Claiming Callie: Part three Page 3

  Emmett chuckles from his perch in his bunk. “Ooh. I love it when she’s feisty. If you need a way to work off all that energy—”

  “Shut up, Emmett!” they yell at the same time.

  With Emmett’s laughter in the background, Dean holds his hands out in defense. “I’m sorry that you’re in the middle, but I promise it’s not for long. I swear. And as for Maya, when we started this, I spoke with her. She claimed to be happy with this new guy she’s with. She didn’t seem all that torn up over our breakup, so how was I supposed to know this plan would actually work and she’d get super jealous?”

  Jinny shakes her head and growls. “You’re an idiot. Just do me a favor and tell Callie how you feel. Now. Before this all blows up in your face, and mine, when Callie finds out I knew about it all along.”

  Dean nods, chewing on the inside of his cheek. She’s right. Of course she is. But… “I will. I’ll tell her. For sure. As soon as I see her, I’ll talk to her and if I know for sure what she feels is real, I’ll tell her.”

  “Dean, it’s real. This is all so ridiculous. All you two need to do is talk to each other.” Jinny says, adamantly.

  “I’ll tell her. Promise.”

  * * *

  Dean takes a seat across from Callie on one of the cushy armchairs at the back of Buzz. She’s wearing all black, her hair hanging over her shoulders like corn silk, her lips painted a ruby red. He takes a sip of his coffee, and all he can think about are those red lips and if they taste like cherries.

  “So you wanted to talk to me?” Callie asks.

  “Yeah.” His stomach sinks and his skin prickles as if he’s dressed in static cling.

  This is it. This is it. He repeats those three words, so tiny, yet so huge, in his head over and over until he feels sick.

  He’s rehearsed this moment a million times over the last seven-plus years. He’s imagined a plethora of reactions from Callie; however, the landscape of circumstances has changed drastically over the past month. Now, he doesn’t just need to confess that he’s harbored feelings for her all these years, but that he created an elaborate scheme—he’s lied to her—all in the name of that said love. And he has no idea how she’ll take it.

  Suddenly, he finds himself wishing that the false intentions behind Operation Get the Girl are real. It would be so much easier to tell Callie that he had wanted Maya, but somewhere along the line, somewhere in this process of trying to win her back, his heart took a U-turn and landed in Callie’s hands. And as he sits here wishing this were the case, he finds himself wondering… What would be the harm in telling her that?

  Glancing behind him to the counter, Jinny stops scrubbing the food case and glares at him. Her dark eyes are unrelenting. They’re screaming at him to tell her, and he knows she would never let him get away with lying to Callie again. So, the truth is all he has…

  He clears his throat. Do or die. Or have your sister murder you in your sleep.

  “Um…Okay.” Here we go… “Have you ever lied to somebody because you thought it was in their best interest?” He scrubs a hand over his face and curses. “Scratch that. That’s not even true.”

  Fuck. Why is this so hard?

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CALLIE

  Callie scrunches her nose and leans forward in her seat, as if this can somehow decipher the foreign language Dean’s speaking. She glances over at Jinny for help, but she simply glares at Dean and then shoots Callie a quick smile. Pressing a hand to her stomach, Callie hopes to ease the rise and fall of the nerves doing cartwheels in her chest. The fact that Jinny’s actually working—stocking shelves, cleaning, and doing inventory—and not socializing is enough to make her suspicious that whatever Dean wants to talk to her about is serious.

  Or bad. It must be bad if Jinny won’t join them.

  Callie exhales and it’s as if all the air has left her body—a deflating life raft in the middle of the ocean. When Dean called her this morning and asked her to meet him here this afternoon, she had thought… What had she thought? That maybe he shared her feelings? That he was going to tell her that the other night on the roof meant something to him?

  Callie tries to avoid his direct gaze. She tries to squash the thought that this is about her—an admission she’s dying to hear. She tries to push down that glimmer of hope. She tries. But she fails in all of these things. His eyes are a clear blue today, barely clouded with the gray that so often turns them into the shade of a stormy summer sky, and she can’t look away. It’s as if there’s some magnetic pull between them, demanding her full attention.

