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  “I suppose so,” he said slowly, raising his eyebrows when I shot him a full-on smile.

  “I’m off to a picnic later. What are you going to do today?” I grabbed some bread and tossed it into the toaster, practically humming under my breath. I knew exactly what I was going to do today. And that involved Axel Steele and his biceps of, well, steel.

  “Nothing much.” Barry leaned forward and caught my eyes in his, as if searching my face for some hint of my thoughts. “Seriously, Callie. What’s the deal? You haven’t seemed this happy in years, let alone first thing in the morning. You’re usually so cranky you snap at me if I so much as blink in your direction before you’ve had your first cup of coffee.”

  “I don’t know.” I shrugged and bit back the smile my mouth was so desperate to make. “I guess things are going well, and I don’t feel stressed like I did when I was drowning under a mountain of exams and homework.”

  He nodded, but he didn’t look very convinced. “Okay, well, that’s great. You know, I was worried about you for a long time. There was always something getting you down, and I rarely saw you smile. This is a nice change, Callie. It’s good to see you this happy again.”

  “It feels good,” I said, though a part of my heart flickered a warning. I hated lying to Barry, even if it was a lie of omission. He’d never wanted anything but the best for me, and it wasn’t right to hide something quite so big from him. But I couldn’t bring myself to say the words out loud. Not yet.

  We would tell him later, I told myself. When the timing was right.

  I knew Axel would be in the shop working on his Porsche for most of the day, and I’d decided to surprise him. He had no idea I was stopping by, and I couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when I showed up wearing lingerie underneath my coat. I smiled at the picnic basket in the passenger seat of my car. It was full of sandwiches and homemade potato salad. I’d also thrown in a bottle of wine for good measure.

  There was absolutely nothing in the world that could destroy my mood. I’d never been happier. Even my brother had noticed the permanent smile I now wore. When I’d first come back home, I’d thought the next few months would be pure torture, but now I was finding I wanted to stay for good. The university had a distance program; I could always finish my last semester that way.

  Now that I finally had Axel, I never wanted to be apart again.

  When I pulled up to the shop, I spotted an extra car in the lot that I didn’t recognize. That was odd, I thought to myself. Surely a customer wouldn’t have swung by on the one day the place was closed.

  Poor Axel. He always worked so hard. This place was his dream, and he’d built it from scratch by himself from day one. And even though he was established enough that he had customers coming out of his ears, he never turned one away. Not even on his day off.

  A picnic would sure help cheer him up.

  The sliding garage doors were cracked open, and when I leaned down to roll them up, voices filtered out from the shop. Axel laughed, his chuckle deep and throaty, a sound I rarely heard from him. He was usually so serious, so focused. I smiled. He was happier now, too. And it warmed my heart to think I was the cause.

  But then another voice followed just behind. A female voice.

  My ears began to ring, and I froze with my fingers gripped around the edge of the doors.

  Stop panicking, I told myself. It was probably nothing. Customers could be men, women, old, young…

  But wait. Her car was parked in the lot. My blood went cold. If she was here about getting her car fixed, then why wasn’t her car in the garage?

  With my heart hammering hard in my chest, I knelt onto the pavement and peeked through the small crack under the door. Axel was leaning against his Porsche and smiling at a woman with a cute pixie face and silky blonde hair that curled around her shoulders. I swallowed hard as the tears began to spill on my cheeks.

  I couldn’t believe what an idiot I’d been. My brother had been right all along.

  The girl was wearing one of his flannel shirts.

  Chapter Twelve

  Axel

  I missed Callie so much I could feel the absence of her presence in my gut. With her working at the shop, I’d gotten so used to having her around at all hours of the day. She showed up early, she left late, and then she often snuck back at night for a piece of my cock.

  I’d gone all day without seeing her, and I was going to have to fix that problem real fast.

  “Hey baby,” I said with a slow smile when she answered her cell. “I’ve missed you. Want to come over?”

  She sniffled, and immediately my blood ran cold. Something was wrong. Had Barry found out before I’d had a chance to show him the ring?

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, voice low and hard. Even if this hadn’t gone according to plan, I’d do whatever it took to fix it.

  “I’m sorry, Axel, but I don’t think we can see each other anymore.” The words cut a hole in my heart, and I had to clutch the phone tighter to keep my soul from splintering into a million pieces.

  “Where is this coming from, Callie?” I took a deep breath, steadying myself. “Is this about Barry? Because I’ll come over there right now and take care of this. He’ll listen to me when I show him what I have planned.”

  “It’s not Barry,” she whispered. “It’s…it’s me. This isn’t working, and I’m leaving town. Don’t call me again.”

  And with that, she hung up. The dial tone blasted in my ear, and my entire body broke from pain and fear. With a roar, I threw the phone against the wall. It cracked in two, just like my heart.

  I had given her my heart.

  I’d even had a plan.

  And now the ring burned a hole in my pocket.

  There was something damp on my cheeks. Tears, I realized. I didn’t remember ever crying before in my life.

