Page 69 of Double or Nothing

One moment in time.

A moment that changed our lives forever.

Does it have to be forever, though? He’s apologized. He wants to do more. I just don’t know if it will be enough.

How can I trust him when he broke my faith? I want to trust him so badly. I want nothing more than to ride off into the sunset with him. I want to forgive him—but how? How do I just forgive and forget when that singular moment defined who I’ve been for the past five years?

The sound of knocking startles me out of my thoughts.

“Come in,” I call out.

“Hey,” Callum says from the doorway.

“Hey.”

“You okay?”

“Honestly? Not really.”

“Want to talk about it?”

I shake my head. I’m all talked out. I’ve talked to myself and to Liz. Bringing Callum into the mix will only complicate things more. For whatever he is, whatever we were, he’s very protective of me.

“Nice flowers. They from that weird farmer guy?” He chuckles at his joke, the reference to my client from Iowa, who owns one of the largest farms in the state. He’s a lucrative client, sure, but he has some odd tendencies.

I look at the arrangement. Simple flowers, nothing spectacular, look like something you would pick up at a grocery store rather than buy from a florist because that’s exactly where they came from. Still, they manage to take my breath away. The same way that the man who had them delivered does. The same man who made me fall in love with them all those years ago. Back then, it was all he could afford. Although he never had money, I had a new bouquet every Friday after that first fight, and every time he made me mad after that.

“No.”

“Jesus, rock star boy can’t afford anything better?”

Callum toys with the flowers, and I slap his hand away.

“I happen to love them. So, if you’re done, I have work to do.”

“Hey, I’m not the bad guy here,” Callum reminds me.

“I know, I just have a lot on my mind.” I sit back in my seat and look out the window.

“Can I give you some advice?”

“You? The man who doesn’t believe in it wants to give me advice on love?”

“I don’t believe in it for me, but that doesn’t mean I don’t believe in it for you. And Sutton, he loves you. He doesn’t deserve you by a long shot, but that’s another story.”

“Can you just give me the advice, so we can get this over with?”

“Quit lying to yourself. You love the man, Kat. Maybe it’s time you actually sit down and talk to him. All you’re doing is hurting yourself.”

“And all you’re doing is trying to win the bet.”

“I don’t have to try. That is going to happen, regardless.”

“I have work to do.”

“That you do.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

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