  Exhaling, Dean asks, “Have you ever lied to somebody because you knew that they could never see things your way unless you did?”

  “I don’t know. I guess not,” she says, without much conviction. Is she supposed to know what they’re talking about?

  His gaze flickers from his mug, to her, and back again. “What would you think of someone who did that?”

  Callie tries to focus on his question, but she can’t seem to concentrate. She peers at his hands, which are clenching a coffee cup, and remembers what they feel like on her skin. “I don’t know,” she answers. What were they talking about again? “I guess I’d think they’re pretty selfish.”

  Whatever answer she was supposed to give, she assumes this is the wrong one. Dean’s expression falls. His mouth turns down and his eyes cloud with an emotion she can’t pinpoint, and she kicks herself for not paying more attention and focusing on his question.

  “Why? Dean, what are you trying to tell me? Is this about you?”

  He shakes his head and leans back in his seat. He keeps moving, seems jittery almost. “What time is it?” he asks, glancing at the giant clock on the opposite wall.

  “Why? Am I boring you?” Callie can feel her patience waning like a slow leak in a tire. He was the one that said he has something to discuss with me. What the hell?

  “’Course not.” He whips back around and stares at her a moment before looking down at the mug in his hands. “I just wanted to make sure everything was okay with you. After the other night… I just wanted to make sure you were okay. That we were okay.”

  She wonders what it would have been like had she and Dean not known each other for a lifetime, had they just met in college. Would things be different? Would they have a real shot at something more? But this isn’t the case. This isn’t her reality, and Dean’s words—their implication—is like a punch to the gut.

  “Oh.” Callie leans back in her chair. So he’s worried that their date and little impromptu make-out session had upset her or hurt her somehow, which means, what?

  That he stills wants Maya. He doesn’t have feelings for me.

  * * *

  Callie busts through the door of their apartment. “Get it together. We’re going out.”

  “Huh?” Jinny’s mug is halfway to her mouth. She’s wearing an old pair of sweats with paint splatters across the thighs and a T-shirt ten sizes too big, her hair pulled into a bun.

  Callie pauses in the rush to her bedroom. “We’re going out tonight.”

  Jinny takes a sip of her coffee. “Like, to a bar?”

  “Yep.” Callie wrinkles her nose. “And from the looks of it, you’re going to need a lot of work. If you start getting ready now, you might be ready by this time next year.”

  “Ha ha. Funny.”

  Callie grins. “I’m giving us an hour. We’re going to blast some music, do our makeup and hair, and try on a dozen sexy outfits until we get it right. Then, we’re out of here. It’ll be just like old times.”

  “What brought this on?” Jinny follows Callie into her bedroom.

  Hitting the switch on her stereo, Callie turns the volume up high. It’s six o’clock, and after her internship she flew straight to their apartment. All day, she mulled over her conversation with Dean at Buzz and the evening she spent with him the other night. And all day it about killed her. It’s only been a couple days, and already she’s tired of the hold her feelings for
him have on her. The fact that he wants Maya back and that she is helping him to get her is simply the icing on the top of the giant fucked-up cake. It’s been years since she’s had actual feelings for a man. And of course, when she finally does find a relationship she actually wants to pursue, it has to be with Dean, of all people.

  This is so like me. To fall for someone that complicates my life rather than simplifies it.

  So she’s determined to get over him. It’s time to do something about these feelings before they get out of hand.

  Callie moves from her stereo to her closet and throws open the doors, then glances back at Jinny. “Screw Operation Get the Girl. It’s time for a new mission. Operation Get Over the Guy.”

  Jinny snorts. “What?”

  Callie pushes a rack of clothes aside and begins rummaging through her tops. When she doesn’t answer, Jinny grabs her arm and turns her so she can see her face. “Callie, what in the world are you talking about?”

