Page 136 of Marked By the Pack
Okay,maybeshe wasn’t hitting on Callum. But there was still something off about her.
“And I wanted to make sure that Callum knows that he’s perfect exactly the way he is. And that he doesn’t need to change.”
What the fuck, Kebe?She knew the plan for tonight. We were breaking into the bank to steal a cure for Callum. Why was she trying to convince Callum to stay a vampire when she knew I was hoping to convince him to do the opposite? Kebe was the freaking worst!
Kebe put her hand on Callum’s arm again.
This time he just smiled down at her.
And it felt like a knife in my chest.
“Well good,” Zoey said. “I’m glad we cleared all that up.”
What?I stared at her. I didn’t think we’d cleared up anything. Kebe was still touching Callum!
Zoey leaned closer to me. “Don’t worry,” she whispered. “We’ll get to the bottom of what she’s up to. But in the meantime…look. He’s not staring at her the way he stares at you. With stars in his eyes.”
I looked back over at them. Callum had shrugged away from Kebe’s touch again. And maybe he was smiling at her as more of a sibling than a potential lover. He turned toward me and right away I could see those stars in his eyes. Yeah, I could see the difference. I could. Because it was the same way I looked at him.
He smiled at me. “I was calling you to see if I could pull you away from the house renovations for a few minutes for lunch. But I think we should probably go talk now.”
Well, that sounded ominous. He probably wanted to talk about my jealous ways. But I was just happy he was still speaking to me at all. “Yeah, of course.”
He put his hand out for me. I slid my hand into his. My heart beat better when our fingers were intertwined.
“See you tonight,” Zoey said. She turned to Kebe. And I was pretty sure Kebe was about to be reprimanded.
Callum didn’t say a word as we walked back toward Main Street. And the silence was slowly killing me.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “We didn’t mean to tell Kebe your secret. She overheard us talking.”
“It’s fine,” he said.
But I wasn’t sure it was. He looked distracted. Or…nervous maybe? Something just seemed off.
“And I’m sorry about spying on you. I trust you, I do. I just so easily get in my head about these things. I honestly didn’t even realize I was a jealous person until you came back into my life.”
He finally turned to look at me. “You’re not wearing the earrings.”
“What?” I touched my fingertips against my ear. I’d taken them out last night before bed. And for some reason I didn’t put them back on this morning.
“Why aren’t you wearing them?”
I swallowed hard. “I told you, Callum. They’re too much.” They were too expensive. Too perfect. “They’re just…not really me.”
“Because you think they’d look better on Kebe?”
I opened my mouth and closed it again. I thought he’d look upset, but he smiled instead.
“You’re wrong. They look beautiful onyou. And only you. I gave them to you because I want you to wear them. I want you to wear them and think of me.”
I was pretty sure my heart melted a bit.
He squeezed my hand as we turned off Main Street toward his house. “I’ve been thinking a lot about our conversation last night.”
Fuck.I needed to apologize about this too. I couldn’t believe Kebe was all over him telling him he was perfect just the way he was. Right after our conversation when I’d asked him if he was willing to change back into a human. It made it seem like I didn’t accept him how he was, and that wasn’t the case at all.
“I don’t think you need to change, Callum. I love you exactly how you are. It’s one thing I actually agreewith Kebe about. I asked you if there was a cure because I was curious, not because I think you need it. I don’t mind that you’re a vampire. I only asked because you refuse to change me into a vampire. I’d much prefer that. We’ve been over this a million times and you always tell me no…”
