Callum (Blue Halo Book 7)

“So, when you say this place does good coffee, how good are we talking?”

Fiona’s lips stretched as she looked at Jenny. “Really good. Like, dream-about-it-every-night-until-you-have-it-again level of good.”

“Okay, now you’re just teasing me.”

“Nope. I only discovered the coffee shop a couple months ago. I can’t believe I’ve been living in Cradle Mountain for almost a year and didn’t find it till now.”

In the week since the bar incident, Fiona hadn’t had any more panic attacks, but then, she’d barely gone out—just to work and home and this coffee shop. Oh, and she’d read her way through half a dozen books because, well, that was what you did when you were trying to escape your world and enter a new one.

Jenny grinned. “You know my expectations are sky-high now, right?”

“You’re lucky you found me.”

Jenny nudged her shoulder. “I really am.”

In all seriousness, Fiona was the one grateful to have Jenny. Her cousin Stacey had visited Cradle Mountain a handful of times—she’d actually been with her during that awful night at the bar—but having a cousin visit every so often wasn’t the same as having a friend right here, every day. The other librarians were older and had their own little cliques. Plus, Fiona spent her spare time reading and taking walks, both of which were useless when it came to meeting new people.

When they reached The Grind, Fiona pushed inside and Jenny followed. Immediately, she grinned. It wasn’t just the coffee she loved here. The interior was…well, the only word she could think of to describe it was quirky. The tables and booths were different colors, making the place look fun and happy. The walls were just as colorful, and the room was always full.

Fiona and Jenny went straight for a booth by the window.

“Oh my Lord,” Jenny groaned as she sat. “The smell of coffee beans is magnificent.”

“Ha. Wait until you try the stuff. You’re going to be kissing my feet for bringing you here.”

“I’m always up for some feet kissing,” a woman said as she stepped up to their table. Fiona looked into the most exotic eyes she’d ever seen, one green and the other a beautiful brown. The woman also had pink stripes in the sides of her blond hair.

“I like anyone who brings more people to my coffee shop,” the woman added.

“Your coffee shop?” Fiona asked. She’d seen the woman here before but didn’t know she owned the place. She looked too young. Maybe mid-to-late twenties?

“Yep. This baby’s all mine. My partner sometimes complains that I love this place more than him, but that’s only true when he’s bad.”

Fiona laughed. “I hope that’s not often.”

She lifted a shoulder. “He has his moments. My name’s Courtney. What can I get you ladies today?”

“I’m Fiona, and I’ll have a latte, please,” she answered.

Jenny nodded. “Jenny. I’ll have a latte too.”

When Courtney left, Fiona cocked her head to the side. “Now, are you really a latte girl?”

Jenny laughed. “I’m really a latte girl. I did not get tongue-tied in front of Courtney. Plus, what’s the alternative? Black coffee? Yuck. If it’s not a latte, it’s a double-shot latte with two sugars.”

“You’re speaking my language.”

Fiona’s phone vibrated from her pocket, and her smile dimmed. It had been doing that a lot lately. She’d received three more messages in the last week from that unknown number, saying pretty much the same thing as the first. Now, every time her phone vibrated with a message, she was almost scared to look at it.

With a quick breath, she tugged her phone from her jeans pocket. Not the unknown number. Her sister. Which was almost as bad.

Amanda: Will you stop ignoring me! Are you bringing a guy or not? I need to know by tonight.

Fiona cringed. Yeah, she still hadn’t replied to her sister.

“Okay, who’s put that look on your face and why?”

Fiona looked up from her phone, not exactly sure what her friend was seeing. Anxiety? Resignation? The depressing acceptance that she’d have to admit the truth to her terrible sister?

“It’s my sister,” she finally said. “She’s awful—and she’s marrying my ex. Her wedding’s in a few weeks, and I may have told a little white lie that I’m dating someone and will be bringing him to the wedding.”

Jenny cringed. “Oh God. I’m sorry. She’s really marrying your ex?”

“Yep. The one I told you about, who’s equally awful. She actually started dating him while he and I were still together.”

Jenny’s eyes widened and she leaned forward. “No!”

“Yes again.”

“Well, I can see why you lied.”

Fiona sighed. “The worst part? I wasn’t even surprised when she did it. Don’t get me wrong, I was mad as hell. But I swear, since the day I was born, she’s hated me.” And Fiona had never known why. Sometimes she thought it was jealousy, since Fiona and her parents got along so well. But their parents loved both of them.

“Why are you going then?”

That was a good question. Most wouldn’t. “A couple of reasons. The first is my parents don’t know about the cheating. They think I just fell out of love with him, then my sister started dating him. I adore my parents and the truth would kill them.”

Her gaze flickered to the window, but she wasn’t really seeing. “And more than that, I just…I don’t want them to know how much they hurt me.”

Because they had hurt her. More severely than anyone else ever had. And they’d damaged her trust.

“Okay. Yes, I totally understand.” Sympathy shone in her friend’s eyes, but then a second later it shifted into a mischievous look. “Well, I mean, you could ask—”

“No.” She already knew who Jenny was going to say, and it was a big fat no.

So why do you keep thinking about asking him?

Even thinking it made her mentally cringe. She had been thinking about asking him. She’d been doing a lot of thinking about Callum in the last week. The way he’d caught her off the ladder. The way he’d saved her in the bar. The man was becoming her personal bodyguard.

No. Asking him was crazy. They weren’t even friends.

Jenny lifted a shoulder. “I’m just saying. He clearly likes you, and he’s saved you a million times now.”

