Page 38 of Sunsets & Slow Dances

“Your mom is the only one I want to talk to about it. She was my best friend. I miss her so much. You don’t know how lucky you are to have her.”

Tears sprung up in my lower lids as I heard the man, who I thought must hold some kind of resentment toward me, that he must strongly dislike me, say that he missed me and that I was his best friend.

The image on the screen disappeared and was replaced by an alarm notification indicating my shift was starting and I needed to go inside.

Shit. This was just getting good. I quickly silenced the alarm and pulled the app back up. When I did, I saw that Callum was no longer working on the cabinets. The light from the hall bath indicated he had gone to work in the half-bath downstairs bathroom. Peanut was dutifully sitting outside of it, and Butter was washing herself on the bookshelf beside the door.

I closed the screen and put my phone in my purse. On my way up the steps to Artistic Horizons, I couldn’t stop thinking about what Callum said. Not about me, well not just about me. I was definitely replaying him saying I was his best friend and that he missed me. But what he said about Chloe really broke my heart.

Chloe started classes at Artistic Horizons on Monday, and although I hadn’t spoken to her, she seemed like a sweet girl. I couldn’t imagine going through what she had. This had to be such a tough time for her. I’m sure it was making Callum crazy that he couldn’t fix things for her. That was sort of his M.O. He was a fixer. If someone he loved—someone he felt responsible to protect—was hurting or had a problem, he had to solve it and do whatever he could so that they could be happy again.

I wished there was something I could do to help the two of them, but unfortunately I only minored in psych.

When I pushed the glass door open and walked into the industrial and modern reception area of Artistic Horizons, Ashley was waiting for me, and she did not look happy.

“What?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”

“What happened with Will?” she demanded before I even set my bag down behind the black steel reception desk with a reclaimed wood worktop. “I heard Callum choked him out on your front porch.”

She was the twelfth person to ask me about the non-incident that had occurred last weekend. It actually surprised me that it had taken this long to get to Ashley. Five days in Firefly Island was quite a long time. Although it made sense because she’d only been coming in to teach her classes and then going straight back to bed because she hadn’t been well due to the pregnancy. She hadn’t been out in town at all.

The story spreading like wildfire genuinely confused me. There were only three people who knew what happened on that porch. Myself, Callum, and Will. I knew thatIhadn’t said anything, and I would bet a year’s salary that Callum hadn’t told anyone. So what I didn’t understand was why Will would go around spreading the fake news story. I didn’t understand what would possess him to say anything at all about what happened. And I really didn’t understand him embellishing the story by saying Callum choked him out. It wasn’t as if he came off looking good. He didn’t. If anything, he came off looking really bad.

Even if he was a fan of Callum, which he clearly was, getting his ass beat by him wouldn’t be something to brag about, would it? As soon as I saw the gleam of recognition in Will’s eyes, the next emotion was adoration. I forgot what a big deal Callum was in the MMA world. I’d done my best to avoid any exposure to him, so I’d remained insulated from his popularity.

“Nothing happened,” I explained as I sat down in my chair behind my desk. “Callum was there giving me an estimate. He’s working for Hank. Will showed up. I told him to leave. He didn’t. Callum asked him again, and he did.”

Ashley’s eyes narrowed, and she leaned across the desk. “I feel like you’re leaving a lot out. And by a lot, I mean all the good stuff.”

“I’m not. Really. Nothing happened.”

She stared into my eyes as if she was performing a visual lie detector test. Finally, her shoulders dropped with a sigh. “That’s disappointing.”

“You would rather there be a knockdown drag-out fight on my front porch?”

“Considering I’m knocked up and wifed up, my days of men fighting over me are over. So yes, I wouldn’t mind living vicariously through a knockdown drag-out fight on my bestie’s front porch with her childhood sweetheart and some borderline stalker who won’t take a hint.”

“Sorry to disappoint.” I grinned. “And if you think I’m going to feel sorry for you being knocked up and wifed up by the man GQ named the sexiest billionaire under forty, you are sadly mistaken.”

“Fair enough,” she conceded happily. “Soooooo, how’s it going between you two?”

“It’s not. I mean, we only really saw each other the day he came over to give me the estimate. Other than that, he’s been working while I’m at work and gone by the time I get home.”

“Oh.” I could hear the disappointment in her single-syllable word.

Her alarm went off on her watch, and she looked down. “Crap, I gotta get back in there.”

Ashley hired two new teachers this past week, and they were both running classes today, but she was sitting in to observe.

For the next hour and a half, I did my best to focus on the tasks at hand. I was putting a budget together for the next quarter and also getting a list of supplies we needed and possible donors to reach out to.

Before I knew it, I heard my name.

“Nadia?”

I glanced up and saw Chloe standing in front of me. I checked the time and saw that there was still thirty minutes left until her class was out. I’d seen her around town, and obviously coming in here the past week, but we’d never actually spoken.

“Hi.”

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