If they only knew, they wouldn’t be laughing. They’d be going for his throat.
* * *
When they were done for the day and packing up, Evan approached him. “Hey, I think your email address was accidentally left off the invite.”
“What invite?”
“Catalina. Paige and I want to have Thanksgiving on Catalina Island with everyone. It’s her birthday a couple of days after that, and we thought it would be a great way to celebrate with the whole gang.”
Lyssa would be there. What the hell was he going to do when he saw her? How was he supposed to get through twenty-four hours on an island with Lyssa?
“I’ll do my best,” he said as he tried to think of an excuse his friend would buy, “but I’ve got meetings back East and I have to fly out again right away after today.”
Evan narrowed his eyes. “No one meets on Thanksgiving. That and Christmas are the only two days of the year when the business world shuts down. Besides, I know you wouldn’t want to disappoint Paige, would you? She’s pregnant and might burst into tears if she hears you’re not coming. Don’t do that to me.”
Cal couldn’t help but laugh. “Boy, are you ever laying on the guilt trip.” Didn’t Evan know that Cal already had a guilt trip crushing him?
“Fly from wherever you are directly into LAX and meet us at the ferry,” Evan insisted. “You’re family. It wouldn’t be the same without you.”
It was an honor to be considered part of a family like the Mavericks. Strong. Steady. Always there for each other. Only Cal and Lyssa knew the truth—that he was scum who’d indulged in a sexy afternoon with the Mavericks’ younger sister, then run as fast and far as he could because he couldn’t stop wanting her…and didn’t trust himself to have the strength to keep his hands off her.
All his life, Cal had thought he was a better man than his father. Now he knew how wrong he was. Their situations might be different—Cal hadn’t cheated on anyone the way his father had cheated on his mother—but in many ways, Cal wondered if his situation was even worse.
He’d broken the trust of all the Mavericks. He’d broken Susan’s and Bob’s trust. He’d broken his own trusted rules about never mixing business with pleasure. And worst of all, he was afraid he’d broken Lyssa’s trust in him. Because he was no longer the good guy she could count on to be there for her as a business partner…and as a friend.
Chapter Ten
The moment she received Paige and Evan’s invitation, Lyssa knew Cal would finally be forced to face her. Paige had said the guest list was just family since it was Thanksgiving and Paige’s birthday.
And Cal was family.
Lyssa felt totally fine about everything now. No one knew what they’d done, and no one ever would. She could maintain her equilibrium. She wasn’t angry. She wasn’t even hurt anymore.
Instead, she was wholly focused on moving forward. And right now, the entirety of her life was her job. She didn’t want to leave the foundation, so that meant she and Cal had to efficiently and unemotionally clear up any garbage left in the aftermath of their very short affair. It was her one big goal for the weekend—to tidy up loose ends with Cal, put the past in the past, and move on.
Then Cal could stop running away and get back to San Francisco where he belonged. There was so much to do at the foundation, so much she still had to learn.
And if, in the middle of the night, her heart sometimes felt a little weak, and her body sometimes felt a little needy, and all she could think about were his kisses and his touch and his mouth on her…well, she’d forgive herself those tiny lapses and trust she would soon forget. One day, she vowed, their hours on the plane together would be nothing but a distant memory.
But as she stepped out of the limo Daniel had rented for them at LAX and saw Cal on the Catalina Island ferry dock, despite her vows to be strong and relaxed and determinedly positive, an ache closed around her heart.
Daniel and Evan had flown everyone down from San Francisco—her parents, who’d come in from Chicago, the brothers, their ladies, plus the immediate family. Of course, Tasha was with Daniel. But Lyssa noted the absence of Tasha’s brother Drew. She wondered if he’d been invited. He was a bit of a black sheep, but he’d been a tremendous help to her with the foundation.
Charlie’s mother, Francine, had decorated her walker with cardboard cutouts of turkeys, pumpkins, squash, and horns of plenty. She was a doll. In her eighties and suffering from debilitating arthritis that never got her down, she walked a mile every day. She was an inspiration.
Paige was very pregnant now. She didn’t have just a baby bump but a watermelon, and she also looked super happy, especially since Evan’s mother had come too, along with the twins. Tony and Kelsey were Lyssa’s age, which was ten years younger than Evan. His mom, brother, and sister had come back into Evan’s life only a year ago. Having been separated from his mother when he was a kid, he hadn’t even known about the twins. But it was all good now.
Gideon had Rosie and the adorable little Jorge with him. Chi had come too. Rosie, Ari, and Chi were best friends dating all the way back to their time in foster care together.
Jorge and Noah, and Harper’s brother, Jeremy, too, were bouncing around Lyssa’s parents, happy to see Grandpa and Grandma. Jeremy was a wonderful big kid, and Jorge and Noah adored him.
And then there was Cal.
He was gorgeous. The well-built body, his beautiful face, that kissable mouth.
Get yourself under control, she thought, her teeth gritted as she worked to regain her equanimity before she came face to face with him.
Kelsey, her sun-streaked chestnut hair pulled back in a ponytail, found her in the crowd of Mavericks. “It’s been ages since I’ve seen you.” She gave Lyssa the biggest, warmest hug.
“I’ve been really busy at the foundation. But it’s amazing work, and I love it.” And, if Lyssa was being completely honest, she would have to admit she’d been working extra hard to prove to herself that she was totally over her afternoon with Cal on the plane. As if to say, See, I’m not heartbroken. I feel totally fine!
Then Chi, Rosie, and Ari were rushing to hug her too. Of course, Noah and Jorge couldn’t be left out.
Lyssa tried to swing Noah into her arms the way she usually did. “Wow, you’re getting so big, I can barely pick you up anymore.”
At six and three-quarters—because Noah wanted to make sure he got credit for every quarter year of age—he was growing like a weed.
Giving Jorge a big hug, she smiled at Rosie and Ari. “They grow so fast.”
“And they eat like elephants,” Rosie said, her hair the same dark, curly silk of Jorge’s.
The boys made trumpeting noises and whooped around. Those two never slowed down.
“How’s prep for the gallery show going?” All of them were so excited that Rosie had a show at the end of January at a huge San Francisco art gallery. No one could have been more thrilled than Gideon, who absolutely adored everything about Rosie.
She’d worked as an accountant, but she was an amazing artist, her paintings beautifully detailed. Having quit her job at the end of September, Rosie was now painting full time, which was why she and Gideon hadn’t yet set a wedding date.