Page 99 of Seven Year Itch
Calder nods. “So do you want kids at all?”
I wipe away the dab of snowflakes melting down my cheek. “I’m not yearning to have them really, but if I met the right guy and we were good, I think I’d come around to the idea. I still really want that happily-ever-after.”
Calder licks his lips and turns to look away, and I notice the muscle in his jaw twitch.
I shift my foot in his lap. “Do you want kids?”
He laughs. “Considering I don’t even want a girlfriend, I don’t think I have any business wanting kids.”
“Wyatt was planning to be a single dad before he fell for Trista, right?”
“Wyatt and I are very different.”
I eye him and nod. “Yes, you sure are. But in a good way, I think.”
Silence descends before Calder says, “I wish I knew all that stuff about your house. Your big dreams. Why the renovation was so important to you. I maybe would have... I don’t know... had more patience with you or something.”
I cringe when I think about what a nag I was back then. “I was no picnic either. I was under so much pressure with the wedding planning, and I know I took it out on you.”
“I know, but I want you to know I am sorry. I said a lot of shit that day of the incident, and I hate myself for it.”
A knot forms in my throat as my mind drifts back to that awful day.
Dakota
Seven Years Earlier
“Oh my God!” I scream from the floor of my bedroom closet. My knees and shoes are soaked in the three inches of standing water covering every square inch of the flooring. Now it’s crawling up the walls.
Loud footsteps pound up the stairs, and I turn when Calder’s wide frame fills the doorway. He has faded jeans on, a flannel, a tool belt, and a look of sheer panic all over his face. He’s out of breath from running to the basement where he was shutting the waterline off after we discovered the disaster in my upstairs bathroom.
“My wedding dress is ruined,” I cry, tears falling down my face as I hold up the stained, dripping wet skirt of my dress for him to see. The wet fabric fused to the wall during the flooding, and since the closet is covered in red floral wallpaper, the bottom of my dress now looks like a crime scene. Whoever chose to wallpaper a freaking closet needs their head examined, but that’s exactly why we’re in the middle of a giant renovation.
“I’ll pay for it to be cleaned,” Calder says, his boots thwacking across the wet floor as he comes to squat down by me.
“This is dye, Calder. You can’t just spray some stain remover on it and throw it in the wash. And who knows how long it’s been sitting here like this!”
“Can I pay for another dress?” he asks, shoving a trembling hand through his hair.
“This was a custom design from one of my best friends!” I cry, my blood pressure skyrocketing as that reality settles in over me. “And I’m getting married in three days.”
“What do you want from me, Dakota? It was an accident.” Calder’s tone is harsh, and I feel the rage bubbling in my veins.
“I want to go back in time and never have hired you,” I sob, shaking my head in disbelief. It’s been such a nightmare working with Calder these past few months, and we were in the home stretch. I was finally going to be rid of him for good. My tone is bitter and harsh when I add, “There’sa reason you work with your dad and your brothers. You are so careless. Reckless! You need supervision. You’re not responsible enough to do a solo job. Just look at this damage.”
I gesture to the warped trim and walls all around me.
His eyes flare as he grinds his jaw back and forth. “Maybe if you didn’t micromanage every goddamn thing I did, I could have done my job with a bit more confidence. And if you’re going to melt down over every little setback, maybe you shouldn’t be renovating a house on your own to begin with.”
“This isn’t alittle setback!” I scream and chuck my dress away to stand up and face him. My finger jabs into his chest as the blood rushes to my cheeks. “I swear you did this on purpose. You’re so antiwoman, anti-wedding, anti-relationships... you can’t stand anyone to actually be happy.”
“There you go, Dakota. You got me all figured out!” he roars, flinging his hands out wide.
“Damn straight I do, Killer Calder,” I roar, my tone lethal. “You’ve killed my house and my wedding, and I regret the day I ever agreed to hire you.”
The silence is deafening as he stares back at me. “If your wedding can be so easily killed, then maybe you shouldn’t be marrying this guy in the first place.”
My jaw drops as I bark out a noise of indignation. “Like I’m going to take relationship advice from you. You’ve never even had a real girlfriend. You’re too much of a joke for anyone to ever fall in love with you.”
