking it through, I whipped my door open to find Wyatt with eyes wide open and his hand poised
