I kick the flat tire before teetering on my heels. My arms flail, but I catch my balance before I fall flat on my ass and drop the Tupperware of cocadas I spent a majority of last night making for Cami’s graduation event.
“Is everything okay, Mommy?”
I take a deep breath through my nose before turning around and facing Cami. She looks adorable with her tilted graduation cap and miniature gown that drags across the floor behind her like a wedding dress. If I had paid attention to my mom’s sewing lessons, maybe I would have been able to adjust the hem for her.
The same heaviness that has been present since this morning grows stronger at the reminder of my mom.
Te extraño muchísimo, Mami.
“I need to ask for someone to pick us up.” No way will I be able to change a tire by myself.
The smile on her face dims. “Will we be late?”
I check the time on my phone. “Not if I can help it.” Since I always like arriving early to everything, I made sure to have enough time for any last-minute emergencies. I’ve come to learn with Cami, anything is possible. Juice spills. Missing favorite sock. A trip to the bathroom.
I choose to call Delilah first. The call goes directly to voicemail, so I dial her again, hoping it was an issue with my service. The voicemail picks up right away.
“Shit,” I hiss.
Cami gasps.
I open my purse with shaky fingers and hand her a dollar. “Why don’t you go put that in the jar for me?”
“Okay!” She grabs the dollar from my hand and runs inside the house, nearly tripping over the hem of her gown in the process.
Wyatt, the next person on my emergency list, goes straight to voicemail as well. I call Violet next in a last act of desperation, hoping she answers. Except like Delilah and Wyatt, she doesn’t pick up.
“Why is no one answering?” I let out a curse as I kick the tire again.
I told everyone to get there thirty minutes before the start time—
Wait!
I slap my forehead. Whenever Lake Wisteria has an event with over fifty people, the area becomes a cellular service dead zone, most likely due to overwhelming our one cell tower. It happens every single year before our Strawberry Festival.
“Dammit.” I tug at my hair, the sting of pain grounding me. “What am I supposed to do?”
You could start with staying calm.
I pull up my rideshare app and type in the coordinates for Cami’s school. The nearest driver is located a town away and will take thirty minutes to get here.
Panic claws at my chest, turning each breath into a challenge.
A sunbeam bouncing off the roof of Cal’s shiny car catches my attention.
No. You can’t be serious.
I wish I wasn’t. If avoiding Cal was an Olympic sport, I would be a gold medalist. Ever since our kiss a few days ago, I have done everything in my power to keep away from him.
Find another way.
There is no other way. He is the last person I want to ask for a favor, but I’m all out of options. If he doesn’t drive us, we won’t make it to Cami’s ceremony in time.
My heels sink into the gravel as I walk up the driveway toward the house. Pinpointing Cal’s location doesn’t take more than a second, especially when it’s paired with Cami’s giggle. I follow the sound of their voices all the way back to the living room, where I find him on his knees, readjusting Cami’s crooked cap.
“There. All better now.” He taps the edge of her hat with a smile.
“Thanks, Cow-l!”
A warmth spreads through my chest as Cami wraps her arms around Cal’s shoulders, smacking him in the face with the tassel on her cap.
My low chuckle draws Cal’s attention. Our gazes collide, and his eyes widen.
“What?” I tuck a wave behind my ear.
“You’re so beautiful.” His voice deepens.
“Ooo. You think Mommy is pretty!” Cami’s bright gaze swings from me to Cal.
“I think she’s the prettiest damn woman in the world.”
The butterflies in my stomach return, their endless flapping creating a buzz in my lower half.
“Really?” The ear-splitting pitch of Cami’s voice combined with the hearts shooting out of her eyes warns me away.
He doesn’t look away from me as he says, “Absolutely.”
I break eye contact. “Uh-oh. Cal said a bad word.”
Cami squeals with delight as Cal blindly hands her a hundred-dollar bill without so much as breaking eye contact with me. She takes off toward the kitchen, leaving Cal and me alone.
His gaze darkens as it trails down my body, turning the warmth in my chest into a raging inferno. For Cami’s special occasion, I decided to wear a floral summer dress that makes my boobs look amazing, and my favorite pair of heels that hurt like hell if I stand for too long. The two thin suede strings wrapped around my calves cut off most of the blood flow to my feet, but beauty is pain.
Totally worth it. With the way Cal looks at me, I’d willingly risk each one of my ten toes turning purple.
His eyes zero in on my shoes. “Fuck.”
