Hours after racingout of Miller’s house to get to work on time, I still felt like I hadn’t caught my breath. Whitman’s was packed from the minute I set foot inside and didn’t let up until well after the usual lunch rush. When there was finally a lull, I stepped behind the counter and hung my head. I was so tired, so completely exhausted, that I could barely go on.
The kitchen door flew open, drawing my attention from the countertop in front of me. But when Callie looked up from the floor and saw me, her hands flew up in front of her and her eyes went wide.
“No. I don’t wanna know. I don’t wanna know! Why did you have to tell me?” She shook her head and took a step back, her hands flapping at me like she could shoo me away. “You look like you’ve been doing things you shouldn’t be doing, and I can’t take it!”
“Callie.” I stepped toward her, my own hands raised as I tried to talk her down. “Please. Trenton can’t find out about this.”
She buried her face in her hands. “But I’m horrible about keeping secrets. How could you possibly choose me, of all people, to share this secret with?”
“Maybe because you’re my best friend?” I tugged her hands from her face, trying to catch her eye. “Maybe because I thought that you could help me?”
Her face fell and she shook her head again. “I swear, Mysti, every time I even see Miller, I feel like I break out in hives.”
“Please, Callie. This is important. You can’t tell anyone.” Her grimace didn’t escape my attention. “What’d you do?”
She wrapped her arms around her body, swaying back and forth.
“You told Calvin, didn’t you?”
Once again, she buried her face in her hands. But I didn’t need her answer. Calvin popped his head out the kitchen door, one eyebrow raised as he trained his hazel eyes on me.
“I’m not very happy with you.”
“Calvin!” Callie spun to face him, her hand whipping out to backhand him across the chest. “That’s not very nice.”
“It’s the truth.” He pulled her into his arms, and the rare show of emotion here, in the middle of our workplace, didn’t go unnoticed. “You should know better. She can’t handle the stress.”
“I’m sorry, okay?” I shifted my weight. A movement over Calvin’s shoulder caught my attention, and it took everything in me to try to act like nothing was wrong when Corabelle gave a wave before disappearing back in her office. “Look, if I would have known it was going to be this big of a deal, I wouldn’t have told you. But I did. And I could really use your help.”
Callie frowned, but Calvin nudged her before jerking his chin toward the front door. “Don’t look now, but your boyfriend’s here.”
She gasped. “Oh, shit! What am I gonna do now?”
“Just act natural,” I told her, a bright smile on my face as I gave a quick wave to Trenton. “Act like you don’t know anything, and everything will be fine.”
Callie’s forced smile looked painful, almost as much as her hard grip upon my arm. “You know I love you, but I really hate you for doing this to me.”
“I love you too. And I’m sorry, I really am.”
Spinning away from my friends, I rushed to the front door, greeting Trenton with that same bright smile even though it felt as forced as Callie’s had been. “Hey, baby.”
“How are you, love?” He pulled me into his arms, but his warm embrace only served to further the guilt that was flooding through me. I kept my face buried in his chest, willing away the tension that drew my shoulders up and the itchy feeling that covered my skin.
“I’m good.” I peeked over my shoulder. Callie and Calvin had gone back to work, and the cafe looked as normal as always. “How was your day?”
Trenton’s smile melted away the anxiousness that flooded my veins, but his eyes lost their focus for a moment. “The waves were beautiful.” He tucked my hair behind my ear, leaning in close. Only another inch and his lips would be on mine. “Almost as beautiful as you, Goddess.”
“But?” The word was a whisper, an intrusion on Trenton’s presence in front of me. It was a crowbar, prying the two of us apart.
His gaze moved from my lips, refocusing on my eyes as he edged back, as if whatever he was going to say was that cold, solid bar butting in. I wasn’t prepared for his answer.
“Jonathan called.”
I’d been kicked in the chest before. I’d been beaten until I was barely breathing, confined to a hospital bed and unable to move. And while physically, nothing restrained me; mentally, I couldn’t muster the courage to as much as blink. “What did he want?”
Trenton tugged a hand through his damp, unruly hair. “He thinks I need to come home.”
“But you are home.”