Page 5 of Committed to Her

I dart away quickly, not watching where I’m going and slam into a massive wall of warm muscle.

“Shit!” I bounce off of it and grimace. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

“That part’s obvious, kitten. But at least I got to touch you again.”

My head jerks up and I groan in my head. All those damn years I’ve managed to avoid Caleb Mercer, all for nought. He stands in front of me, his full lips twisted and his dark eyes sparkling with something indefinable that warms up my insides.

“I’m not here right now. You can’t see me,” I blurt out like a dagnabbed crazy person.

His head comes up and his lips widen into a full-blown grin. The look of hellish glee on his face makes me backpedal quickly.

One inch then two then about fifty more. That’s what I fucking need. If only this bar was a helluva lot bigger.

“What are you doing here, Caleb Mercer?”

His dark brow lifts and he grunts at me, the smirk on his face fading to nothing.

“It’s a free country, Val. Didn’t you know that anybody can get a drink here?”

I sniff and my eyes dart up and down his long, lean yet muscular frame. “I wasn’t aware that they let riff-raff in. Maybe I should leave.”

He grabs my arm when I turn to leave. “That’s the best you’ve got? I haven’t even talked to you in years and this is what you lead with, Val?”

I grind my teeth and attempt not to run my claws, which are biting into the palms of my hands, across his arm. “Don’t call me Val!”

“It’s your name, kitten. What else would I call you?”

“I’d hope you wouldn’t call me anything.”

I see a quick flash of pain in his dark as night eyes and sigh, knowing that I just can’t keep hurting both of us this way.

“Fine, Caleb. What do you want?”

His broad shoulders bunch up around his ears and he pushes his hands through his hair. “Is it too much to ask you to talk to me? I mean, we used to be the best of friends, Val. Not that long ago.”

“That feels like a lifetime ago.”

He shakes his head and with his hand on my elbow, leads me back to a seat along the wall, trying to stay back from the drunken shenanigans going on in the crowded bar.

“It wasn’t. Although I’ve really missed you, Val. You’ve been avoiding me since I got back home. I’ve tried to talk to you multiple times but you just run away.”

“There’s nothing to say, Cal. Nothing at all. We went our separate ways and it took you longer to find your way home than it did for me.” I had to come home and lick my wounds in peace, for the first time unsure of my steps in this big, bad world.

“Val,” he breathes. “I’ve missed you. Every damn day since I left it felt like I couldn’t breathe without you. I waited as long as I could to come back but now that I’m home I was hoping that you’d at least talk to me.”

Squaring my shoulders, I jerk back from his touch, the warmness of him right next to me making my poor head reel. I’ve missed him too. Ached for him every single day, every hour. But after how stupid I was when he was gone, I don’t trust my own feelings, my own rationale any more.

“I’m talking to you right now.”

A brusque shake of his head and a frown from his dark eyes has me gritting my teeth to hold back a moan. He’s too damn good-looking, too tempting. And I’m too big a fool.

“No. You’re letting me talk at you. You’re not actually talkingtome. I was hoping that you’d talk to me again. Like we used to.” His tanned brow creases. “Like telling me why the hell you didn’t finish school and what’s made you back off and run. The Val I know wouldn’t tuck tail like this. Whatever hit her, she’d get up and keep pushing back. She’s a fighter.”

I stand up and stare down at him, fighting to keep the wobble out of my voice. The tears welling up even though I refuse to let him see even one of them fall. “She was a fighter, Cal. She found out that sometimes you just don’t win the fight. You’ve got to tuck tail to keep a little piece of your pride and sanity sometimes.”

I turn and then smile slightly over my shoulder. “Good-bye, Caleb. Have a good life.”

And I walk away from the best thing I never had. The only boy I’ve ever loved and the one that I watched walk away from me at eighteen and break my heart.

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