Page 55 of Soaring Free
“I’m … I’m not sure about that yet. But I think it was the right decision to come here, at least I hope so.” She glances to the front door as a group of high schoolers come in. “I better go help them, enjoy your cinnamon rolls y’all!”
“I thought you said she wasn’t running away from you anymore after those women were rude to you,” I quietly ask.
“She hasn’t, well, until today, I guess. Maybe she’s just an odd duck that marches to her own drum.” Savannah shrugs as she cuts off a piece of her cinnamon roll. “Mmmm, so good!” Savannah declares as she takes a bite of her own roll. There’s a small smear of icing on the corner of her mouth, and without even thinking, I reach out to brush it away with my thumb. I meant to bring it back to my own lips, but Savannah turns her head quickly and licks it right off my finger. “Mine.”
She’s a queen in her own right, but she makes me feel like I’m king of the world when she looks at me like that.
“Careful, baby. You play with fire, you might get burned,” I tell her as all of my blood rushes directly to my cock that is now jealous of my thumb. Savannah giggles but I wouldn’t mind consuming her like a wildfire, although not here. I’m too much of a possessive asshole to want to share any of her sweet sounds with anyone else. We catch up on a few mundane things before I ask how the previous evening went with Shane taking the girls to dinner. “I’m glad he finally showed up though instead of cancelling. How did it go for the girls?”
She looks away at the question and purses her lips before rolling her bottom lip between her front teeth. I sit up a bit straighter—something isn’t right.
“Well, it went fine, uh, overall, until we had a little … situation.” She squints her eyes and scrunches her nose like that’s not the right word.
I don’t like it.
“What happened and why am I just hearing about this?” I tilt my head and focus on keeping my voice even and calm. If he put his hands on her again, I will bash his face in. “If something happened, you should have called me last night.”
“All cards on the table?” Savannah’s gaze drops down to her lap.
I reach over and place two fingers under her chin to raise her face up to look at me in the eye. “Yes, that’s what I bring and that’s what I expect in return.”
“I figured you’d say that.” She huffs. “I didn’t tell you yet because I was a little embarrassed about it.” Her gaze falls to her hands that are fidgeting with her coffee’s straw.
I try to keep my tone as neutral as possible. “What embarrassed you? Did he do something?”
“No, I mean, he figuratively pushed me into a corner and I reacted.” If he actually pushed her, or physically touched her at all, I would hunt him down with or without her brothers as backup.
“Savannah. I need you to start at the beginning and explain in detail what happened, okay?”
She nods. “Okay, so I told you how he got pissed when I mentioned someone else was joining my brothers’ poker game during the bullshit meeting, right?” She sure did, and I loved that she threw that at him.
“So, I don’t know what made him remember he had children, but he actually showed up and took the girls to dinner. Which was great because they miss their dad and he has been so distant with them, and that’s not what I ever wanted, you know?” I nod, I know she doesn’t want to keep her girls from their dad. She also doesn’t want them to be pawns between the two of them in any capacity. “I was on the porch reading prior to them getting back. After they said goodbye to him, the girls went inside and Shane made some comment about whoever I was bringing around or going to the poker game was never going to be good enough for the Callahans, and they won’t be happy with whomever it is when that day comes. I responded by saying who said I haven’t already brought him around my family, and he pushed a bit more, saying it didn’t matter because they wouldn’t ever really be included and would also be an outsider like he was.” She pauses and this must be the part she’s embarrassed about.
“Then what happened?” I lean toward her and grab her hand, giving it a squeeze. Whatever it is, it can’t be that bad.
“Then I put my foot right in my mouth. He said that when I’m sitting at Vivian’s wedding alone to remember that my family makes it hard for anyone to be good enough to be with me.”
“He said that about your family?” I rear back. That’s not at all the vibe I get from her brothers, and that statement makes no sense, nor does her embarrassment about it.
“Yeah, and it pissed me off because my family is not a group of assholes like that. So, I was probably responding from a place of anger when I said the joke was on him because I wasn’t going to be alone at the wedding, and in fact … you were going to be my date.” She covers her face but I can still see the blush on her cheeks. “I’m sorry! I’ll make up some excuse why you don’t go, or admit I was just trying to piss him off.”
“Did it piss him off?” I grin.
“Oh, so much, it was awesome.” She throws her head back as she laughs.
“Well then, let’s not make you a liar. I’ll go with you to Vivian’s wedding.” I shrug like I’m doing her a favor, but I don’t want anyone else to accompany her to a family wedding, or any other event for that matter.
“Um, it’s in mid-September in Texas at Walker’s family’s ranch.”
“Okay.” I shrug. It doesn’t matter if it’s in Paris next week, or down by the river in two hours, I’d make it work to be there for and with her.
“It’s a small wedding, just our family and a few of their friends. We’re taking Jack’s jet, so you could just come with us.”
“I’ll just have to make sure Pippa can watch Gigi.”
“Well, if not, she could come too if you wanted, but I get if it’s too soon for that. Of course it’s up to you, whatever works.” She blushes even deeper and it spreads down her chest. She’s so nervous about this and I find that incredibly endearing. She rolls her lips over her teeth and looks anywhere but at me. I reach for her hand again and squeeze.
“Sounds great. And if Pippa can’t watch her, I’m sure Gigi would love to come too.” Her grin lights up the room like the blazing sun. I don’t know what she expected me to say, but she obviouslydoesn’t know me well enough if she thought I would ever let her look like a fool to her ex, or hell, say no to spending time with her in any capacity.
