Page 55 of Diving In

“Georgia James, I see your darkness, and I feel the pain that you attempt to mask on a daily basis. You hurt all over, but instead of dealing with that hurt, you ignore it. You push it away, overplanning and strategically filling your schedule so you don’t have any time to face the demons that have haunted you for so long. I’m afraid you’re going to plan yourself into a hole until one day all your scars are going to show themselves without warning. That’s the kind of pain you won’t be able to plan away. And that, Georgia, is going to be your demise,” he finished on a sigh.

His words hit me like a freight train. I felt a tear leaking from the corner of my eye and hastily swiped it away. “Cal, you have no fucking right! You can’t—”

“I can and I will. Listen to me. You have the potential to be the brightest light in the room, to really set this whole damn world on fire, but if you don’t realize it soon, it’s going to be too late. You’ll go back to New York and return to living a mediocre life that’s completely and 100% predictable, and if that’s what you want, then fine. But please promise me one thing…” He paused long enough to reposition himself, grabbing my attention and looking at me so deeply in the eyes that I could feel his gaze searching for something.

“Don’t let your whole life happen while you’re waiting for your whole life to happen. If not for Jack, or Fletcher, or me, then do it for yourself. You deserve that much, even if you don’t believe it,” he suggested.

“Just like I did that day on the pier, I’ll always stand up for you. I’ll always have your back. That will never change. I said it once and I’ll say it as many times as I need to until you actually believe it…” My heart plunged and dizziness spread as he inched closer to me, leaning in until his lips were just barely touching my ear, and he whispered, “I’ve got you.”

“From the moment I saw you that first day at the aquarium, you felt familiar. You felt like home,” I admitted.

I hadn’t anticipated sharing so much, but then again, I never did with him. Even still, I somehow always ended up sharing everything, words coming so easily around him. And even now, I wanted to share more, but instead, I tried to remind myself of how pissed off I was at him for conveniently forgetting to mention he had a girlfriend. Blair Warner, no less.

“How could you not tell me about her?” I asked, staring at the ground.

When Cal wasn’t responding, I slowly raised my head to meet his gaze. Instead, I saw he was staring at something behind me, and when I turned around, I knew our conversation was about to be cut short.

Ian was causally strolling down the stairs in a pair of fancy dark jeans, a black collared button-up, and a pair of loafers. His hair was freshly gelled, and he was wearing enough cologne to ensure he could be smelled from a mile away.

I didn’t know how long Cal and I had been talking, but I was sure it was longer than most normal front-door conversations.

“G, who’s this?” Ian causally asked.

Thankfully, he had zero fucking clue that this was the man who, less than twenty-four hours ago, gave me the best orgasms I’d ever had.

Yes, I said orgasms, as in plural.

I looked over at Ian, then Cal, then back at Ian. I was at a complete fucking loss as to what to do here.

“I-I worked with Jack at the aquarium. I just had a few last-minute things that I needed to tell Georgia,” Cal stuttered.

My heart sank. Jack’s employee was the furthest thing from what this man was to me, but I knew it was best if we kept it simple and got right to the point. I watched as the emotion faded from Cal’s face, and regardless of the anger I was still working through and the conversations we needed to have, I didn’t like to see him hurt.

“Ian,” Ian said as he reached his hand out to shake Cal’s.

“Ian, nice to meet you. Georgia’s told me all about you,” Cal claimed as his eyes sliced straight into mine. I moved back and forth between the both of them, getting more and more uncomfortable. “I’d better get going. I’ve got a long list of things to do back at the aquarium. It was nice to meet you, Ian. I hope you two have a safe flight back to New York.”

He reached out to shake Ian’s hand. Then it was my turn, and to my surprise, without hesitation, he stepped closer, wrapping me in what I could only imagine would be our last hug.

“I’m so sorry about Jack,” he whispered, loud enough for Ian to hear.

He was trying to make it seem like this was related to the loss of Jack and not to anything else we may have shared, not wanting Ian to have the chance to pick up on it.

Although Ian had already moved away from the front door and was somewhere in the kitchen clinking glasses together.

Cal released me before making his way down the steps. He made it about halfway before circling back around to face me. “Rene. BlairReneWarner is her name, and we’re not together.”

CHAPTER 21

Ijust stood there, motionless, time standing still around me. I was completely fucking shook to my core.

By the time I glanced back up, Cal was already in his Jeep. I watched as he casually put the car in drive and pulled out.

Blair Rene Warner…BRW.

So the initials on his bracelet weren’t Blair’s.

With that newfound knowledge came a wave of emotion that I had already buried away once, made far easier when I’d believed that he and Blair were together. Now that that had been cleared up, and Cal in fact was not seeing Blair, my thoughts and feelings were raging in all different directions. I wanted—no, Ineededto talk to Cal. I had to know more. It was easy to write him off when I thought he was already in a committed relationship, but now things had just got a tad more complicated.

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