“Why in the hell didn’t you come to me the second you found out about this!?”

“She called me, Clay. There’s nothing wrong with that. She’s called me all the time for stuff like this and you’ve never batted an eye.”

“One, no one’s ever sued Callie for seven hundred thousand dollars. And two, the two of you didn’t fuck beforehand!”

I winced at the way my father said that word. Like he spat it. Chewed it. Like he had spoken some distasteful truth that should have never been spoken. It had been three days since the meeting with our family’s lawyer, and my father was angry. Spitfire angry. Everything from not being present at the original meeting to my not calling him first tripped his trigger. And every time he saw Colt, he exploded. I’d been up in my room, trying to distract myself with preparing for my next semester. I’d put my future business dealings on hold.

Until I knew whether or not Matthew would eventually own it if I even tried.

“Why the hell am I just now finding out about any of this?” my father exclaimed.

“Callie told you about it two days ago. You weren’t in the dark for any longer than twenty four hours, Clay.”

“I should have never been in the dark at all! The second she called you, you should have placed a call to me.”

“You know that isn’t how my relationship with Callie works. It’s never worked that way.”

“I don’t even want you to say the word ‘relationship’ with regard to my daughter right now. Do you hear me?”

I rolled my eyes and slung myself off my bed. I was tired of staring at my laptop and I was tired of hearing them bicker with one another. My eyes watered with the constant squinting at the bright electronic screen and my head ached with the lack of food I’d taken in that day. I ripped my bedroom door open and fled down the stairs, taking them as quickly as I could before wrapping my hand around the banister and swinging myself down the hallway.

And the second I stepped foot into the kitchen, I unleashed.

“Enough is enough!”

My father and Colt both stopped mid-sentence and whipped their heads over to look at me.

“Just stop. Please. Enough is enough, and I don’t need the two men I love the most ripping and tearing at each other’s throats every time they step into each other’s paths.”

There was a brief moment of silence before my father cleared his throat.

“Love?” he asked.

I panned my eyes over to him and nodded.

“Yes. Love. I love you, Clay, because you’re my father. You're the only father I’ve ever known. You stepped in when I was five years old and took me in as your own. I’ll always love you for that. And I love Colton. Because he’s always been there for me. For my entire life. I’ve always been able to trust him and go to him and call him up whenever I wanted just to talk. Or vent. Or get angry. Or seek advice.”

My eyes flickered over to Colt and I found his gaze hard on my face.

“But right now? I need you guys to set aside your personal issues with one another and try not to make my life anymore of a living nightmare than it has already turned into. You think you guys can do that?” I asked.

“Have you eaten anything today?” Colt asked.

“Did you hear what I just said?”

“Answer his question, Callie,” my father said.

My eyes darted between the two men before I let out a heavy sigh.

“No. I haven’t come downstairs to eat today,” I said.

“Then, I’m taking you out to dinner,” Colt said.

“The hell you are,” my father said.

I watched Colt pan his head over to my father. “With all due respect, it’s no longer about you or me. Callie’s right. We’ve been arguing non-stop for the past three days over this issue, and it’s doing her no good.”

“You are not taking my daughter anywhere,” my father said heatedly.

“She’s wound too tight and going through too much, Clay. I’m worried about her. She hasn’t eaten all damn day. So, I’m taking her out to dinner to get her mind off things.”

“Aren’t you going to ask what I want?”

I watched both men turn their heads towards me before my eyes fell onto Colt’s.

“If you want to go to dinner with me, that is,” Colt said.

“I’d love to go to dinner with you. Let me go upstairs and get changed,” I said.

“Callie, this isn’t--.”

I held my hand up to my father before my shoulders slumped.

“Please stop,” I whispered.

I didn’t have any more energy to speak. My hands trembled with the hunger that coursed through my body. Colt pinned my father with a hard gaze, and I took it as an invitation to backtrack. I walked back upstairs, feeling the weight of my hunger slowly settle onto my shoulders. Dinner. With Colton. I should have been more excited than I was. Everything seemed tainted by Matthew, and it made me sick. I dragged myself into my bathroom and took a shower, allowing the warm water to soothe muscles I didn’t even register were aching.

My mind was so clouded with nonsense I didn’t even understand the damage being done to it.

