Page 135 of He Loves Me Knot

What was it that Isla had said to him the night before he’d come down here?

“You’re miserable. And I can’t remember the last time I saw you truly happy.”

I was happy this morning.

While Liddy was mine.Even if it had been temporary.

Until Sergio had shown up and everything had gone to hell.

This shouldn’t be so difficult.

He turned the faucet on and splashed water on his face. That he was having such a hard time doing this was unnerving and incomprehensible. Sure, he’d known Liddy for two years now, but how had she possibly managed to get under his skin this way in just a few short days?

He’d had plenty of casual flings. They’d been forgettable, no matter how good the sex had been.

That wasn’t the sum total of his experiences, though—he knew the other side. A committed relationship. A fiancée.

When that had ended, though, he’d been angry. Moving on from Sophia to other women had felt easy enough, and he’d told himself it was easy not to miss her after what she’d done.

But the idea of not having Liddy in his arms again . . . was a strange additional torment.

He shaved his face, then peeled the wet clothes from his cold, clammy skin. A shower did little to break the deep chill permeating through his muscles.

Once he’d dressed, he left the bathroom.

Liddy was gone, of course, as she should be.

Good.

She went with Sergio.

Even on the slim chance that she hadn’t, it didn’t matter. He had to stick to the plan.

His belongings didn’t take long to gather, considering he’d barely spent time in the room. As he finished packing his bag, a knock came from the door.

“Open up,” Isla called from the other side.

He suppressed a groan. As much as he loved his sister, he’d been looking forward to slipping away from here for a while.

Callum opened the door, and Isla breezed through without waiting for him to ask her inside. “I’ve been looking for you,” she said, then plopped down on the unmade bed. She wrinkled her nose at the state of the sheets. “Wow, you had some fun last night in here, didn’t you?”

He crossed his arms. “Is there a point to this?”

“Aiden was looking for you. Apparently, the wedding planner is going mad trying to pull some last-minute wedding for tomorrow together, and Aiden thought it would be good to remove some guests from the hotel—throw Quinn an impromptu stag night. He needs all the groomsmen.”

Callum frowned. “And he couldn’t just call me?”

“You haven’t been the easiest to callortext this trip.” Isla rolled her eyes, then her gaze landed on his bag. “Oh no. What’s happened?”

“Nothing’s happened.”

She hopped down from the bed and barged right into the bathroom. A moment later, she emerged, a triumphant look on her face. “None of your stuff is in there. Which means you must have packed it.”

“I’m going to stay with Mum the rest of the trip, that’s all.”

She raised her brows. “What happened with Liddy, Cal?”

“Besides Elle and Quinn finding out about our fake relationship? Ah yes, there was also the part where Quinn asked me to stay the hell away from his sister-in-law.”

---