“I do say so.” I’d done just that.
She sighed. “So how did you two meet?”
“She came into Beat for self-defense classes,” I replied. “I started training her one-on-one, and we got to know one another.”
Mum sighed. “I suppose that explains it.”
“What do you mean?” I frowned, not wanting to entertain her passive-aggressive mannerisms today, especially since I was still sore about last night’s fiasco.
“She seemed very skittish, darling.”
My grip tightened on my phone. “She’s had a rough couple of years.”
“Really? That doesn’t sound good at all. What happened to her?”
I hesitated. I didn’t know. I’d fallen for Juliette, and I still didn’t know. Should I be worried about it more than I was? I’d told her I would give her all the time she needed, but I was invested in this relationship now. Big time. Did I have a right to know about her past?
“I’m not entirely sure,” I muttered.
“You don’t know?” Mum asked, sounding scandalized. “Caleb,honey.”
“That’s between us,” I replied, beginning to lose my temper. “Listen, Mom, I’ve gotta go. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
“All right, but be careful, darling.”
I ended the call before I got into yet another full-blown argument. Be careful? Of what?
Getting out of the car, I slammed the door closed behind me, unable to shake the feeling something wasn’t right. Damn them! I gathered this was what my parents were aiming for. The seed of doubt. They didn’t think Juliette was acceptable, so now they were manipulating the situation to get me to break up with her. It was so fucking high school.
Grabbing my gym bag off the back seat, I locked up the car and strode into Beat, intending to train until I dropped. Anything to work out all this pent-up aggression.
Then tomorrow, I would see Juliette and be reassured everything was okay.
Because it was.
23
Juliette
The expo had goneoff without a hitch.
Jade and the other department heads were currently patting themselves on the back for a job well done, but I was sitting at my desk, seething.
I’d done all that work and missed meeting authors, agents, editors, and all kinds of industry people at the reception Saturday night?. I’d missed it for Caleb, but his family… His father had offered me fifty thousand dollars to dump him. It was absurd and totally fucked up. There would be other book events, but there was only one Caleb Carmichael. ????
I’d skipped Monday training, telling him I was exhausted after the weekend. Tuesday came and went, and no word from him. I didn’t lift a finger to contact him, either, since my nerves were completely shot. I didn’t know if I should tell him about his father’s offer or even how to go about confiding my whole sordid story.
Wednesday morning? dawned, and I went to work as usual, nowhere near closer to gathering the courage to come clean. Sitting at my desk, I lifted my can of energy drink to my lips and sipped absently, my mind askew. ????
I’d told Mr. Carmichael I loved his son.I loved Caleb.
It was obvious now that I was thinking about it. How close we’d become in such a short amount of time, the little pieces I’d been able to tell him about my past, the way he made me feel when we were alone, my lack of inhibitions during sex. I was completely comfortable with him, and the shell I’d hidden in to protect myself from the world wasn’t there when he was with me. It all pointed to the one conclusion.
I was in love with Caleb. I’d fallen completely for him and hadn’t even realized until it had come down to the wire.
He made me see the possibilities I never knew existed for someone like me. He made me feel good about myself. I admired him, and he believed in me. I wanted him to be the first thing I saw when I woke up every morning. I just wanted to be with him. Always.
I knew I had to tell him everything when I went to training. It was my last chance. I was standing on the precipice of a cliff. Either I would fall into darkness and break apart on the rocks below or Caleb would pull me back from the ledge and make me the happiest woman there ever was. It was that simple. He would love me, or he would hate me.