Page 20 of Almost Perfect
You better get your mind back on this salad, genius.
“Really glad you decided to come,” Warrick said, taking her jacket.
I saw this from the corner of my eye. For some reason, having her in my home had me on alert like she was a threat to me. Didn’t make a lick of sense. I slipped the rolls into the oven for a warm-up—Warrick had brought them from Rise and Shine earlier so they’d be perfect. I appreciated his willingness to swing by there, though last I recalled, he didn’t eat bread.
“So nice to see you again,” Mom said, sounding entirely normal.
Way to go, Mom.
“And you remember my brother, Wyatt,” Warrick said, completely unnecessarily because he knew damn well she remembered me.
We all knew she remembered me because I’d been a grade A jackass to her thus far.
I turned from the oven and set eyes on her. When our gazes locked, my stomach dropped to my ankles.Whoa, she was beautiful.
In fairness, I hadn’t really seen her yet. The first night, she’d had her hat pulled low over her eyes, but I knew she was gorgeous even before I found out she was Miss Mayhem. Then the encounter heading into town—she’d been so bundled, and I’d been actively trying not to look at her closely. Same with shoveling, though I’d had a harder time not noticing the curve of her lips or her dark eyes.
And yesterday, the crying… Of course I’d been more focused on the shame of having been such a jerk and concern about her distress—at least my head had been in the right place then.
But now? Standing in my home only a few feet from me in the soft light of the living room, I could confirm it. There was no longer any doubt about it and no point denying the truth that hit me squarely in the eyes at the sight of her.
Callaway Rice—Miss Mayhem, whatever—wasperfection. She was, bar none, the most aggressively stunning person I’d ever seen in my life. And I knew some beautiful people.
Tonight, her hair was down around her face in waves. She wore a creamy, soft-looking sweater and jeans. I’d bet she had on those same boots from the first few times I’d seen her. If she wore makeup, it was starkly different than whatever she wore in photoshoots and on magazine covers—but that made sense, didn’t it? That was a persona, or maybe character was a better word. Here, maybe this was too, but I liked this one.
Now there’s an understatement.
“Yes. Hello, Wyatt.”
Her voice shook me from my dazed cataloging of her and shoved me back into the moment. “Hello, Ms. Rice.”
She winced. “Just Calla.”
A foreign little star shot across the night sky cavity of my chest and burst. “Okay. Hello, Calla.”
She had dark brows but not quite as dark as her hair. Her lashes were—
“Well, great. Wyatt, is dinner ready?”
Warrick’s overly cheery voice snagged my attention and I looked up to see him giving me a wide-eyed look that he must’ve thought I could read. Mostly, I realized I’d been staring at Calla. But she’d been staring back.
How long had we been standing there?
“Uh, just another two minutes to warm the rolls. Can you watch them while I speak to Calla for just a minute?” My eyes shifted to find hers, pointedly ignoring my mom’s beaming smile. “That okay?”
Her brow wrinkled but she nodded. “Sure.”
I stepped out of the kitchen and down the hallway toward the guest bathroom. I couldn’t figure out where else to go—if not in the living room, which had a built-in audience, then all that was left was the home gym Warrick had set up for me years ago, my office, and bedrooms.
Definitely not a bedroom.
I turned to find her looking at the framed photos lining each wall. Photos from our growing-up years, and some from even farther back—our parents’ childhoods, and in some cases, their parents’. We even had a few super old photos from the turn of the twentieth century, but those were at the other end of the hallway.
When I spoke, my voice emerged low and oddly gruff. “Are you okay?”
A pained look crossed her face, but before she could speak, I did again. “Sorry. I don’t mean to sound like—I don’t know. I just couldn’t stop thinking about you. It’s lonely out here, and I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”
She blinked, obviously surprised, and her voice came out in a rough wisp.