I slipped out of the shower and took my time getting ready. I pulled out a dress I hadn’t worn in months and dug out a pair of heels to match. I curled up my hair, fluffing my onyx locks out around my shoulders. My dress was a pale pink, with navy accents that made the bright fabric pop. Matthew hated the dress on me. He thought it made me look like a little girl. Not the grown woman I had turned into at his side.

His words, not mine.

I tossed on a bit of mascara and lip gloss, then settled on some jewelry. I hated makeup. I hated the tedious process of applying it and the constant need to get it symmetrical on both sides. I stick to the basics: mascara, blush, lip gloss. Maybe some undereye concealer if I looked exhausted. But that was it. I enjoyed jewelry much more. Glittering necklaces that held close to my neck and dangling earrings that accenting the length of my neck.

Tonight, I chose a set of pearls to dangle lightly around my neck with a pair of studded pearl earrings to match. It was the only jewelry I had left after returning the rest to Matthew’s doorstep before heading home for the summer. It was the only real jewelry I owned that Matthew hadn’t purchased for me. They were my mother’s pearls. And I only wore them if the occasion was special enough.

And to me? Dinner with Colt was as special as it got.

I grabbed a matching clutch purse and put a few necessary items in it. Then, I made my way for the stairs. I got to the top of them just in time to see my father storm off into his office, and I jumped when he slammed the door shut. I whimpered. Let out an audible sound that only scratched at the surface of how much my heart ached.

“Don’t worry about him, Callie. Focus on me.”

My eyes panned away from my father’s closed office door, and the second they landed onto Colt, I was stunned to my spot. My heart stopped in my chest. My empty, growling stomach filled with butterflies that matched the rhythmic pulsing of the blood rushing through my ears. It felt as if every hair on my body stood on end at the sight of him. At the handsome man waiting for me at the bottom of the steps of my childhood home.

Colt looked up at me with a soft smile on his face, and it lit up his ocean blue eyes. His black hair was slicked back, showcasing the chiseled strength of his face. Shadows bounced off the corners of his features, igniting his skin right before my very eyes.

And the suit he donned hugged every part of the body I had touched that night in my bedroom.

His trim shoulders sat snug in the navy suit that fell over the long, languid lines of his body. His lean legs. His strong arms. His broad chest. The navy suit was bold, with a sheen that glistened under the lights of the foyer. His white button-down shirt sat behind a slim navy tie, and the cufflinks in the wrists of his suit jacket shimmered silver with his every movement.

I felt my legs moving me closer to him. Closer to the handsome man who clasped his hands behind his back and waited patiently for me.

I couldn't hear anything. It was as if the world came to a grinding halt around me. The second Colton’s oceanic gaze held mine, I felt lighter than air. Comforted, before I even got to the warmth of his body. My heel led me off the last step and my neck craned back to keep his face in view. The kind grin slowly slid from his cheeks, replaced by a gaze I’d only seen one other time before.

And that was when he pressed my back against the door of my fucking closet.

“Ready for dinner?” he asked.

He offered me his arm and I drew in a deep breath. His voice pierced through the haze of my mind. His smooth tone shocked my world back to life. Sounds hit my ears and it became easier to breathe. The butterflies in my stomach quickly dissipated, replaced by a growl that ticked Colt’s cheek in amusement. I slid my arm against his, cloaked in his warmth as he escorted me to the front door. Out to his car we moved, side by side. Arm in arm.

Until he reached for the car door and slid his hand down to the small of my back.

“Let’s go put that stomach to rest,” he said.

I would have giggled, but I was too concentrated on the heat of his hand burning through the curve in my back. I eased myself down into the seat, tucking myself in as Colt closed my car door. I watched him dig his keys out and press a button before the top whirred to life. It rolled down, exposing the inside of the car to the heat of the evening sun.

My first smile in three days crossed my face as the sun drenched my skin. But the warmth was nothing compared to the heat that seared my knee when Colt’s hand came down onto it.

“Callie.”

“Hmm?” I asked.

I panned my face over to look at him and found him staring sternly back at me.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

A small smile crossed my face before my small hand migrated over the one he had dwarfing my knee.

“I’ll be better once I eat,” I said.

I’d never seen a man crank a car so fast in all my life.