  Sighing, Callie plops down on the floor of her closet. The threat of emotion wells in the back of her throat, but she won’t let it show. She refuses to. “I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to help Dean, especially with the way I’m feeling. But I do know that I need to get over whatever this thing is that I feel for him. I can’t care about him this much. Not when he wants someone else. Not when it would probably never work, even if he didn’t…” she trails off, biting her lip.

  “Whoa. Wait a minute.” Jinny pauses and her eyes narrow. “You mean… Didn’t Dean talk to you today? I saw you two at Buzz.”

  “Yeah. He was sputtering some nonsense about lies, and blah blah blah. After a while, I stopped listening and trying to decipher what he was really saying. He’s probably just worried about things with Maya. Anyway, it’s not important. It doesn’t matter. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself,” she mutters.

  “What a—“ Jinny places a hand over her eyes, then runs it over the top of her head. “Okay. Whatever.” She shakes her head. “So, we’re going out, then?”

  “Yup. And there are rules. This is a girls’ night only. No Todd. No talk of boys and love or romance or any of that nonsense. It’s all crap, anyway.” Callie stands and takes Jinny’s hands in hers. “You’re going to help me get Dean off my mind, forget that I care about him. Forget that he’s pining over Maya. Forget all of it. Tonight is just about you and me and having fun. Just like the old days. It’s been forever since we’ve gone out and let loose. And tonight, we’re going to go all out. Promise?”

  Jinny smirks. “Promise. That dumbass deserves to be forgotten right now.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” Callie says, feeling everything inside her lighten just a bit. That’s the thing about Jinny—she’s always behind her one hundred percent.

  Reaching out, Callie pulls at a lock of Jinny’s hair and wrinkles her nose. “Now, let’s see what we can do about this sad look you have going.”

  * * *

  They enter the club. It’s dark, and even though it’s early yet, the dance floor is already half full and the bar is packed. The stale scent of beer and sweat permeates the air in a familiar combination that reminds her, oddly, of a bowling alley.

  “Tonight is my liberation,” she whispers to herself, as if her love for Dean is nothing more than a temporary affliction. “It’s intervention time,” she yells to Jinny over the thumping of the bass.

  Jinny turns to her with a huge smile on her face. Her dark hair hangs loose around her shoulders and her eyes are framed with a smoky shadow, her lips a glossy nude. The black leggings and tight gold shirt she wears accentuate her petite frame. “It’s been far too long since we’ve done this. I think any good intervention should start with a few shots. Don’t ya think?”

  Callie laughs. “That’s so messed up, but let’s do it.” Her own blonde hair is piled loose on the top of her head with huge gold hoops glimmering in her ears. The same smoky makeup frames her cool blue eyes, and as they squeeze their way through the crowd and wedge themselves between a cluster of people at the crowded bar, the pair garner more than a few stares from the opposite sex.

  “I’ll buy the first round,” Jinny says, but after five minutes of standing there and being practically ignored, Callie gently moves her to the side.

  “Give me your money,” Callie says, grabbing the wad of bills. “This is how you do it.” Tugging on the end of her shirt, she exposes her cleavage, just enough so the fringe of her lace bra cups peek above her shirt, and leans over the bar, money in hand. Seconds later, a bartender nods at her and comes closer.

  “What can I get ya?”

  “Four shots of tequila. Whatever you’ve got.” Callie throws the money down and the bartender takes it, returning with four shots.

  “Here ya go.” He leans his hip against the bar and flings a towel over his shoulder. If Callie happens to notice the way his biceps bulge when he does this, it’s not because she’s looking. It’s just impossible not to. At least, that’s what she tells herself. Besides, a little ogling never hurt a girl. Especially when she’s trying to forget someone else.

  “I’ve never seen you two here before,” the bartender says, nodding at Jinny, acknowledging her beside Callie.

  “Yeah. We don’t get out much anymore,” Callie says.

  “So, what’s the occasion?”

  “Oh, she’s trying to get over my asshole brother.” Jinny’s tone is so matter-of-fact, Callie turns to her and gawks.

  “What? He is being an ass,” she says.

