Page 84 of Make it Real
Wasn’t sure how much sleep I’d got last night, only knew my brain had been full of Callie since our last kiss. Frankly, since long before that, but our mind-blowing goodnight had replaced all the background noise, my body lighting up with longing and need on every replay.
Probably a bad idea for me to be on the road in this distracted state. If I kept thinking about that perfect kiss, I could land the truck in the ditch. Would hate to see that police report. Cause of accident: daydreaming about girlfriend.
I knocked on Callie’s front door, nerves creating a whirlpool in my stomach. By this point, I’d expected all the women to be there, ready to take pictures as if we were off to prom, but when Suzie opened the door, she stood there alone.
“Come on in, Callie’s not quite ready.”
“I’m a little early.” I followed her inside, my eyes stuck on the other side of the room where my date would emerge any second now.
“Don’t mind the mess,” she said, side-stepping moving boxes. “We’re down to the wire here.”
“Are you ready for Monday?”
She turned to me, and I saw the stupidity of the question in her eyes. She might be physically ready, her things packed away all set to go, but emotionally, she wasn’t ready to leave and might never truly be.
“I’m ready for the next phase of my life, but I’m not ready to leave my Callie behind. We’ve been through a lot, just the two of us. It’s hard to go my own way.” She nodded as if she needed to reassure herself. “But I can relax knowing you’re here to take care of her.”
I liked the thought, but it irritated, too, like an itchy tag in an otherwise soft shirt.
“Callie’s a lot stronger than you give her credit for. She doesn’t need me to take care of her.”
Part of me wanted to rail against my own words and claim she did need me, but I was no fool. She wanted me, maybe. I thought so and hoped so. But that woman did notneedme for a single thing.
“Everybody needs someone to take care of them,” Suzie said simply.
Whatever argument my mouth dropped open to say died in my throat when Callie walked into the room. Her high-neck, sleeveless dress did a tight, bunching thing on the top, and fell from her waist in long, off-set tiers I couldn’t have coherently described if I’d had a hundred years. All I knew was the fern green dress proved both elegant enough to make me feel underdressed in my suit and tie, and casual enough to fit right in for a wedding on a farm.
“You look…” Yup, that was all I got out. I wanted to sweep her up into my arms, hold her close, and tell her how gorgeous she was, but instead, I barely squeaked out two words.
Killing it, Jed.
She crossed the room to me and spun a circle, showing off how those tier things swayed when she moved. The effect proved mesmerizing and did nothing for my completely absent brain. I needed a minute to recover my senses, but every view of her just sent me straight back to speechlessness.
“What do you think?” she asked. “Does it look good?”
Gooddidn’t come close.Gorgeous. Perfect. Brain-numbingly tantalizing.Those fit a touch better.
I finally recovered a sliver of my senses. “I think I want to forget all about the wedding.”
Her gran laughed, and I remembered we had an audience.
“You look handsome, yourself.” Callie’s eyes skated down my body and up again, and I caught a tint of color in her cheeks. “I like you in that suit.”
I ran a hand down the pressed jacket. “Beige, though.”
“Definitely not drab.”
Her grin shone out, glorious and playful. That grin made me want to drive somewhere we could be alone, not surrounded by forty other people for the evening. And really, we didn’thaveto go to the wedding, did we?
The image of June hunting me down for skipping out on her wedding woke me out of that daydream. I held my elbow out to Callie, and she stepped up to loop her arm through mine.
“You kids have fun,” Suzie said. “I’m going to do another walk through and make sure I don’t forget anything.”
“Are you ready?” I asked Callie.
She winked, and I think my heart exploded.
“Let’s do this.”
