As much as my mother and I have never gotten along, I have

to give her credit for how nice she’s being through all this. After

her meltdown, she’s been less teary eyed and she’s never once

tried to put the blame on me. Sometimes my thoughts wander

back to my twelfth birthday and my head fills with what-ifs. What if

I had told her then? What if I’d never had to suffer in silence for

the last six years? What if my life had been different? But I always

shove the thoughts right out of my head. What-ifs aren’t

important. I can’t go back through time and change things, but I

can move forward and create the life I want.

“Callie, did you hear me?” she asks, sounding a little

annoyed.

I blink away my thoughts. “Yeah… no… huh?”

Kayden snorts a laugh from behind me as he traces the

length of my spine. “You’re so going to get into trouble.” He

makes a silly airhead voice when he says it.

I reach back and pinch his arm and he laughs even harder.

“What, Mom?”

She sighs exhaustedly. “I said, have you thought about going

to that therapist friend of mine in Laramie when you get back to

school? I think it’ll be good for you.”

“I’m not sure… I’m worried what it might bring up if I do.”

“Callie, I think it’s important… after all the things you told

me… I think you need to get some help. I really wish you’d just

consider staying here with us and take a semester off.”

“I need to go back to school,” I say. “I need to move

forward.”

She gives an elongated pause. “Then please just go see the

therapist…” She’s on the verge of crying. “I need to know you’re

okay.”

I glance over my shoulder at Kayden. “I’m okay, Mom. But if

you really want me to go, then I will.”

“Good.” She sounds relieved. “And you call me every day.

And stop by here today before you leave.”

“Yes, Mom.”

“And you’ll call me whenever you need anything?”

“Yes.”

Kayden starts laughing hysterically, rolling away from me so

she won’t hear. I’ve told him how controlling she is and apparently

seeing it in action is humorous to him.

“Who is that?” my mom wonders. “The person on the

background who keeps laughing?”

Craning my neck, I peek over my shoulder at him and he

smiles. “Kayden.”

“Oh.” She pauses and I hear clicking in the background, like

she’s tapping her fingernails on top of the counter. “Callie… are

you… are you sleeping with this boy?”

Heat rushes through my body. “What?”

Kayden must have heard her, because his laughter kicks up a

notch and fills the room. “I have to give her credit,” he says

between laughs. “She’s very entertaining.”

“Callie,” she says. “I’m not going to judge you… I just want to

make sure you’re being careful.”

Oh my God. This is so mortifying. My cheeks are as hot as

the heater below the frosted window and I tuck my head down

with the phone still pressed up to my ear to hide my blushing face.

“Yes, Mom.”

“Yes, Mom, you’re sleeping with him?” she asks. “Or you’re

being careful?”

“Tell her you’re being careful right now.” Kayden laughs in

my ear and it tickles my neck, causing my shoulders to shudder.

His arms snake around my waist and then he’s pulling me back,

lifting himself up from the bed with one arm. He tucks me

underneath his solid body and then lowers himself down on me.

I laugh into the phone as he starts to tickle my sides and I

squirm, trying to keep the phone beside me ear. “Mom,” I say

through laughs as his fingers trail high up on my ribs and then halt

next to the sides of my breasts.

“Tell her you’ll make sure to be careful every day,” Kayden

teases, his green eyes flashing with untamed desire. He pinches my

sides and then moves his hands up my arms and then down them,

stopping when he reaches my wrists. He cups each one with one of

his hands and then tugs on them.

“Mom, I got to go,” I say quickly. “And yes, I’ll stop by on my

way out.” Before she can respond, the phone falls from my hands

and Kayden gathers my wrists together and brings them above my

head.

For a brief second, panic claws up my throat as I’m hurled

into the past when I was pinned down on the bed and my heart

beat unstably. He must see it on my face too.

His grip starts to loosen. “Do you want me to let you go?”

I shake my head. “Just kiss me, please.”

His mouth turns upward and his lips connect with mine as he

bends his back and leans in. And just like that the panic and the

memories slip from my thoughts and it’s just he and I. No one else

in the world exists.

* * *

“So what have you been up to?” Seth asks as he hops

cheerily into Luke’s truck beside me.

It’s a bench seat and a compacted fit, but it’s not that bad. In

fact, it’s kind of comforting to be squished into a car with three

strong guys who have been there for me in their own wonderful

ways.

“Well, you’d know if you hadn’t disappeared.” I flash him a

playful grin as he fastens his seat belt.

He smirks with doubt in his eyes. “I highly doubt I was

missed.” The seat belt clicks and he sits back, tugging the sleeves

of his black-button coat down to cover his arms. “Besides, I wanted

to give Kayden and you some space.”

“You didn’t have to. We didn’t really do anything.”

He arches his eyebrows, accusingly. “Yeah, right. You two

have been locked in that room since the new year started. You’re

like newlyweds or something, going at it like rabbits.”

I turn my face away from him as I feel the blush creeping up

and try to restrain my smile. “Seth, stop,” I say and he giggles.

Kayden opens the door and the hinges squeak as he scoots

into the seat beside me, but he pauses halfway in, with one of his

feet still on the ground as he examines my reddened face. “Okay,

Seth, what did you say to her this time?” he jokes, and brushes the

pad of his thumb across my cheek. He grins at me as I stand up a

little so he can climb onto the seat.

“Nothing I haven’t said before,” Seth responds with a wicked

glint in his brown eyes. “She just reacts the same way each time,

which makes it so much fun.”