  “Pour me another whiskey,” I said, flickering my fingers at the bartender and growling at the raised eyebrows. He sure as hell better not cut me off. I was going to keep drinking until I could no longer picture Callie’s gorgeous eyes in my mind, but I was still miles away from that.

  “He can have another one,” a voice said from behind me. I craned my head to see Barry giving a nod to the bartender. Without a look in my direction, he eased onto the stool beside me and sighed. “Got a call you were in here drinking the place out of whiskey. What’s going on?”

  Barry knew me well enough to know that I never drank unless something was eating me up real bad. Little did he know just how deep the pain went. And problem was, I couldn’t tell him. What would be the point now? All I’d get was a punch in the face for something I could no longer have.

  Hell, maybe I deserved it.

  Maybe the force would knock some sense into me, and I could move on with my life like she’d never been in it.

  I doubted it though.

  She was branded on my heart and soul.

  “Women problems,” I said vaguely.

  “Really?” Barry turned to me then, eyebrows raised and forehead creased. He looked surprised, but I guessed he would be. I’d never been one to get attached, and I’d certainly never been one to mope around when I didn’t get what I wanted. Mostly because I always got what I wanted in the first place. This was the first damn time in my life I’d been dumped.

  “How’d that happen?” he asked.

  “I…” Barry was looking at me so intently that I didn’t think it was wise to go on. Any information I gave might lead him to the truth. “I don’t really want to get into it.”

  “Sure, sure.” Barry nodded and took a swig of his beer, his gaze drifting to the row of bottles behind the bar. “Who wants to talk about feelings and shit, eh?”

  “Damn straight.” I tipped back my head and slammed the shot glass on the wood counter. Barry was a lot like me. He’d never been the type to get attached. We were loners, the pair of us. Though I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d ever felt this way about someone and if he ever would. Surely it was only a m
atter of time. He’d probably be the most jealous boyfriend around, but I knew he’d treat a good woman right.

  Just like I would.

  Too bad my woman and come and gone faster than I knew what had hit me.

  “Thing is,” Barry said, shifting toward me. “You seemed pretty fucking chipper only yesterday.”

  “Well, what can I say?” I let out a bitter laugh. “Reality can sideswipe you pretty damn fast.”

  “What’s interesting is,” Barry continued as if I hadn’t said a word, “someone else I know seemed blissed out just this morning. She has for the past few weeks actually. Her attitude went from winter to summer right after she started working for you.”

  Warning bells clanged in my head, but I could barely hear them through the thick haze of alcohol.

  “That’s about the same time you started smiling around the shop.” Barry narrowed his eyes. “It’s also interesting that she just spent the whole fucking afternoon crying in her room. So, tell me, Axel. What the hell did you do to my little sister?”

  The world seemed to slow around me. I opened my mouth, but I couldn’t find the words. Even though I’d barely said a word, he knew all about the girl I’d been seeing. Over these past few weeks, he’d been quietly watching. I should have known he would be. He’d put two and two together, partly because he’d always been a smart guy and partly because he knew both me and Callie more than anyone else in the world.

  It wasn’t hard to see what had been going on between us.

  Funny thing was, he hadn’t said a word. Until now.

  “How long have you known?” I asked quietly.

  “I’ve suspected from day one.” Barry clenched his jaw. “But I didn’t know for sure until today. Callie came home crying. You’re at the bar getting shit-faced. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out.”

  “Well, if you’re going to break my nose, just go ahead and get it over with.” I held up my hands in surrender. Before today, I would have done anything for her love, but since she had no love to give me, then all the fight within me had vanished into thin air.

  “I’ve got one question for you first, and you better be honest with me,” Barry said. “What the hell happened? Did you do something to her?”

  Sighing, I shook my head. “I don’t know what happened, Barry, and that’s the truth. Everything was fine. But when I called her up this afternoon, she said she never wanted to see me again. If I did something, then I don’t know what it is.”

  Barry was silent for a few moments as he took another swig of his beer. We were the only two people in the bar, and the bartender had disappeared into the back. The quiet of the moment made the tension between us feel thick and heavy. I had no idea what he was thinking, what he would do next. Part of me wanted him to punch me just to put me out of my misery.

  “When were you going to tell me?” he finally asked. “Or were you going to keep it from me forever? She’s my little sister, for fuck’s sake. I thought you of all people understood what she means to me.”

  “I’m sorry, Barry. I really am.” I reached into my pocket and tossed the little black box onto the counter. “I should have told you sooner, but if it makes any difference to you, I had plans to talk to you about it this week.”

  “What’s this?” With raised eyebrows, Barry popped open the box and let out a low whistle. “Well, fuck. Does this mean what I think it means?”

  I let out a bitter laugh and dropped my head into my hands. “I was going to ask her to marry me. Can you believe that shit? Me, of all people. Doesn’t matter now though. All that’s done and dusted, and I’ll keep on being the lonely asshole who lives in the back room of his auto repair shop.”

  “You want to marry my baby sister.” Barry clapped a hand on my back and squeezed my shoulder. “You’re certainly not who I expected when I imagined her getting hitched one day, but I couldn’t ask for a better guy for Callie. If you want to ask her, you have my blessing. As long as you don’t go upsetting her on a picnic again.”

