Page 56 of Top Shelf

It was annoying trying to compete with him, but now, I couldn’t be prouder to be his little brother. Once I realized we were on the same team, it felt like the Calway brothers were unstoppable.

“How ya hangin?’” he asks, loading the last of the equipment up onto the cart. I shrug.

“As well as I can,” I say with a smile. He nods and puts his hand on my shoulder.

“You know you got this, right?” he asks, raising an eyebrow and looking into mine with those piercing blue eyes of his that the girls raved about. I smile.

“Sure, Tate,” I say sarcastically, shrugging like it’s nothing. But his expression stays serious.

“I mean it, Ty,” he says. “Good guys win. Eventually, the good guys win. And that excuse for a man is not a good guy. He’s the type of guy Mom warned the girls about. He’s the type of guy that only feels strong around weaker people. He’s the type of guy that will eventually lose. And he’ll lose big. But until then, we will figure this out,” he says. I smile and nod.

“Yes, sir,” I say, giving him a fake salute. “Can I ask you something, though, Tate?”

“Course,” he says, standing in front of me, arms crossed.

“If something happens to me—” I start.

“Tyson, don’t—” he starts to protest my negative talk, but I hold my hand up.

“Just let me say this, okay?” I ask. He pauses for a moment, then nods reluctantly. “If something happens to me, or if this gets bad, I need you to promise me that you’ll watch out for her. You have to make sure she’s safe and that that asshole can’t get to her.” Tate takes a breath and then nods.

“Of course,” he says. “You know we all got her. She’s one of us. Always has been. Even after she broke your heart,” he says with a wink. I laugh.

It’s wild how ‘in the past’ that part of our relationship feels.

Eight years may as well have been eighty. And these few months she’s been back in my life…it feels like we’ve been together for a lifetime. Even if we pretended it was all for show, we both knew. We had to.

And so did everyone around us.

“Thanks, big brother,” I say. “Now get your ass to practice.” He smiles and nods his head back, then turns and pulls the cart behind him down to the practice fields. I watch him go, disappearing back into his life, wondering how long mine will look the way it does right now.

CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE

sadie

I really can’t believeI’m here. I can’t believe I showed up to his hotel. I can’t believe I agreed to see him. I can’t believeIam the one who asked. I know how badly I shouldn’t be here. I know how furious Tyson would be.

But I also know this is the only way I can set things straight. This is the only way I can make things right. I take a breath, then walk through the doors of the hotel restaurant where I agreed to meet him. In my past life with Hayden, I’d be dressed to the nines. Heels and a dress on a Monday morning. But now, I’m wearing jeans and a Crooked Creek High t-shirt. He wants me, he gets me. The real me, this time. The version of me where I can actually breathe.

“Hi,” I say to the hostess at the front desk. “I’m meeting someone here. Hayden—”

“Ah, yes. Mr. Cowl is already here,” she says, checking her chart. “Follow me.”

I walk through the restaurant with her toward a booth in the very back, deepest, darkest corner of the restaurant, and I swallow. I look around. There are people close enough to me that they would hear me if I screamed. We’re visible to at least three other tables. And the waiter or waitress will definitely be coming by…

And then I almost freeze.

These thoughts.

These aren’t normal thoughts to have about someone.

Let alone yourspouse.

I feel a lump in my throat, but as soon as I lay eyes on him, I immediately think of Tyson. I think of the way I destroyed him before, even though I knew he was the love of my life. I think of the way I walked out on him, running away to a life that was cold and meaningless, just because it was ingrained in me that I needed to live up to a certain standard to receive love. And you know what? Itstilldidn’t work. When I found Hayden—handsome, rich, a fuckingdoctor—my mother still found reasons for me not to measure up. As if Hayden didn’t make me feel inferior on his own, I had the sweet whisperings of my mother reminding me that I outkicked my coverage and that I better “keep things tight”—things being my ass and thighs—so that Hayden didn’t find someone who was “doing something with her life.”

I created the life she hammered into my head as equaling success, as equaling her approval.

And still, I was left with neither, let alone any semblance of love.

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