Too Good to Be True(101)

“Thank you. Thank you for visiting him, too.” His dark blue eyes flickered to mine, then dropped to the driveway once more.

“Callahan,” I said, putting my hand on his warm, solid arm. “Can we just…can we talk?”

“What about, Grace?”

I swallowed. “About our fight. About…you know. You and me.”

He leaned against the truck and folded his arms. Body language not promising, folks. “Grace, I think you’re…I think you have things you need to work out.” He started to say something else, then stopped, shaking his head.

“Look,” he continued. “You’ve been lying to me since the day we met. I have a problem with that. I don’t know if you’re over Andrew, frankly, and I don’t want to be your rebound fling. I was looking for…well, you know what I was looking for.” He looked at me steadily, his expression was neutral.

A wife, a couple of kids, a lawn to mow on weekends. “Cal, I…” I stopped and bit my thumbnail. “Okay. You have a thing about honesty, so I’ll be honest now. You’re partly right. I made up the boyfriend because I wasn’t completely over Andrew. And I didn’t want anyone to know because it made me feel so…small. So stupid, carrying a torch for the guy who dumped me for my sister. Even pretending that I had a great boyfriend was better than people knowing that. Having people think some wonderful guy out there adored me…it was a nice change.”

He gave a half nod, but didn’t say anything.

“When Andrew fell for Natalie…” I paused, then went on. “I loved him, he didn’t love me quite so much, then he took one look at Nat, who’s basically perfect in every way and my baby sister, too, and he fell in love with her.

That’s hard to get over.”

“I’m sure it is,” he said, not unkindly.

“But what I’m trying to say is that I am over Andrew, Callahan. I know I should’ve told you the truth about Wyatt, but—” My voice cracked. I cleared my throat and forced myself to continue. “I didn’t want you to see me as someone who got traded in.”

He sighed. Looked at the ground and shook his head a little. “I was thinking about that time I walked you home from Blackie’s,” he said. “You were on a date, weren’t you?” I nodded. “I bet you were pretty…desperate.”

“Yup,” I admitted in a whisper.

“So I was just about your last shot, wasn’t I, Grace? Your sister’s wedding was coming fast, and you hadn’t found anyone. The ex-con next door was the best you could do.”

I flinched. “No, Cal. That’s not how it was.”

“Maybe,” he said. He didn’t say anything more for a minute, and when he did, his voice was gentle. “Look, if you are over Andrew, I’m glad for you, Grace. But I’m sorry.”

Well, dang it. I was going to cry. Tears burned my eyes, and my throat hurt like I was being strangled. He noticed.

“To be really blunt here,” he said very quietly, “I don’t want to be with someone who lies to make herself look better. Someone who can’t tell the truth.”

“I did tell the truth! I told you everything,” I squeaked.

“What about your family, Grace? You planning on coming clean with your folks? With Andrew and your sister?”

I cringed at the thought. Like Scarlett O’ Hara, I’d been planning on thinking about that tomorrow. Or the next day.

Possibly never. It’s fair to say that I was hoping the Wyatt Dunn fantasy would just fade into the past.

Callahan glanced at his watch. “I have to go.”

“Cal,” I said, my voice breaking, “I really would like you to forgive me and give me another chance.”

He looked at me a long moment. “Take care of yourself, Grace. I hope you work things out.”

“Okay,” I whispered, looking down so he wouldn’t see my face crumple. “You take care, too.”

Then he got in his truck and drove away.

BACK IN THE HOUSE, I sat at my kitchen table, tears dripping off my chin, where Angus cheerfully licked them off.

Great. Just great. I blew it. How I ever thought my Wyatt-Dunn idea was a good one was completely beyond me. I should never have…If only I’d…Next time I’d just… Next time. Right. It occurred to me in a dizzyingly painful flash that guys like Callahan O’ Shea didn’t grow on trees. That God had thrown a man down right next door, and I’d spent weeks in judgment. That just like my best friend Scarlett O’ Hara, I hadn’t seen what was right in front of my face. That any guy who’d drive an hour and a half so I could see Gone With the Wind was worth ten—a hundred—of the type of guy who’d string me along until twenty days before our wedding. It’s about time, Callahan had said the first time I’d kissed him. He’d been waiting for me.

The thought caused a hard sob to ratchet out of me. Angus whined, nuzzling his little face against my neck. “I’m okay,” I told him unconvincingly. “I’ll be fine.”

I blew my nose, wiped my eyes and stared at my kitchen. It was so pretty here. Actually, now that I looked at it, it was rather…well, perfect. Everything had been chosen with an eye toward getting over Andrew—colors that would soothe my heartache, furniture that Andrew would never like. The whole house was a shrine to Getting Over Andrew.