  Frowning, I cocked my head. His words were exactly what I’d hoped for when I’d bought the ring, but something else he said didn’t make sense. “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m saying I’m okay with you two being together. I wished you hadn’t hidden it from me, but that’s not what’s important now. Get on over there and pop the big question.”

  “No, I meant the picnic.” I shook my head. “Callie and I have never been on a picnic together, least of all today.”

  “Oh.” Barry shrugged. “Well, she left with a picnic basket around lunchtime. I saw her sneak a wine bottle into it, so I figured she was running off to meet up with you. About half an hour later, she rushed back into the house and up to her room before I could ask her what was wrong. You telling me that wasn’t because of you?”

  “I don’t understand,” I said slowly. “I haven’t seen Callie all day. I went to the ring shop this morning and spent the rest of the afternoon working on the Porsche. Hell, the only person I saw all day was Sarah.”

  “Sarah was at the shop with you?” Barry asked, realization dawning on his face, though I wasn’t following the connection myself. What the hell did that have to do with all of this? “Well, that explains Callie’s weird-ass comment when I asked her what was wrong. Something about girls stealing clothes and how some things never changed. Let me guess. Sarah was wearing the usual. Am I right?”

  The cobwebs inside my brain began to clear and sobriety settled over me. “Fuck. Callie swung by, saw Sarah in my shop wearing a flannel shirt, and assumed the worst.”

  “It’s not like she knows you’re friends.” Barry nodded. “Since me and her don’t exactly get along, Callie’s never seen all of us together. All she knows is you had a girl in the shop wearing something that suspiciously looked like your shirt.”

  “But surely she would know I wouldn’t cheat—”

  “I might have mentioned your tendency to lend your clothes to girls you sleep with. Sorry, man.” He gave me an apologetic smile, something I was a bit surprised to see from him. If I hadn’t been so rolled over by the realization of what had happened, I would have thanked him for being so understanding about all this. He’d taken it in stride, even though we’d kept our relationship hidden from him. It made me wish we’d come clean so much sooner. We could have avoided all this heartbreak.

  But there was something more important to take care of at the moment.

  I had to get Callie back into my life.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Callie

  I didn’t know where Barry had disappeared to, but I hoped he’d return home soon. Loneliness had settled over me like a wet blanket, cold and heavy and seeping into my skin. I needed some company, something to take my mind off of the way my heart had shattered the moment I’d seen Axel with another woman.

  It was hard to believe he’d done it. Even though Barry had warned me about him, I hadn’t wanted to believe it was true. Nothing Axel had done had suggested he’d be this kind of man to me. He’d been so sweet, so gentle, so caring. The way he’d looked at me had made me feel as if there was far more in his mind than just sex.

  But I’d been just another lay for him.

  Another notch on his bedpost.

  Another used up engine tossed into the trash.

  Barry cracked open the back door and peeked his head inside, and my whole body sighed with relief. As annoying as he could be sometimes, I’d never been more glad to see him in my life. He could help me take my mind off Axel, even if that meant listening to him ramble on and on about cars for hours. That would be better than being stuck in my own head for the rest of the night.

  “Good.” He gave me an odd smile. “You’re here.”

  “Of course I’m here.” I plopped onto the couch and sighed. “What are you doing at the back door? Come inside and bore me with car shop stories.”

  “I thought you hated my car shop stories,” he said without budging from the door. He had a strange look on his fac
e, and I sat up straighter as I let my gaze flick over him. There was something going on. I knew my brother well enough to tell when he was up to no good, and he had a weird cheeky grin that said far more than his words.

  “What’s going on?” I asked. “You’re being weird.”

  “Close your eyes. I have a surprise for you.”

  This was so not like my brother. For one, he didn’t do surprises. He was far too straightforward and no-nonsense for that kind of thing. If Barry wanted to say or do something, he’d just plop it in your lap and say, “here” with as little fanfare as possible.

  “Who are you and what have you done with my brother?” Slowly, I stood from the couch and started to move across the room. Before I could take two steps, Barry held up a hand to stop me.

  “Just trust me.” His voice went serious. “Close your eyes. I promise it’ll be worth it.”

  The oddness of his actions convinced me more than his words did. This was so out of character for him that I knew whatever was going on must be big. Maybe he’d noticed how upset I’d been this afternoon. It wasn’t as if I’d gone out of my way to hide my emotions. I’d rushed into the house with tears streaming down my cheeks and slammed the door so hard the entire house had rattled in response.

  I closed my eyes.

  “Good. Now count to ten and then open them.”

  Time seemed to tick by at an agonizing pace as I counted up to ten.

  And when I finally opened my eyes, the world rocked underneath my feet.

  Axel Steele knelt before me. He held a tiny black box in his hands, the top open to reveal the most elegant and beautiful diamond ring I’d ever seen in my life. My heart flickered in my chest, and my lungs clenched tight. There was no way this was really happening. Was I hallucinating? Stuck in a dream of my own making?

  If I was, I never wanted to wake up.