Page 60 of He Loves Me Knot

“Something you want used against you? Yeah, I get it. Asshole.” She shook her head, seething. “You even shut your own mother out, Callum. You shut the world out and then sit high and mighty in your corner saying, ‘I don’t care what any of them think.’”

Callum gripped the steering wheel tighter. Up ahead, a red sign glowed like a beacon from the fog.Soda La Libertad, it read. Thank God, somewhere to eat. He pulled the car into the gravel lot. Only a few other cars were in front of the small, shabby building, but he didn’t care. He needed to get out of this car right now.

He turned the car off.

“You even shut your own mother out, Callum.”

Shut my mum out?Nothing could be further from the truth.

She tossed me away as if I wasn’t her flesh and blood. I mean nothing to her.

“My mum? Do you want to know what she said to me when she found out about Sophia? Do you want to know why I want nothing to do with her, Lydia?”

His heart raced. He’d never told anyone this. Not. A. Fucking. Soul. “I asked her to choose. It was either her or me. Surely, my own mother wouldn’t want to betray her only son, right? My mum might have been Sophia’s mum’s best friend, but she wasmy mum.And she said, ‘Callum, how can you ask me to make that choice?’ Me. Her son.”

He swung the car door open. “She made her choice, Liddy. It just wasn’t me.”

He slammed the door.

She was out her door a second later. “Callum?—”

“Don’t. Discussion’s over.” Callum could see by the expression in her eyes that his truth had affected her. But then she schooled her features and took a deep breath.

“What are we doing here?”

“You said you were hungry. This is a restaurant. A soda, to be exact.” He gestured at the sign.

She scanned the exterior of the one-story pink-and-yellow breeze block building. “Are you sure it’s safe to eat here?”

He shrugged. “Safe enough. I’d stick to bottled drinks, though.”

“That’s reassuring.” She came up beside him, tension hanging thickly between them.

“It’s local. Sodas usually have good food that’s cheap. I was mainly suggesting you skip anything that might have unboiled water in it because water can be a source of illness for foreigners.”

He glanced back at the car, wishing he’d brought some painkillers for the pain in his leg. That would have been a good thing to buy when he bought toothbrushes.

Although, his physical pain seemed secondary right now. He was more.. .aggrieved. She’d been so combative, and he hated how that conversation in the car had gone.

Though maybe it’s good for me to remember what she thinks and believes about me.

He’d been letting himself get too comfortable. A reality check had been necessary.

They went inside and sat at a picnic table, where a middle-aged woman approached with some menus. They both ordered steak sandwiches and Coke, then Callum settled into his seat, scanning the interior.

Lydia was quiet, her gaze fixed downward. He’d tried and failed to comfort her, if she needed comforting at all, and now here they were. But the tension grew so uncomfortable that it almost choked him. “Look,” he said after a few minutes of nauseating silence. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped. Or brought up anything from your personal life. You’re right, I don’t know you. And I’m sorry.”

She rubbed the backs of her arms. “I’m sorry, too.”

There. They’d both apologized.

Now why don’t I feel any better?

Their food came quickly, and they ate in silence, neither of them trying again to bridge the ever-widening gap between them. Not surprisingly, they finished their food in almost record time, each of them swallowing their sandwiches in about five minutes.

The server brought the check at Callum’s request, then he pulled out a credit card and handed it to her. He sighed wearily, sipping his Coke. Coming to La Fortuna had been a terrible idea, and he wished he’d been more adamant about returning to Samara. But hopefully, they could find a place to stay quickly enough.

The server returned a moment later. “Rechazaron la tarjeta.”

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