Page 59 of Untethered Heart
A waiter greets me with a tray of various drinks. I grab a whiskey with a nod, then make my way through the room.
Beth is seated at the bar with Tenley Callahan. The way she sits comfortably in tailored leather pants and a trench coat proves just how much of a menace my baby sister is. Only a devil would be comfortable wearing that in this heat.
“Beth, you realise it’s nearly forty degrees outside?” I say, leaning in to kiss her cheek.
“Pain is beauty, big brother,” she smirks.
“Hi, Caleb.” Tenley Callahan recently became one of Heart Assets’s biggest clients, plus she’s Beth’s best friend.
I reach out to shake Tenley’s hand. “Hi, Tenley. How’s everything going?”
She picks up a champagne flute from the counter and takes a sip before nodding. “Great. Isabelle has been wonderful with the aquarium project. I’m hoping she’s still full of ideas for when we reopen the boathouse restaurant and another project I’ve got my sights on.”
I laugh, impressed with her ambition. “And people thinkI’ma workaholic. What’s the next project you have lined up?”
“This beautiful old tea house along the river. The location is superb, but I think it has the potential for more.”
“Sounds like something Izzy would love,” I agree. “She’s working on Gage’s new project at the moment, but once we wrap the aquarium, she should be able to take it on.”
“Excellent.”
“I love Isabelle,” Beth says to Tenley with a wicked gleam in her eye. “I particularly love that she calls Cale, OG.” She rolls her lips together, trying to hold in her laugh.
I roll my eyes and look back at Tenley. She’s not much better, hiding her smile behind her glass.
“Is there anything more there?” Tenley says, thick with blatant curiosity.
“N—” I start, only to be cut off by Beth’s hurried rambling.
“I always wondered that too, but she told me there’s never been anything. Mainly cos he’s too old and grumpy for her.”
“What?” Too old? Too grumpy?
“I was disappointed at first. I’d love it if my brothers picked tolerable wives so I could finally have sisters, but then I found out about Lex.”
“Ooh, who’s Lex?”
“Elizabeth!”
“He’s in denial,” she not-so-subtly whispers behind her hand. Tenley’s eyes flick back and forth between us.
“I am not.”
“Yes, you are. Isabelle said you’re freaked cos you really like her, but now you work together, so she’s a no-fly zone. According to you. Personally, I think a workplace romance would be a most convenient timesaver.”
I bury my face in one hand while the other brings the whiskey to my lips. I haven’t shared with Isabelle how myrelationshipwith Lex has developed. I’m almost too scared to put the words into existence. I’m holding what we have close. For now.
“She’s a client. There’s a lot at stake for her, and I don’t want to risk anything. But we have been getting to know each other better.”
Beth gapes at me. I have no clue why, she’s the one who brought it up. “So you admit it?”
“Admit what?” I ask.
“That you like a girl,” Tenley sing-songs.
I stare for a moment, not daring to speak a word as my eyes bounce between Tenley and my sister. I’m saved from answering when a waiter invites members to move to the dining room for lunch. I don’t want to say it out loud yet. It still feels so fragile, this thing developing between Lex and me.
Turning away from the girls, I try to look for Grams or Dad in the crowd so I can make sure I’m seated next to them and keep avoiding Beth’s questioning glare. It’s of no use when she brushes past me, her arm locked around Tenley’s, and says, “Deflection isn’t denial, big brother.”
