CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Caleb
I stared blankly at my computer, my mind a thousand miles from the email on the screen as I sifted through everything that happened that fateful night.
That night, the weeks of summer had been ticking steadily toward the time we would all go off to different colleges — Lillie to Lipscomb in Nashville, Hunter to Cornell, and me to Columbia.
That’s where my mind had been as I drove, trying to sludge through how I was going to survive the next four years without my best friends in the world. We’d all been thinking about it, we just hadn’t talked about it yet.
Lillie was next to me in the middle of the front seat, Hunter in the passenger seat. They were fighting over the radio, Hunter switching it to the now memorized and annoying hit, “I’m In Love With Stacy’s Mom” and Lillie immediately turning it back to Evanescence’s “Bring Me To Life.”
The song screamed through the car, the bass thumping through my seat.
I smiled and shook my head. Sometimes it was annoying that my twin sister and my best friend got along so well, even fighting like brother and sister at times. Well, stepbrother and sister, considering the spark. The one they never mentioned but couldn’t hide. They thought I didn’t know.
That spark flared now as Hunter wrestled Lillie’s hand from the radio and turned down the volume. “Hey, did anyone bring anything special?”
“Brought myself, am I not special enough?” Lillie slapped Hunter’s hand and wrenched up the volume. A second later, Hunter gained control and turned it back down.
“I’m serious. I can make a call—”
“No,” Lillie said, unclipping her seatbelt, twisting and stretching her upper half into the backseat for her purse. “I’m pretty sure I still have some.”
Hunter’s eyes were on my sister’s ass, which I was semi used to but was still annoying, and especially annoying tonight maybe because their flirting was reaching fever proportions in line with the amount of summer we had left.
As a brother I was obligated to show my displeasure, and I did that now by taking a hard right turn that got his attention. His gaze snapped up to mine and his mouth opened to utter words I’d never hear.
Because at that moment, I ran a stop sign.
I never saw it. I never saw the car traveling down the cross street that didn’t yield.
That driver hadn’t been able to stop.
Hunter and I, we’d been okay. But Lillie, because she was halfway over the seat, had been ejected. She’d been lucky to live, the doctors and nurses said during the days in the hospital then the weeks in a rehab. Lucky to have survived the accident, yes. Not so lucky that the medical profession was giving out pain killers like it was Halloween candy.
We didn’t know at the time that she was hooked, wouldn’t have been able to leave her and continue on to our respective college educations had we known. But she convinced us that she was as upbeat as she sounded, that she’d finish therapy and start a semester late.
But she didn’t.
I’d told Cherry about her but hadn’t been expecting the way Cherry would be able to see into my deepest desires. I didn’t even know what had possessed me to ask her to my place, but I was glad that I had. Her reaction had been exactly what I had hoped for. She was impressed, that was for certain, but she didn’t look at me with any sort of conquest like every other woman I’d dated. Every one-night stand I’d brought there’d instantly had dollar signs appear in their eyes as soon as they stepped into the marble foyer.
And then there was the distance thing. I got that. It seemed her walls were just as high as mine, if not higher, and twice as thick. She needed to compartmentalize in order to keep her head on straight, just like I did. I knew her interest in me was genuine, even if it was only sexual.
And I was perfectly fine with only sexual. I hadn’t had a long-term relationship since high school, and I was fine that way. I was better on my own. Couldn’t waste the extra time a girlfriend would suck out of my life. And if I were honest, I couldn’t stand the idea of being blissfully happy while my sister was on the streets. Because of me.
The weekend dragged, and Monday was going even slower as I waited for the afternoon to come around so I could see Cherry again.
I looked at the clock on the bottom righthand side of the screen, sighing when it said seven fifteen a.m. I’d headed into work early so I could get to the gym early, but time was now ticking tortuously slow.
“Hey, hottest sponsor in town,” Hunter said, letting himself into my office with two steaming mugs of coffee. “I know you’ve got your little side project going, but I wanted to remind you that we have a really important meeting at ten with some investors and you absolutely should not skip this one. We’ve already rescheduled them twice, and we risk them thinking we’re too much trouble.”
I rubbed my temples as I took the coffee he offered. Had I been that wishy-washy lately? Yes, I knew too much of my focus had been on Cherry. My friend was right. If I wanted to keep the revenue stream flowing for my side projects, such as Cherry, I had to keep my head on straight. “I’ll be there, bro. I’m sorry I’ve been MIA lately.”
Hunter studied me with dark eyes over his steaming cup. “So, how’s your fighter doing after the face shot?”
“Don’t call her that,” I corrected sharply. “She’s not my fighter. Her name is Cherry, Cherry Bomb, or Miss Bowers.”
Hunter’s eyebrows shot up. “Don’t forget, I took you to that fight. You still owe me for that.”
I leaned back in my chair, scrubbing my hands over my face. Had I forgotten to shave? Fantastic. “I’m sorry, man. My head’s been out there on the streets.”
“Yeah, I can tell you didn’t sleep. You look like shit.”
I snorted. I could always rely on Hunter to tell me the truth. “You’re damn right I do,” I agreed, surprising him. “But I look better than Cherry.”
