Page 5 of Scoring Grey

It had been almost two months since Adler’s four-wheeling accident, and Eloise hadn’t been returning my calls. The summers are my off-season. It’s when I get to spend uninterrupted time with my son and she was holding him hostage because he got hurt on my watch.

“Look, Callum, she’s my sister. I support whatever choice she makes, but we both know why she’s staying away. Eloise doesn’t think you’re a bad dad, but she also blames herself for that accident. If the two of you were together, Adler would have had two parents at home that day. He wouldn’t have gotten on the four-wheeler while you were in the shower and landed himself in the hospital. If she had you by her side?—”

“I know, Iverson!” I frustratedly ran my hands through my hair. “She’s my whole world. Everything I’ve ever wanted is inside that cabin.”

“Then why is she engaged to someone else?”

Because of me. I clenched my jaw to hold my tongue. I foolishly paid someone to be her fake boyfriend and propose to her. In my head, I saw a whirlwind, fast relationship playing out to my advantage. I thought putting someone in her life who refused to be pushed aside and played the dutiful Hallmark boyfriend card would show her stubborn heart what she wants: a happy ever after complete with white picket fences, family dinners, and a husband—a husband like me. Stupidly, I thought another guy proposing to her would make her realize she was wasting her time on dreams that didn’t include me. How could she not want a future with the man who had all her firsts, the man who gave her our son? The fake engagement was my last-ditch effort to get her to see what I knew: we were endgame. Hindsight’s a bitch, and she’s stubborn as hell.

“I’m working on it, Iverson. You know you can’t make your sister do anything she doesn’t want to do.”

The screen door pushed open, and her piercing blue gaze landed on mine. “What exactly are you trying to make me do?”

“I’ll leave you guys to it,” Iverson said as he excused himself.

“Choose me.”

“Excuse me.” Her brow furrowed in confusion, and when she crossed her arms, the sight of the engagement ring on her left hand made my stomach churn. It was the worst idea I’d ever had. “Cal, I think it’s a little late for that.”

“No, it could never be too late when I’m the only ending you were ever meant to have.”

“Callum…” She dropped her head dejectedly.

“Hear me out.” I took a step toward her. “You pushed me away and I gave you space. I let you lead. I stayed away because I thought that’s what you wanted. But I don’t think that’s true anymore. I don’t believe it was ever really true.” Her eyes narrowed, and by the way her gaze flicked away from mine, I knew I had struck a chord. One that said I was right. “I wouldn’t be here now shooting my shot if I had seen an ounce of happiness in your eyes. I want you to be happy. You were happy once. You were happy with me.”

The subtle shake of her head as she rolled her lips to hide their quiver only further confirmed that I wasn’t romanticizing some alternate ending that was mine alone. She wanted it, too. The feelings were mutual.

“It’s not that simple.” Her eyes were full of regret that I refused to accept. “I’m engaged to someone else.”

“Engaged!” I fumed, underscoring the word. “Not married. Nothing is set in stone.” I paused, reining in a temper I had no right to have, considering my half-cocked idea landed the ring on her finger. “Do me a favor, Eloise. I want you to think about your life in the next five, ten, thirty years. If you dream of coming home to him, his arms, his kisses, and if it’s his eyes you wish to see reflected in the children you will have, then I will walk away. I’ll leave right now.”

Her glassy eyes strayed away from mine. “I can’t,” she whispered breathlessly.

“What’s stopping you?” I waited for an answer she didn’t give before laying my heart out there. I had to. I wouldn’t leave with regrets, which meant telling her exactly what I wanted. “Eloise, I don’t want to live without you. I set you free, blondie. I let you go, but I’m done hurting. I’m done living without my other half. I don’t want a future that doesn’t include you. When I think about the things I want in my life, they begin and end the same. It’s you, or it’s no one.”

She looked down at her hand and spun the ring on her finger. I was seconds away from telling her it was all a lie. That ring was my doing, and it would soon come to an end, but I couldn’t because if she wanted it, I’d let it be. I already knew the guy I hired to play the role was getting attached.

“What do you want me to say?” Her voice was unsteady.

“Say what you want. What does Eloise Grey want?”

Her blue eyes turned gray as she turned to me, and a stray tear rolled down her cheek. “God, you’re killing me. Don’t cry,” I said, swiping the tear from her face and pulling her into me.

She let me hold her for all of five seconds before her arms pushed at my chest. “Please…” She fisted the fabric of my shirt in her hands before adding, “I can’t do this right now,” and letting me go.

My heart felt like it was dying inside my chest, hearing another rejection until I heard something else because that’s the thing. For six years, her words told me something her eyes didn’t. So instead, I said, “I can get in that truck by myself, or I can drive the girl who’s going to consider me, a ride home.”

She didn’t give me her eyes, but it didn’t matter because she didn’t give me a no either. “We made pancakes, and I need to grab our bags. Then you can drive us home.”

“She chose me,” I growl as I get to my feet and slam the locker beside me closed. So why do I feel like the runner-up, something she’s settling for instead of what she wants? I tug at my hair. I’m missing something when it comes to Eloise. I know I still affect her. I’ve always affected her. It’s been true even when she didn’t want it to be. I can see it in the way she looks at me. I feel it in the way her body trembles beneath my touch when she allows it, and last night, her admissions about the chemistry we once shared confirmed she knows we were good together. So why can’t we fall in step and pick up where we left off? If she allowed it, I’d hold and kiss her like we never missed a day. I’ve never understood what’s kept her away.

The walls she erected went up long before I pulled the incident with her fake fiancé this past summer. She wasn’t happy with me about that, but she wasn’t torn up about it either and I know why, because he was never the guy. Eloise said yes to the dreams she wanted; it was the man attached to those dreams she forgot to consider. He wasn’t her guy because I am. I let my nails drag over my scalp again before standing with renewed determination. I don’t want to keep looking back. Ever since she left me, I’ve been trying to prove something. I’ve wanted to show her I’m still what she wants, to prove I’m the man worthy of being by her side, but if she’s determined to lose our present to our past, then it’s time I reference it. I’ll face the demons I’ve tried to outrun if it means I win her heart.

“You’re here,” I say as I open the door to my condo and find Eloise standing in front of the windows.

“I’m sorry. I can go…” She blinks rapidly as though I’ve pulled her from deep thoughts before looking around for her purse.

“No.” I release the breath I’d been holding, too scared to let it go out of fear she might disappear. “I don’t want you to go. I didn’t expect you to be here since you have your own place. That is all.”

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