Page 93 of Of Heartbreak and Harmony
She pauses and thinks over my question before answering, her brows furrowing just slightly.
“I mean, she’s not actively mad anymore. I’m not getting the silent treatment. But I can tell she’s not forgiven me yet. She still thinks what I’m doing is stupid. And she still doesn’t like you. At all.”
I laugh. “I guess I don’t blame her. I did steal her daughter away.”
“Nah, I don’t think it’s so much that as it is you remind her of my dad.”
I wince and blow out a slow breath. “Ouch.”
Callie gives me a rueful grin. “A musician who sweeps the poor girl off her feet and promises her the world? For all my mom knows, you’reexactlylike my dad. And according to her, you’re going to knock me up and then leave me home alone while you screw women all over the country.” She sighs dramatically. “Oh, such is the lot of a rock star’s girlfriend.”
I purse my lips and lean in closer. “I wouldn’t do that, you know.”
Callie arches a brow in disbelief.
“Honestly,” I insist. “I don’t cheat.”
She scoffs, then narrows her eyes at me. “You’re saying you never cheated on Sav? Not once?”
I hear the challenge in her voice, and I understand why it’s there, but it’s important to me that she believes me.
“Sav and I were a toxic mess, but I never cheated. Not when we were together. We’d break up every other week, and we’d both...” I trail off and look away, gathering my thoughts. I’m treading on dangerous ground. When I look back, she’s glaring, but I give her the truth. “When we weren’t broken up, I was faithful. Always.”
“I don’t know if that holds as much weight as you think it does,” she says, her voice flat, and I nod.
“I know. But it’s the truth, for what it’s worth.”
“Would Sav agree?”
“Yes. You can ask her if you want.”
Her eyebrows slant harshly and then she shakes her head. She looks away and takes a sip of her beer before finally looking back at me.
She opens her mouth to speak, and I brace myself for more harsh truths, but she stops herself when her phone buzzes on the couch besideher. Whatever she sees on the screen has her snatching it up, then glancing around the bar.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah. I just, um...” She puts her beer on the table in front of us and pushes to standing, then gives me a forced smile. “I’ll be right back.”
As she steps away, I glance at Craig, but he’s already turning to follow her.
I tell myself to give her space, but the look on her face when she saw her text has my protective side surging to the surface. I only make it three minutes before I’m standing and heading in the direction Callie went.
I find her in the hallway of the club’s bathrooms. Her back is to me, her spine rigid, and when my eyes rise from her to who she’s talking to, jealousy rages in my chest. There are people everywhere, so this is a terrible location for thiswhatever it isto take place. The guy must have been the text that lured her out of the VIP lounge.
I stalk toward them, putting my arm around Callie’s shoulder, and pull her to my side without taking my eyes off Becket Walker.
“There a problem here?”
I cock my head to the side, meeting Callie’s former band member’s scathing glare with one of my own. I don’t bother acknowledging the other two guys with him, but it’s not hard to guess they’re also former band members.
“Torren,” Callie says, looking up at me with a tight smile and a warning in her eyes. “This is Becket, Ezra, and Rocky. They, um, they were?—”
“We were in Caveat Lover with her. I’m sure you know this,” Becket sneers, his words sharp and full of barely restrained rage. He doesn’t even bother with fake pleasantries. He hates me. It’s all over his face.
Good. I don’t like him, either.
I tear my eyes off the snarling ex and look at the other two. They’re also pissed, but their anger is mild in comparison to the bassist. I give them a nod, then look back at Becket with a taunting smirk.