The words had just left Jenny’s mouth when the door opened and three large men walked inside, all well over six feet, with wide shoulders and thick arms. And the last man in the door was none other than Callum.

Goddammit. Why did the world keep summoning him everywhere she went?

Immediately, Callum’s gaze whipped to hers. The corners of his mouth ticked up in just a hint of a smile. Then he mouthed, “Hey.”

And even though she told herself not to react, freaking screamed it in her head, her damn body betrayed her, her heart kicking into a gallop and her mouth drying.

Without realizing she was doing it, she thumbed her right wrist, where he’d grazed her skin as he’d written his number.

“Oh. My. God,” Jenny whispered as she watched the men walking inside. “You can’t say that isn’t the universe telling you to ask him.”

No. It was the universe tormenting her. She swallowed, swearing she could still feel him watching her. “It’s not.”

Jenny sighed. “Okay, but I think you’re missing an opportunity.”

She didn’t tell her friend that the man had already offered to be her date, because then Jenny would push harder. For a fleeting moment, she imagined walking into her sister’s wedding with his arm around her. With his heat touching her side.

No. No, no, no. He would be far too easy to fall for, and he wasn’t in her plans. Her plans were short, chubby and bald. The opposite of Callum.

Thankfully, Courtney returned to their table with steaming lattes, which smelled so amazing she almost groaned out loud.

“Oh my gosh, Courtney. I think I might be kissing your feet for this.” Fiona lifted the coffee to her lips, and yep, it tasted as amazing as the last time she’d come here.

“Kiss away.” Courtney smiled. “Don’t forget about the joke on the mug.”

She pulled her mug down and read the side.

Once in a while someone amazing comes along…and here I am.

She chuckled as Jenny read hers out loud.

“You know what that sounds like? Not my problem.”

They both laughed, and Fiona looked back up at Courtney. “These are awesome.”

She lifted her shoulder. “They’ve become my little addiction. Call out if you need anything else.”

Courtney left the table, but she didn’t head behind the counter. Instead, she walked up to one of the Blue Halo men. Fiona’s heart melted as she watched the couple lean into each other and kiss. Adorable.

“Oh my gosh, look at you.”

She swung her gaze back to Jenny. “What?”

“You’ve got that ready-to-fall-in-love look on your face. Just ask him out already.”

“I do not. And definitely not with Callum. Remember, I need—”

“Short, chubby and bald. Yeah, yeah.”

She laughed. Jenny clearly didn’t believe her.

“I hate this guy who hurt you. I want to kick him in the teeth, and I don’t even know him.”

Fiona scoffed. “Trust me, you’re not the only one.”

She wished she’d kicked him in the teeth the moment she’d found him in bed with her sister, but the shock had taken hold of her body and all she’d been able to do was stare at them, mouth open like a gaping fish, before turning and walking out.

“But,” Fiona said, refusing to feel down about a past she had no control over, “it brought me here, so it can’t have been all bad.”

“And if you hadn’t come here, we would never have found each other.”

“What a tragedy that would have been.”

“Exactly.” Jenny took one more sip of her coffee before rising. “I’m just going to the bathroom real quick.”

She had just left the table when Amanda texted again.

Amanda: You have until tonight, or I’m going to assume you don’t have a date.

Fiona closed her eyes, then with a resigned sigh, opened them and started typing a response. She was halfway through her epic, fictional breakup story when the phone rang. Oh, man…it was her mother.

Fiona groaned. First Stacey, and now her sister had set their mom on her.

“Hi, Mom.”

“Hi, baby. It’s so nice to hear your voice. I miss you.”

Her chest tightened. “I miss you too, Mom.”

And she really did. She’d moved to get away from Amanda and Freddie, but the distance between her and her parents had been unfortunate collateral damage.

“I was just talking to your sister,” her mother started. Fiona massaged her brow. “And she asked me to call about your plus-one.”

“I was just responding to her when you called.”

“Oh, good.” Relief was heavy in her mother’s voice. “She suggested he wasn’t real, but I told her you would never lie about that. I know things are…complicated, with her marrying Freddie.”

Complicated? They were more than that. But her parents didn’t know she’d found them in bed together. When her sister and Freddie had come out as dating a few weeks later, her parents had been utterly shocked and more than a little stressed. She loved her mother and father, plus her dad had some health issues…so she’d lied again. Told them she was fine with it and happy for them.

Then they’d gotten engaged…

“I’m sorry this will be difficult for you. I tried speaking to her about it being too soon after you and Freddie split, but…” But her sister was a selfish bitch? “I don’t think she understood the issue.”

Of course she didn’t. Amanda only ever thought about Amanda. “I’m okay, Mom.”

Another lie that slipped off her tongue.

“But I’m just so glad you’ve got a partner to help you through it. All your father and I have ever wanted is for you and Amanda to be happy. This rift between you two these last several months, and having you move away…it’s all been so hard.”

She pinched her brow. The rift had been there for a lot longer than a few months.

“Hopefully,” her mother continued, “with you having moved on, and Amanda getting married, we can leave the past in the past and be a family again.”

There was so much hope in her mother’s voice.

“So, will you tell me his name?”

Instinctively, she looked up to find the three Blue Halo men headed toward the door. Callum paused before stepping out, his gaze once again locking with hers. Then he winked at her, throwing her belly into a tattered mess.

“Callum.”

The second the name left her lips, she cringed and scrunched her eyes.

“Callum. Well, I’ll let Amanda know. And please tell him how excited we all are to meet him.”

“I will. I love you, Mom.”

“Love you too, baby.”

The second the call ended, Fiona dropped her head into her hands. What had she done?