Too Good to Be True - Kristan Higgins [126]
Maybe Callahan had cooled off, I thought as I drove home. Maybe he’d see my point. Maybe he’d been missing me, too. Maybe my lie didn’t seem so bad, now that some time had passed. Maybe—
As I turned onto my street, I saw a real estate sign up in front of Cal’s house. My heart stuttered. Yes, I’d known Cal was planning to sell the house. I just hadn’t thought it would be so soon.
The front door opened, and a woman emerged…the blonde from the bar. His real estate friend. Callahan followed right behind.
Margaret’s car was not in the driveway, which meant no backup for me. She had a big case pending, so chances were she was at her office. I was on my own. I opened the car door and got out.
“Hey, Cal,” I called. My voice was fairly steady.
He looked up. “Hi,” he said, closing his front door behind him. He and the woman came down the walk where I’d once smacked Callahan O’Shea with a rake.
“Hi, I’m Becky Mango, as in the fruit,” she chirped, sticking out her hand.
“Hi,” I said. “Grace Emerson, as in Ralph Waldo.” Well, didn’t I sound nice and snooty. “I live next door,” I added, glancing at Callahan. He was looking at the new landscaping, which had gone in this past week. Not at me.
“Beautiful house!” Becky exclaimed, gazing at my place. “If you ever want to sell it, give me a call!” She stuck her hand in her bag and pulled out a card. Becky Mango, Mango Properties Ltd. Licensed Realtor. The logo matched the one on the For Sale sign.
“Thanks. I will,” I said, then turned to the brooding male next to her. “Cal, do you have a minute?”
He looked at me, those blue eyes that had once smiled so wickedly now so guarded. “Sure,” he said.
“Callahan, I’ll see you next week?” Becky asked. “I think I might have a property you’d be interested in down in Glastonbury. Real fixer-upper, going on the market next month.”
“Okay. I’ll call you.” We both watched as she got in her car and drove off.
“So you’re…you’re done here?” I asked, though the answer was rather obvious.
“Yup.” He slung his bag into the bed of his pickup truck.
“Where to now?” My eyes stung, and I blinked hard.
“I’m working on a place up in Granby,” he said. “I’ll be in the area until my grandfather…as long as he’s around.” He took his keys out of his pocket, not looking at me. “But I don’t think he’s long for the world.”
My throat tightened. Cal’s last relative, except for the estranged brother. “I’m sorry, Cal,” I whispered.
“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