“Man, you could never look better than her, even if she had two black eyes and a broken nose.”
I was on the verge of shooting out of my desk with a momentary blinding possessiveness before I reminded myself that Hunter was only making an observation. One that any man with a beating heart would make. Cherry was a knockout, in more than just the ring.
“So what did you get into over the weekend?” Usually, Hunter was badgering me to go to some club, and I hadn’t heard a thing from him other than at the fight.
“Ah.” His cheeks colored slightly, and I perked up. “You remember Angela, right?”
“Yeah. The Italian model who ghosted you after you spent a week together?”
He slitted his eyes at me. “Well, she’s back in town, and she messaged me on Saturday, so you know how it goes.”
I shook my head. “You always were a sucker for a pair of designer legs in an even more designer skirt. You let yourself get taken advantage of too easily.”
“Oh, like your figh…” he cleared his throat, “Cherry isn’t doing the same to you?”
“She’s not,” I answered sharply. “In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Sometimes, I feel as if I’m taking advantage of her.”
He scoffed. “What? The great iceberg Caleb is worried about a girl’s feelings? Say it ain’t so.”
“I’m not an iceberg,” I countered flatly, wondering why I was keeping up this conversation. Was I that cold?
“Dude, I’ve watched you not even bat an eye as a woman you’ve dumped cried and threw herself at you. I haven’t seen you look like this since the car…”
I grimaced and held up a hand. “I would prefer it if we didn’t discuss this now. It’s been on my mind a bit too much lately is all. I feel like, with ten years now, the years will just keep passing. It feels… impossible.”
“Sorry, man. I know it’s a helluva thing to live with. I live with it too.” He held up his hands like he was retreating then took another long sip of his drink. “Look, all I’m saying is that you’ve changed a bit since meeting this girl. I don’t think it’s bad, but it also might not be good. I just want you to be aware.”
“Don’t worry,” I answered, steel in my voice. “I am.”
“Good. That’s all I can ask from my best friend then. Now, about that meeting…”
I was happy to have the topic shift, filling my mind with work. Crowding out images of Lillie cold and alone. Of Cherry alone, not wanting me to take care of her. I looked over the presentation Hunter had put together and noted some facts for the questions that the investors were sure to ask. But every time I managed to focus on a specific task, my mind would return to Cherry, and all the complications between us.
It was a very long day. When I finally arrived at the gym and Andre was leaving because Cherry hadn’t showed, I panicked.
Like seriously panicked.
Maybe it was because Lillie had been so much on my mind lately, but for the first time since I could remember, my feelings were running absolutely rampant, and I could only sit back and let my mind run where it wanted. It was like a tennis match between the worst that could happen and my logical side, which only increased my tension with every volley.
What if Cherry was kidnapped? For a long time, it had been thought that Lillie was kidnapped because of the wealth of our family. What if someone had kidnapped Cherry because I was her sponsor? Or what if a rabid fan had seen Cherry at the fight and wanted revenge for dishonoring De La Matta?
No, I was being ridiculous.
What if I’d driven her off last night and she quit?
No, she was loyal to her family more than anything else. She wouldn’t give up the money for her family’s sake.
I was a breath away from shaking, which made me wonder why I cared so deeply.
What if she’d been involved in some horrible accident? The memory of the acrid smell of melted rubber and burnt oil took over, and I was back there, pulling Lillie out of the car, then Hunter. Flagging down the first car that passed.
My cell rang, and I answered, even though it was an unfamiliar number. I always answered, in case it was her.
“Caleb.”
Every muscle in my body went limp when I heard Cherry’s voice. I heaved a silent sigh of relief.
“Where are you? Are you alright?”
She groaned, and it was still one of the best sounds I had ever heard. “I’m okay. I’m sorry. The school called, and Mom was at work, and I dropped my phone right before I went and the meeting with the principal went long…”
I shook my head, processing the information that had been hurled at me. “What? Principal? What happened?”
“My little brother decided it would be funny to put Sparky the goldfish in the teacher’s water glass. She almost drank him, spit him out, in fact, in front of the whole class. Colby is lucky to be alive.”
It took everything in me to hold back the laughter. “Cherry, you have to admit, your brother has flair.”
She made a noise that told me she didn’t agree at all. “I was calling to see if it would be alright if I brought him to the gym. We can take the bus and be there in—”
“Of course it’s all right, and you aren’t taking the damn bus. You’re never taking the damn bus again. It’s not safe, do you hear me?” I didn’t give her a chance to respond. “Now, tell me where you are, and I’ll be there pronto.”
She hesitated, and I found myself wishing she would turn me down because I was ready for a good argument, and I knew she was the perfect one to have it with. “You’re right, you’re right.”
“Okay then. See you in a few.”
I let out the breath that had been mostly trapped in my lungs since Cherry didn’t show up for training. When some of the tension was gone, I realized the fact that she had called me at all was incredible. I’d felt the connection between us change when she was at my place, but I hadn’t thought it had changed that much. However, I was more than happy to be wrong.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead as I went to the exit, coming closer to accepting that Cherry wasn’t just a booty call or another attractive woman for me to enjoy a few nights or weeks of companionship. No, she was something else entirely.