Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 100202 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100202 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
“I’m the one who entered you in the competition.” He swallowed, and for the first time since I’d met him, he looked uncertain. Unsteady.
Oh God. I’d won. It was real.
I’d. WON. My mind whirled, and a jolt of pure, unadulterated joy coursed through me for a heartbeat. Reality swiftly tugged me back to earth. I couldn’t leave Sutton for a year, and taking her with me wasn’t exactly an option. A whimper bubbled out of my throat.
I was going to have to decline the internship.
Never allowing myself to dream was one thing, but touching it, brushing my fingertips along everything I’d ever wanted just to have to walk away was an acute form of torture. My cheeks heated as fury took hold.
“I told you I was thinking about it!” I shouted at Weston. “You had no right!”
“I wanted you to know how good you are,” he said, leaning forward like he wanted to cross the distance between us but knew better. “And you are. Callie, you won! Think of all the exposure your work is going to get. The gallery is going to be begging you for photos! I’m sorry I did it without telling you, but you won! You get to intern with them, or not…it’s your choice now.” His eyes searched mine, and I saw it, the certainty that what he’d done had been for my own good.
“I never wanted to choose!” I snapped, shoving my phone into my back pocket. “Don’t you get it? I didn’t want to enter, and it wasn’t because I was scared I wouldn’t be chosen, it was because I was petrified that I would be! I’m a single mom. I don’t have the luxury of running all over the world for a year! What the hell am I supposed to do now, Weston?” Panic warred with anger. This was everything I’d avoided.
He opened his mouth and then shut it.
“You had no right to do this.” My hands curled into fists. “No right to make me choose between my dream and Sutton. No right!” Oh God. Sutton. “And don’t you dare tell Sutton about the internship.”
“What?” His eyes flared. “You’re going to keep this from her? Turn it down without even asking what your options are?”
I nodded. “She’ll blame herself if she knows I won and had to decline. It would destroy her. Why do you think I never wanted to enter?”
“You can’t—”
“I can, Weston. She’s mine. I’m the one who makes decisions for my daughter. Not you.” I glanced around the hospital room. “Look where we end up when I go against my instincts.”
His face went blank, as if he’d pulled a mask down. He looked like he had in that first week we’d lived together, before I’d gotten to know him.
He looked like a stranger. A stranger I loved but would never love me back.
“Promise me you won’t say a thing to her about this.” I narrowed my eyes at him.
“As you told me when we moved in together, Callie rules all.”
18
Callie
* * *
“You sure you don’t need anything?” I asked Sutton, smoothing her hair back from her forehead as I settled her into her bed the next evening, being sure to elevate her splinted arm. Hopefully the swelling would go down enough to cast her tomorrow.
“I’m okay, Mom.” she said, her eyes already closing. No doubt the pain meds were kicking in.
“Okay. Just shout if you need anything.” I bent down and kissed her forehead, then backed out of her room, shutting the door quietly.
I made my way down the stairs and into the empty living room. Weston wasn’t home from work yet, but would be any minute, and there were exactly five of those minutes before World Geographic was scheduled to call.
Wrapping my arms around my chest, I stared at the pictures I’d framed more than eleven years ago. My cell phone felt like a ticking time bomb in my pocket. But this was what I’d always wanted, wasn’t it? The chance to learn from the best photographers, the opportunity to make a name for myself, doing exactly what I loved.
But I loved Sutton more. There really was no choice to make.
My home was here. Our home was here. I couldn’t leave her for a year, even if I knew Gavin’s parents would dote on her for the full twelve months. Not only could I never do that to her, but I wasn’t sure I’d even make it a couple of weeks before breaking down without her. We’d never been apart for more than a day since she’d been born.
And Weston? As pissed as I was that he’d submitted my photo, I still loved him, and I couldn’t imagine walking away from him for a year either. Sure, we were in a fight. A pretty big one. But in the scheme of things, it was just a fight, and I knew his heart had been in the right place.