Page 46 of Sunsets & Slow Dances

With a sigh of resignation, he said, “I just wanted to know how well you know Chloe.”

“Oh, I don’t. I never spoke to her until today. I mean, except hi and bye in passing.”

“Really?” His brow knitted together. “I thought…because she asked you to come tonight.”

“Yeah, I know. I’ve seen her around town, obviously, it’s Firefly, but I never talked to her. I think maybe my invitation was because of… well…” I wasn’t sure how to broach the subject without being disrespectful to his relationship. “Is she staying in your old room?”

“No, she’s in Mom’s sewing room; why?”

“She came to the front desk during her class today and asked me if we used to be together.” I glanced over to make sure the kids were still occupied before pulling the photo strip out of my purse. “She said she found this in the room she’s staying in.”

I slid the photo strip across to him.

He stared down at it. I tried to read how he felt looking at the photos, but I honestly couldn’t tell.

“I don’t know how she found?—"

“My mom boxed up all of my old stuff and stored it in there.”

“Oh.” I knew it shouldn’t hurt my feelings that he hadn’t kept our pictures. We hadn’t ended on good terms. So it made perfect sense. But it did still sting a little, or maybe a lot.

“So you think she was trying to play matchmaker?” His eyes lifted to mine.

“What? Oh no, no. I don’t think, that’s not what I was saying. You’re engaged. I’m sure she knows that?—”

“I’m not.”

“You’re not what? Engaged?” I asked, sure that I must have heard him wrong or misunderstood. I was sure that he was engaged. Everyone in town had talked about it. It made all the gossip sites and the cover of People; it was a supporting headline, but it was still on the cover. So if they were engaged before then that meant they must have…

“Did you guys break up?” I held my breath as I waited for an answer.

“It’s…complicated.”

“Oh.” That wasn’t a yes, but it wasn’t a no.

He looked back down, and his thumb traced the photo of us kissing. “This is from the?—”

“—first night we met,” we said in unison.

He looked up at me, and the depth of emotion in his soulful, whiskey stare made my heart swell in my chest. “What else did she say?”

“Who?”

“Chloe.”

“Oh, um.” It took me a second to recover from the swift U-turn the conversation had just taken. I still didn’t feel right about revealing what she’d said about him. I wanted her to know she could trust me. “She asked me how old I was when my mom died.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. I was glad to talk to her about it.”

Callum put the photo strip in his pocket and rested his forearms on the table, and he leaned forward. “I’m having a really hard time connecting with her. I don’t think she wants me to be her guardian. Everything I say and do is wrong, and I feel like I keep pushing her farther away. This, tonight is the best interactions we’ve had.”

Shit, shit, shit.I wanted to tell him what she’d told me so bad, but I didn’t want to betray her trust. “She’s been througha lot, and she doesn’t know you. You’re herbrother. You always wanted a sibling, remember? You used to talk about what a great brother you’d be. You even wrote a paper about it in the third grade, as part of an assignment about what you want to be when you grow up. Just be her brother.”

His eyes softened, and for a second, just one second, I felt like the old us, like no time had passed. “How do you always know the right things to say?”

“Okay, lovebirds!” Sandy Williams exclaimed beside our table. “I have one half pepperoni and mushroom, half cheese, and one extra cheese, half pepperoni, half green peppers, olives, jalapenos, mushrooms, roasted tomato, and spinach.” She bent down, making sure her ample cleavage that was pouring out of the white Slice of Heaven V-neck t-shirt that was two sizes too small was at Callum’s eye level as she set the pizzas down on the table.

---