Page 104 of Penalty to the Heart

“Hello, sir,” Caleb greets, far too formal for my liking, as he extends his hand for Rex to shake.

“It’s good to see you again, son,” Rex replies in earnest, shaking his hand. “I must say that things don’t quite feel the same around here without you Donovans. How is your brother doing, Caleb?”

“As well as can be expected, sir. Actually, I won’t be staying long tonight since I’d like to pass by the hospital to visit him.”

“As you should.” Rex pats him on the shoulder, pleased with Caleb’s priorities. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m just going to steal Roxanne from you for a little bit. I’d like to catch up with her since I’ve been too busy lately to do so.”

“That’s fine by me, sir. As long as you bring her back,” Caleb replies with a warning.

But instead of Rex being offended by Caleb’s tone, he busts out a loud chuckle instead.

“I knew I liked you. You know a true prize when you see it. Good on you, kid. I promise I’ll bring your woman right back.”

And before I’m able to set the story straight, Rex pulls me away from Caleb, already talking my ear off about something else.

To my bitter chagrin, I make the idiotic decision of looking over my shoulder in Caleb’s direction, finding an intensity in his eyes that shouldn’t excite me as much as it does.

Chapter 20

Caleb

I usually stay clear of these types of black-tie events. But I wouldn’t miss this one for anything in the world.

Without her knowing it, I glanced over Roxanne’s schedule and saw she would attend Rex’s farewell party. That was all the incentive I needed to buy a tux and come. I’d never pass up the opportunity to see her outside of office hours. Lately, spending time with Roxanne is the only way I feel normal. Or at least as normal as a person like me can consider themselves to be.

But damn…

I was not prepared for how beautiful she would look tonight.

The woman is a vision.

If I had it my way, she’d be in my arms for the rest of the night, just dancing along to the orchestra. I never thought I’d like listening to classical music as much as I did until I had her in my arms. I could fucking dance the whole night through and never get tired of it.

But alas, since this is Rex’s going away party, I can’t keep Roxanne all to myself.

I have to learn to share her with her friends.

I fucking hate sharing.

And to my dismay, Rex didn’t bring her back to me like he promised.

Instead, he passed her along to Trent Nichols, no less.

Argh.

Luckily, Piper has been doing her best to keep my mind off her man dancing with my girl.

Or maybe not.

“Everything okay? You look upset,” she asks worriedly as we continue to sway to the music.

“I’m good,” is my clipped reply.

“Are you sure? Because you look like you are about to kill someone just with your eyes. Who are you staring at?” Piper asks before looking over her shoulder to follow my line of sight. When she sees that my deathly glare is aimed at her boyfriend, she lets out a sigh.

“I know you’re still upset with Trent for suspending you from the team, but he had no choice, Caleb. You made it impossible for him to bat for you with Laurie. And right now, Laurie calls the shots. You have to get past this animosity with Trent.”

“Yeah, whatever,” I reply dismissively, still staring at my girl dancing the night away in another man’s arms. “Are they friends or something?”

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