Page 179 of Well Played

Matt picked up Callie’s gym bag and handed it over, giving her a smile that sent shivers down Callie’s spine. She was glad that she was wearing her hoodie; her nipples would be showing through her shirt. Pulling back inside, she put the bag down and did her best to concentrate. They still needed to get things into the house and then Ben was going to start on the cooking for dinner. Callie was starving.

She couldn’t be gawking at two of the most handsome guys she had come across in a long time. That wasn’t going to get anything done.

“Why don’t you call your kids, Callie?” Matt suggested once all of the bags were inside and Ben locked the car. “Or do you want to grab a bedroom first?”

“I’ll probably do both.” Callie picked up her gym bag. “You said there were five beds and four bedrooms, Ben?”

“Yeah, one is a double twin bed.” Ben was putting the food in the fridge. “Matt and I can take that so you can sleep in one of the double beds, if you want.”

“Are you sure?”

“It’s fine. We were planning on taking that one so you and Daisy could use the double beds.” Ben winked at Matt. “I’m sure we can find ways to…entertain ourselves.”

Matt rolled his eyes.

“Given you’ve claimed you only last about two minutes, I definitely need to find something else to entertain myself. Otherwise I’m going to get bored.”

“Hey, that’s not what you said last night.”

Matt stuck up two fingers in Ben’ direction, which just made Ben laugh. Callie giggled. The banter between the two of them was relaxed and hilarious. No sexual tension, just a lot of hilarity. Matt was not the jokester that Ben was - he was certainly more relaxed - but he joined in with the crude remarks without batting an eyelid. They were a good pair.

Callie realised that she was looking at Ben’ backside again and turned away.

“I’ll go and snag one of the double beds, then. I won’t be long.”

“Take your time. We’ve got plenty of it this evening.” Ben ducked his head back into the fridge. “It’s going to take me about forty-five minutes to get the food ready, so make yourself at home. I hope you are hungry.”

“I know I am,” Matt declared.

“You’re always hungry, Matt. I’m surprised you don’t stop eating.”

Matt laughed and picked up his bag, slinging it over his shoulder. Then he nodded at Callie.

“Let’s go and explore the house, then. See what there is to last us for the next few days.”

Callie was happy to do that, but she hoped that she would get up the stairs quickly without thinking about Matt potentially staring at her backside. She certainly wasn’t going to let him go first, otherwise she would be eyeing his bum.

If only Daisy was with her right now. Then Callie might feel like she wasn’t going to go mad.

The upstairs was justas huge as the downstairs. The twin bedroom was at the back next to the main bathroom, which seemed to have a black and white decor with everything in the shape of a square. Callie eyed the toilet, wondering if it would be small enough. She had some curves, and she was worried if she sat on the toilet with a square seat she was going to fall through. That would definitely cause some hilarity.

She chose one of the two double bedrooms, one that didn’t have a floor-to-ceiling window across from the bed with full view of the house across the street. With the curtains open, Callie felt a bit exposed. The other bedroom had a bit of privacy, at the very least.

Setting her back on the floor, Callie sat on the bed and checked her phone. Even though she hadn’t used it, she had barely any charge. How was that possible? She needed a new phone if it was behaving like this. Putting her charger into the wall socket, Callie hooked up her phone and watched as it started to charge properly. At least there was plenty of signal; she would be able to talk to her kids. Bradley and Kara would have had their dinner by now and would be chilling for the evening.

She missed them. This was going to be the longest time she had been away from them, but Callie knew it would be fine.They were nine and eleven, not clingy little kids anymore. But they were also in the middle of being independent and needing someone to watch them. Bradley could manage for a couple of hours, but Kara was far too young. Callie hoped that Drew realised that; his mindset was if he could trust them he would leave them home alone for an evening.

He’d better not do that, or Callie was going to come down on him for something so stupid.

Taking a deep breath, Callie called her ex’s number. Drew picked up on the third ring.

“Hello?”

“Hey, it’s me. We’re in Cardiff now.”

“Okay.”

There was a moment’s silence. Callie was used to having long conversations about nothing with Drew, but he kept their talks to a minimum. That was probably for the best; even all this time later, he was still hurting.

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