  With wide eyes, Callie pivots back to the bartender, who’s trying to stifle a laugh by covering his mouth. “Well, my name’s Mark. If you need anything at all tonight, I’m here. And if you need a little help getting over this guy, I’d be more than happy to oblige. Consider me at your service,” he says, placing a hand over his heart. Then, he winks at her and pushes away from them to wait on someone else.

  “Oh. My. God.” Jinny elbows Callie in the ribs. “He is so fucking hot. And so into you.”

  Callie opens her mouth and then snaps it shut when she catches herself ready to say, What about your brother? Maybe this operation will be harder than she thought.

  A little help won’t hurt.

  Taking a deep breath, she grabs one of the shots, tips her head back, and downs it. She cringes as she slams it back on the counter. “First one’s always the hardest.”

  “Geez. Coulda warned me.”

  “Operation Get Over the Guy starts now. And you know what? He is hot. Super hot. Scorching, in fact.”

  “Ha! A little over the top, but damn right, he is!” Jinny raises her shot in the air and Callie grabs another one, following suit. “To hot guys,” Jinny declares.

  “To all hot guys, except The Unmentionable One,” Callie adds, and then they down their shots. When she returns the shot glass to the bar, her peripheral catches on someone across from them. “Oh, and speaking of guys being into you, Mr. 1970s with the polyester pants and the creep-o sideburns is checking you out.”

  Jinny glances not-so-subtly in his direction. “Ew. More like leering.” Mr. 1970s smiles crookedly, assuming Jinny’s lingering gaze is a good thing. Shuddering, Jinny grabs Callie’s hand. “Time for a change of scenery. Let’s dance.”

  An hour later, sweaty and losing the slight buzz they had gained from the two shots, Callie leads them back to the bar. “I’ll buy this time.” She reaches into her back pocket and pulls out her credit card.

  “Uh, no, ya don’t.” Jinny yanks the card from her hand.

  “Hey! All my cash goes to payments for that thing. It’s all I’ve got.”

  “Exactly,” Jinny gives her a stern look.

  “Well, what are we gonna do, then?” Her mind flashes to Dean.

  I can’t get through this night without drinks. And that, in and of itself, is so messed up.

  “There’s no way Operation Get the Guy can go into full effect without alcohol. Sad, but true.”

  “What about Mark over there? I’m sure he�
��d give us some free drinks.” Jinny wiggles her brows.

  Callie glances to Mark, who’s pushing three beers at a student Callie recognizes from her analytics class. “Yeah, and so would a ton of other guys in here if I flash them a smile and some cleavage. I don’t want him thinking he’s going to get something at the end of the night, and you know that’s exactly what he—and any other guy, for that matter—will think if we let them buy us drinks all night.”

  “Fine. You’re right.”

  “Besides, this night is supposed to be guy free, remember? So, hand over the card. It’s one night and a little booze. I can handle it.”

  “No way.” Jinny scowls at her and then blows at a strand of hair covering her eyes.

  Then, as if sent directly from the gods themselves, Callie spots the solution to their cash-flow problem walk through the door. “Jackpot. Just give me a second.”

  Jinny turns and follows Callie’s gaze. The second she spots him, her face turns red. “Oh, no. No way. What happened to the no-guy rule?”

  “Pfftt. It’s Emmett,” Callie says, waving in his direction. “He doesn’t count as a guy.”

  “No? Well, he’s also The Unmentionable One’s best friend,” Jinny says, mocking Callie’s words from earlier in the evening. “Won’t that completely interfere with the whole point of getting your mind off Dean?”

  “Nice try, but you’re also The UO’s sister, so that kind of blows that theory out of the water.”

  Jinny crosses her arms in front of her chest. If her frown gets any deeper, it will permanently etch her skin.

  “Emmett’s harmless. Besides, he’ll do anything for you, which means enough drinks to get us completely blitzed. That is what I need, my friend.” Callie smiles apologetically, but not before she’s waving again at Emmett to get his attention.

  Jinny rolls her eyes as Emmett spots them and gives a thumbs up as he makes his way toward them. “Well, well, well… If it ain’t my two favorite ladies.”