Page 44 of Your Place or Mine

“Understatement of the year,” Drew said, laughing dryly. “The man once refused to go to the doctor for a dislocated shoulder becausehe could still move the other arm.”

“Yeah,” I said, smiling despite myself. “And then he lecturedmeabout common sense.”

We both laughed softly. But the edge of that memory cut deeper than I liked to admit, and it collided with the one of…her.

The love of my life…

“I catch myself sounding like him sometimes,” I muttered, staring at the wall. “When I talk to customers. When I fix something the hard way just because I don’t trust the easy one. When I snap before I think. It’s like… I became him without realizing it.”

Drew didn’t argue.

He didn’t have to.

He knew it was true.

“But he was proud of you,” Drew said quietly. “He loved that you took the bar and made it yours. He just… didn’t always know how to say it.”

“Yeah, well,” I muttered, throat tight. “That’s a family tradition, isn’t it?”

I felt Drew’s eyes on me. “You know you don’t have to be like him.”

I looked over at him.

“You don’t have to carry it all alone, Callum. You don’t have to grit your teeth through everything and pretend you’re fine when you’re clearly not.”

“I’m fine,” I said, a little too quickly.

He raised an eyebrow. “Are you?”

I looked away. “I’m fine.”

Drew didn’t push, but the air between us got heavier. We both knew I wasn’t.

Not really.

I hadn’t been since Dad passed.

Since my wife passed.

Since I found myself standing in the back room of the bar we’d built together, staring at the old photo of our family hanging above the register and wondering if I was living my dream or just clinging to his because I didn’t know how to let it go.

“I think you keep everything so close to the chest,” Drew said, “because you’re afraid that if you let one piece fall out, the whole thing will come crashing down.”

I frowned.

“Maybe you’re not wrong,” I said after a moment. “But it’s not like I’ve got time to unravel. Someone’s gotta keep things running.”

“Yeah,” he said. “But you don’t have to do it like he did. You don’t have to push everyone away and act surprised when you’re the only one in the room.”

That one stung more than I expected.

Because he wasn’t wrong.

And I hated that he wasn’t wrong.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” I admitted, voice low. “With Lydia. With any of it. One minute I’m furious she’s here, the next I’m… distracted.”

“By how hot she is?”

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