Page 77 of Fall Into Me

“Stoplyingto me.” My hands balled into fists at my sides, and I didn’t care that my words were abrupt. Didn’t care that it might send us five steps back in whatever tolerance she was forming for me.

“I fractured two ribs and got a mild concussion,” she admitted, her voice so quiet.

The sound I made was almost inhuman. A broken growl, a groan, something that clawed its way out of my chest. I hated myself more in that moment than I had in every other moment of my life combined.

I dragged a hand down my face and tried not to fucking fall apart. “Look, I know you don’t need my help. That you don’t want it, that you want me to leave. I get it, Calista. But Iamhere. Let me help. Please.”

“Fane—”

“Please.”

She had no reason to. I knew she didn’t trust me, knew what she thought of me. I asked anyway. Begged.

“Okay,” she said quietly. “While you’re here, if I need help, I’ll ask.”

We stayed quiet, standing across from one another for as long as it took for my pulse to slow down. I was at a loss of what to do, what to say. Just being around her now felt stupid. Fucking pointless. Utterly undeserved. My eyes didn’t shift from the spot on the floor I’d zoned in on, as if it would be able to give me a way to go back and fix what I’d done, until I heard her move away.

“You’rekiddingme.”

I looked up and found her standing just inside her bedroom, hip cocked and arms crossed. When I didn’t say anything, she pointed to the floorboards beneath her feet and made a show of dramatically stomping on one.

“Whereis the creak?”

“I fixed it.”

“You wentunderthe house?” She sounded genuinely appalled, and the look on her face tugged at the corner of my mouth. I ran my hand over my face to try to stop it, but I was too late.

“Are youlaughingat me, Fane Mackenzie?”

I knew what she was doing. Even though she wanted me gone, she was still doing what she’d always done—fixing the parts of me that she didn’t even break, and she did it without blinking. Without breaking a sweat. Without even fucking realizing it half the time, and if I hadn’t been so fucking in love with her from the moment I saw her, I’d have fallen right then and there.

“No, ma’am.”

She threw her hands out dramatically, like what I said and what I did were lining up, and it wasn’t what she expected. “What are youdoing?”she whined, the question seemingly more for herself than for me.

“I’m fixing your shit box,” I deadpanned.

Her gasp was comical. So was the way she clutched at imaginary pearls. “Houses have feelings!”

I rolled my eyes. “So you’ve said.”

Cali used to yell, “Hello!” into our empty apartment when we were gone all day because sheknew the house had been lonely.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me.” She hadn’t even been looking at me when I did it.

“Sorry, Mom.” I trailed behind her into the kitchen.

She snorted. “You’ve been spending too much time around Ashton.”

“I’m going to tell him you called him by his real name.”

She waved me off. “Antonio will never believe it.”

Cali reached up to the cupboard to grab herself a glass–easily, might I add.

I knew she felt my eyes on her while she took her time filling it with water and drinking it down slowly.

She turned to face me, her eyes already narrowed, but the honey in their hazel depths stood out more. Sparkling. They were fuckingtwinklingwhen she raised her hand up between us, middle finger already extended.

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