Which ended up good for me because I wasn’t staying long.
I was getting my fix and leaving.
“You don’t want…” She pointed at the table across the room where my family sat.
There was even an empty chair.
“No, I don’t want.” I shook my head. “They left me.”
The hostess’s eyebrows went up, understanding dawning.
“Oh,” she nodded once, walking past the roll window and picking up not one basket of rolls, but two. Obviously, she realized that I was in an existential crisis and needed a carb overload. “I’ll get you right now. You want the window seat? Or do you want the one closest to the fish tank where they can’t see you?”
At Dune’s, you chose the window seat because it overlooked the lake. And the lake, especially at this time of the year, was freakin’ awesome. As in, it was so pretty, the lake made national magazines.
No matter what my mood, I was overlooking the lake.
After seating me, she walked away with a soft rap of knuckles against my table, then left me with my rolls and my thoughts.
It took a whole two seconds before the waiter was there, looking frazzled, to get my drink order.
Callum: where are you?
Me: I’m at a restaurant, sitting by myself, because my entire family decided to go eat without me.
Callum: Want me to come?
The offer made butterflies swim in my stomach.
Surely, a ‘bad guy’ like Teller tried to tell me Callum was wouldn’t offer to drive two hours because of me being sad.
Smiling, I texted back.
Me: No. I won’t be here that long. I’m going to grab something to eat and head back to a hotel in Dallas. I don’t think I’ll be staying here tonight.
Callum: Okay. Let me know when you’re on your way.
Usually, I wouldn’t be so butt hurt about my family forgetting me, they always did.
Even my brother, who I knew loved me, sometimes overlooked me.
It was hard to be the invisible child.
And only invisible children knew what it felt like.
My parents, though they loved me, never made much of an effort to really include me as they did my sister. Not because they were purposefully doing it, but because my sister was just that much more flamboyant. In your face. Needy.
I loved my sister, too. But I didn’t like that she got all the attention while I got what they remembered to give me.
Hell, even Anderson’s wife, Davina, liked my sister better than me.
“Here you are,” the waiter brought my drink over and set it down on the table next to the basket of rolls I’d polished off within two minutes. “Would you like to place your order now?”
I would’ve answered, but a commotion at the front of the restaurant had me glancing that way.
What I saw made my heart clang against my ribcage in adoration.
I saw the hostess and two waitresses gathered around the large picture window at the front. However, it wasn’t what was on the inside that had the women fascinated, but what was on the outside.
Through the large window I could make out a figure—a very bulky male—backing his bike up into the parking spot.
The sight of the cut on the man’s back had my heart all but stopping inside my chest.
Two minutes later, there he was walking in, hair looking wild, with a grin on his face that made my heart skip a beat.
I placed my hand over my heart and felt the crazy thumps that it produced at the sight of him.
Oh, man. He knew just how to make my heart happy, didn’t he?
“Who is that?” I heard my sister, Abby, whisper.
Callum started to look around the restaurant, completely ignoring the waitresses and hostess who were heading toward him.
It took him about two seconds to find me, and when he did, his eyes went hot.
He flashed me a grin that did crazy things to my heart and started heading toward me.
That’s when my family finally noticed that I was there.
Which hurt even more.
I’d been sitting practically right next to them, three tables away, and they’d completely missed my presence.
I didn’t turn to them and look at their expressions.
Didn’t really want to, to be honest.
But even if I’d wanted to, I wouldn’t have.
Mostly because one didn’t turn away from a man like Callum.
He was gorgeous, and so damn sexy in a plain black t-shirt and jeans, along with his cut, that it made it hard to breathe.
Hell, even his dirty brown boots, with bits of grass stains and blades of grass on them, were sexy.
I couldn’t stop the smile from lighting my face even if I’d tried.
He walked right up to me and grinned down at me before curving his big hand around the back of my neck, pulling me in close, and then planting a solid, sweet kiss on my upturned lips before pulling back.
“Hey,” I whispered. “When did you get here?”
He grinned. “That text you sent felt off to me… and I had this feeling you might need me. So I started driving this way. I wasn’t actually going to come see you, but I was going to be in the area because I just had…”
“A feeling,” I finished for him. “You were right. I needed you.”
He tilted his head, his eyes flashing over the length of my body before stopping on my hand that was fisted in my shirt. “What happened?”
I didn’t want to tell him.
In fact, I didn’t want him to hate my family.
Because I had no doubt in my mind that he’d be upset for me.
I opened my mouth to say ‘nothing’ but then I heard my sister say ‘why is he kissing her?’
And I felt my eyelid start to twitch.
Callum’s eyes went from my twitching eyelid to my sister and then back.
I felt my lips thin as I heard her next comment.
“Wow, he’s hot. Definitely don’t see how they’re together.”
I sighed and felt his hand tighten, fisting my hair and making my heartbeat start to pound.
“You keep dreaming, honey,” I heard Anderson’s wife snicker. “Your sister is hot, just like you are. But in a very different way. Where you attract the pretty boys, the ones that don’t get their hands dirty, your sister attracts the rough ones. Obviously, as evidenced by the man that’s holding on to her like his life depends on it.”
Sometimes, I loved the heck out of Davina’s ways.
She was blunt, brutally honest, and sometimes so achingly truthful that it hurt to hear.
But today, at least she was on my side.
“You keep looking at her like you want to be in her shoes,” my brother whispered. “You would probably cry if his callused hands touched your delicately soft skin.”
At that, I burst out laughing.
Anderson was right.
My sister had men that got manicures twice a week. Ones that worked in offices, and wouldn’t be caught dead in the sun, let alone mowing his own grass.
She wouldn’t be caught dead dating someone that mowed lawns for a living.
Me, on the other hand…
“Sit,” I urged, pointing at the other side of the table. “Do you want something to drink?”
Through all of this, the waiter had stayed at the side of my table, watching the spectacle.
It was when I saw his eyes take in Callum’s body that I realized why.