Page 134 of The Proposal Pact
The problem is, it doesn’tfeel like a fuck-up.
Ever since I arrived in Loverly Cave, I’ve felt a sense of belonging, like I’ve finally met my kind of people. And ever since I met Callum, I’ve felt…at home.
But more than that, I’ve felt accepted. Even with all my crazy and chaos, I’ve felt accepted.
And now I feel empty.
My heart truly hurts for what happened to his family all those years ago. I’d never take away from it. Never. And that’s why I allow my heart to break and bleed, because I’ll never take him away fromthem.
The sun plays peek-a-boo with the early morning clouds, alerting me to the life outside this bed, and soon enough, my phone rings with a call from Grace like it does every morning, interrupting my inner therapy. But unlike every other morning, I don’t pick it up this time.
I don’t have it in me to be colorful and happy today.
Glancing down at the ring on my finger, I sigh, flipping to my back and staring at the dark navy ceiling. How am I supposed to do this for another eleven months?
Alcohol.
I’ll need lots and lots of alcohol.
40
Callum
“I love you, not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.” – Roy Croft
It’s been one of those days in Loverly Cave where everyone has lost their mind.
I’ve been out for one call after another nonstop, not having a chance to even breathe for a moment, and all I want now is just to go home, to see Sophie, and get a hit of her color into my system.
I hadn’t even noticed how hooked on it I’d become until I went the whole day without hearing a word from my little menace.
But more than that, I want to talk to her.
I need to talk to her.
It’s after seven already and I start grabbing all my stuff, trying to leave before yet another townie loses it when I feel my phone ringinginside my pocket.
I take it out and see Luke calling. I decline.
Don’t have time for his shit right now.
A second later, it rings again, this time Griffin is calling.
Okay, they probably want to go out, and that’s definitely not going to happen tonight, so I decline again.
Where is my wallet? I look around my desk but can’t see it and in the meantime my phone rings once again. This time I decline without even looking.
“There it is!” I open the first drawer, spotting my wallet there.
My hand is already on the front door when Marsha calls my name.
“Sheriff Hot Stuff,” she singsongs, and I sigh, my shoulders dropping. “We just got a call!”
I turn, my hands on my hips, my lips in a thin line. Can’t a man just go to his wife? “What is it this time? Or rather, who?” I ask and Marsha’s mouth curls up.
“It’s your wife.”
Well, it looks like I got here for the grand finale. I shut the door to my car, leaning against it as I watch my wife sing the last lines of “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston as she acts it out very passionately as well.
