Page 24 of We Thought We Knew It All
Her lips quivered, and I hated myself for causing it.
“Going out to California was the hardest thing I’d ever done.” She reached for my hand, but then thought better of it. “You have to understand. I was so alone. Things weren’t going well with my father at first. He didn’t know what to do with me. Then there was this boy-er, man - he was eight years older. Dylan and I were immediate friends. We surfed. He took me to parties to meet people. He even helped me connect with my dad. And then I found out I was pregnant.”
She covered her face in her hands. “I was so lonely, Jamie. I just wanted you.”
I put my arm around her shoulders, letting her bury her face in my chest. She was shaking with tears and it broke my heart to think of her going through that.
“Dylan offered to marry me, and that was the beginning. I was thankful to just be taken care of. It took three kids, eight years, and his affair to realize he didn’t love me. He cared about me, but I was also a leg up in my father’s company. I left him and he let me go.”
She coughed out a laugh. “If I keep giving pieces of my heart to each sexy surfer I meet, I won’t have anything left.”
“Hey.” I tilted her chin up, so she was looking at me. “Dylan is an idiot.”
She laughed and relaxed into my arms as her sniffling stopped. “Don’t I know it.”
* * *
I carriedthe sleeping Liam into the house, Callie directing me back toward her old room. It still looked the same. There were Star Wars sheets on the bed and toys tucked away, but it still felt like her.
“Well, it’s cleaner than when you lived in here.” I laughed.
“Hey,” she protested. “I wasn’t that bad.”
“How much do you want to bet that if we went into your room, we’d find clothes thrown along the floor right now?” I laid Liam on the bed and backed away as Callie coughed uncomfortably at the mention of her room.
I was so out of practice dealing with normal girls - if she could be called normal. There hadn’t been anyone since Jess. I breathed out slowly, letting the awkwardness settle.
“Liam is my orderly one,” she said quietly. “Luckily, he takes after his father on that.”
Dylan. That jerk who once again found his way between us. A part of me wanted to get out of this town as soon as possible, but then I looked into Callie’s eyes. Eyes that pleaded for someone to be there for her.
I shut the door to Liam’s room as Callie shifted Declan in her arms and headed toward Colby’s old room to deposit him.
Back in the living room, Jacks was sitting on the floor in front of the TV watching some cartoon. I watched him in fascination, feeling as if I was looking at what my life would have been with different choices. He said he was nine, meaning there’d only been very little time between me leaving and him being conceived.
That could have been us.
As soon as I thought it, I knew it wouldn’t have been right. I needed the army as much as I suspected Callie had needed Jackson. They both gave us something to believe in.
We should have been able to believe in each other.
But we hadn’t. Not really. We were just a couple of scared kids figuring out that life outside the bubble of our small town was a lot bigger than we’d imagined.
I gently touched the back of Jackson’s head as Callie came out.
“I should go.” I wanted nothing more than to stay there with her, but I needed a bit of space. This wasn’t my family. As right as it felt today, the boys weren’t mine. They had a father. I had to remember that.
“Okay.” She looked down for a moment in disappointment. When she raised her chin, the girl I knew so well had returned. The strength in her eyes had only grown over the years. I imagined it had to. She wasn’t only being strong for herself anymore.
I hesitated at the door for a moment, smiling slightly before stepping out.
Inside my truck, I rubbed a hand over my face.
My cell vibrated in my pocket and I pulled it out, grinning at the name that appeared.
“Barrette.”
“Daniels, my good man.”