“What?” I look down but find nothing wrong.
“The things I would do to have your legs wrapped around my waist while wearing those.” He looks up.
Oh. My. God.
He closes the gap between us before kneeling in front of my shoes.
“What are you doing?” My heart pounds against my rib cage, the beats filling my ears.
“You’re going to pass out if you keep them on this tight.” His fingers trace over one of my swollen calves. I teeter from the simplest touch behind my knee, so I reach out to lay a hand on his shoulder.
A simple brush of his fingers up my leg has me biting on the inside of my cheek to keep from groaning. “I’ll be fine.”
Cal doesn’t leave the choice up to me as he carefully unties the first set of strings. They fall, landing in a messy pile beside my feet.
He rubs at the red marks on my legs with furrowed brows. “Doesn’t this hurt?”
“Who cares so long as they look good?”
His fingers work in small circles, massaging my calves until he is pleased with the result. Breathing becomes an impossible task, the growing ache between my legs intensifying with each passing second.
By the time he is finished retying the first shoe, I’m clutching on to his shoulder with a steel grip.
“You doing okay?” He smiles up at me.
My eyes narrow. “You know exactly what you’re doing.”
Only I don’t know why Cal is doing it. After how quick he was to pull away after our kiss, I thought he would keep to himself and prevent any future mistakes from happening.
So much for that.
His grin widens as he traces a finger over the goose bumps forming on my skin. I shove his stupid smiling face away, only to nearly fall flat on my ass before he stabilizes me.
He repeats the same thing on my other leg until I’m panting. The push and pull between us will drive me crazy if it continues.
This is exactly why you need to avoid him.
He rises to his full height, although the image of him kneeling in front of me will live on forever in my dreams. His mouth opens, but sneakers slapping against the hardwood stop him.
Cami runs back into the living room. “Is someone coming to get us now, Mommy?”
“No.”
Her smile drops. “Why?”
“Can I ask you for a huge favor?” I look over at Cal and tuck my hands behind my back to hide the way they shake.
A line appears between his brows. “Tell me what you need.”
A sanity check would be a good place to start.
I swallow back the thought. “Do you mind if I borrow your car? I got a flat and no one is answering their phone, and I wanted to get a rideshare but—”
His eyes stretch to their limits. “You want to drive my car?”
“Umm, well…” I motion toward the imprint of a flask in his front pocket, ignoring the painful tightness in my throat.
“It’s nine a.m.” He speaks low.
Oh God. You insulted him.
“Right, but—”
He holds a hand up. “Fine. Whatever. You can drive.”
“Yay!” Cami claps her hands together.
My shoulders drop, the tension bleeding out of them along with all the pent-up adrenaline. “Thank you.”
Cal passes me his keys. “Anything for you.”
Three words. Five syllables. One punch to the gut.
I don’t let the impact of his words show on my face. But he threw me back into the past without a life preserver, leaving me to drown in the memories of him saying those same three words over and over again.
Anything for you, he said when he broke his arm trying to get my kite out of a tree.
Anything for you, he grumbled after picking me up early from my very first date with Pete Darling, a jerk who didn’t quite live up to his last name.
Anything for you, he brokenly whispered after I made him promise to never come back to Lake Wisteria, knowing I wouldn’t be strong enough to resist him again, drugs and alcohol be damned.
Reality is a bitch, making my eyes prick from unshed tears.
That was then. This is now.
I shove my emotions to the side and rally for my daughter, who needs me to be focused on the present.
Cami waits inside so she doesn’t get sweaty while I set up her booster seat. Due to how cramped Cal’s back seat is, the lower half of my body remains outside the car while I struggle to get the seat belt through the holes.
“Is everything okay?” The heat of his breath against my neck makes my skin pebble.
“Perfect.” I curse as the seat belt buckle smacks me in the knuckles.
“Here. Let me help you.” Cal’s chest presses against my back as he reaches over my body to help me with the seat belt. Our bodies click together like two magnets, the pull toward each other too great to ignore.
I suck in a breath as goose bumps spread across my skin. He brushes the pad of his thumb across them, drawing another sharp inhale from me.
“Stop doing that.” I release the seat belt, leaving him to fix it.
He doesn’t give me room to escape, instead choosing to work around me. It doesn’t take him long to figure out the process.
“All done.”
I jump at the sound of his voice, and my ass bumps into his crotch.
My eyes widen at the same time as his sharp inhale.
Oh, shit.
