Page 12 of The Outlaw's Code

Of course, I hadn’t been expecting him to bring up Calder, first thing.

“He’s fine. Why?” I replied, my tone slightly off.

Levi noticed. He looked up at me as he leaned across his desk. “Shane?”

“Yeah?”

“You do realize that I haven’t seen Calder since you decided to play babysitter.”

“I mean, he’s been on the property the whole time.”

“Right. And you’ve been territorial. The whole time,” Levi replied, with a smirk. “No one else gets to hang out with him, except for you. Not to mention you two are always hanging out together, anyway.”

“I don’t know if I’d call that being territorial. He needs someone to look after him, at least until he’s got his memory back?—”

“I have another theory.”

“Which is?”

“That you like spending so much time with him,” he continued. “That you don’t want anyone else getting in there, cutting into your days together. My theory is that you don’t want anyone else taking him away from you?—”

“Stop.”

“Stop what?”

“You’re wrong.” I let out a deep sigh. “Calder and I aren’t anything, Levi. Not even friends. I’m just his caretaker and I’m doing my job. You know me. I’ve always been a thorough worker when it comes to my assignments.”

“But you assigned yourself to Calder, Shane. Didn’t you?”

“That doesn’t mean anything.”

“Huh.” Levi stood from his desk, coming around the side of it. He took a seat on its wooden edge. “And I thought you were supposed to be the smart one.”

“You’re the second person to say that to me today.”

“Was the first person who said it Jolene or Virgil?” Levi chuckled. “Either way, they’re right. This is… extremely uncharacteristic of you, Shane. And may I dare suggest you seem a little flustered during this discussion?”

“I just came here to check on you, see how things were going. I didn’t ask for all of this.”

“You don’t have to ask me to care about you, Shane.” Levi playfully shrugged. “I’ll do that, free of charge, forever.”

“Okay, well, it seems like things are good here, so I guess I’ll head out?—”

“Shane?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re smart. Don’t be dumb.”

“Is there a script all of you are working from or what?” I rolled my eyes before I walked out of Levi’s office. It was frustrating hearing the same thing twice in one day, especially when I’d wanted to avoid thinking about Calder today. I wanted to brush off Jolene’s words and Levi’s, but instead, I felt them digging deep inside, tunneling underneath my skin.

Still, I knew something that they didn’t. I knew that Calder wasstraight.

It was an important piece of the puzzle that everyone seemed to be conveniently forgetting, except for me. Honestly, it was all I’d been able to think about, the impossibility of the situation, the way nothing could’ve ever come from it. It was the exact type of thing I’d been trying to shove all the way down, forcing a door closed between us, regretting that it’d ever opened in the first place.

The sooner I stopped thinking about Calder, the better.

I wason my way back to my cabin when I spotted Calder.

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