Page 55 of What Hurts Us

“Yeah, yeah,” Cal muttered.

“Congratulations, Dubs,” Shane said as he gave me a stiff hug.

Another voice echoed across the porch. I turned and spotted Bethany Hale. “Um, sweetheart,” I said, turning to Cal. “You remember my friend, Beth?”

Cal nodded. “From the barbecue fundraiser at the fire station.”

Beth nodded as she joined the group. “That’s me.” She looked down at the engagement ring on my hand. “So, I see things have… Escalated.”

While Cal distracted Shane with a question about a call the department had responded to, I pulled Beth aside and tipped my head to the boys. Smiling through gritted teeth, I said, “You’re the only one who knows how and why this—” I wiggled my hand, showing off the ring “—happened.”

Beth glanced at Shane and nodded. Her gaze lingered on the sleeves of tattoos wrapped around his arms. “Mum’s the word. Got it.”

“Shane, this is my friend, Beth. Beth, this is Shane Hutchins. He’s a paramedic in town.” I made the cursory introductions, and Beth and Shane shook hands.

“Hi,” she said cheerily.

Shane nearly choked on his tongue as he took her in. It was adorable seeing the badass, former military man getting tongue-tied around a tiny ray of Hale sunshine.

“There y’all are!” The shriek from the bubbly, wannabe southern belle nearly shattered the windows.

Brandie Jean Palmer, in all her bubblegum pink and spray-tanned glory, pranced over to the four of us in sky-high stilettos covered in silver glitter. The shoes would have snapped my ankles clean off my body.

She snatched my hand with her manicured claws and studied the ring. “Well, well, well. The rumors are true!” I couldn’t tell if her excited squeal was sincere. All I knew was that she had scared a flock of birds out of a tree with the decibel. “Louisa Mae told me all about the big proposal while she touched up my roots.” She dug her fingers into the bleached hair piled high on her head, fluffing it out. “I’m justsohappy for y’all! And I got you the perfect engagement present!”

Cal hid his fear well, but it was there, hiding behind his eyes. He swallowed. “Oh, we really don’t need anything, BJ.”

“Nonsense,” she said, rummaging around in her purse. She pulled out an envelope and handed it to me. I half expected it to be a gift card to a tanning bed. Or maybe a referral letter to her plastic surgeon. With terrified hands, I opened the envelope and pulled out the gift certificate to … a photographer?

“It’s for engagement pictures!” she said, clapping as she jumped up and down.

Beth snorted.

“I can’t believe you didn’t hire a photographer to document your proposal, Callum,” she chided. “So, I wanted to make sure you had pictures from the best of the best. Her name is Ashley. If you tell her I referred you, I bet she’d give you a deal on your wedding photos too! Now, I know y’all are busy bees, so I took the liberty of calling around and finding out your work schedules and already booked your engagement session time. It’s tomorrow!”

Someone needed to call a town meeting to discuss personal privacy.

Either this woman was the most oblivious bimbo to walk the planet, or she was … genuinely happy for us.

It was unnerving. Like at any moment, I’d find a bedazzled shiv baked into a pie.At least with what Cal told me about her lethal cooking, I wouldn’t be tempted to eat it.

We moved inside to mingle, accepting the congratulations that were forced upon us. It was odd standing beside Callum and watching him interact with the town. He kneweveryone.And not just their names. He knew who farmed what, who was in poor health, whose kid had made the honor roll for the first time. He knew it all.

And he cared.Deeply. I saw it in the way he made eye contact, asking probing questions to get to the root of how people were doing. For a man of few words—a man who preferred solace—he was awfully chatty when it came to making sure everyone was okay.

It was his damn party, but he didn’t let it stay that way. For a moment, I wondered if anything had ever been just about Callum Fletcher.

19

CALLUM

“Hello?” I rubbed my eyes and tried to get the sleep out of my voice with a rumble of my throat.

“What the hell are you still doing in bed, boy?” Gran screeched. “You’re burnin’ daylight! I know I raised you better than that.”

I opened a bleary eye at the old school alarm clock on my nightstand. It wasn’t even six-thirty yet. I rolled over and closed my eyes again. “Blame the fools who had me for the first fifteen years of my life. Not everyone wakes up with the sun like you.”

Gran snickered. “Those idiots are wasting the life the good Lord gave ’em. We all get the same number of hours in a day. Use as many as you can.”

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