Save Me: a Stepbrother Romance (7 page)

I didn’t answer, just waited.  His full lips curved into a smile.  My heart jumped and quivered in response. 

No, stop feeling like that.

“Change of heart since the last time?” he asked, cocking his head to the side.

“Yeah.  Well.  We’re family.  So.”

“Not afraid your boyfriend will get his ass beat?”

“Nate isn’t here.” 

I cringed at the way his smile grew, realizing what an utter cop out of an answer that was. 

“Oh, yes,” I added in a sharp voice, “of course Nate would get his ass beat, that’s why I’ve planned it all out like this.  You got me.  I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for you kids and that pesky dog.”

“Hm.  Having strange men over while the hubby’s away.  Kinky.”

I rolled my eyes at him, ignoring the way my body reacted to his voice saying kinky. 

“Are you coming or not?”

To my suprise (and, strangely, excitement) he didn’t tell me to fuck off or keep teasing me.  He slid his hands into his leather jacket and strolled toward the table where Jess was shaking like a spooked rabbit.  I took a deep breath as I followed him.  This was a terrible decision.

But then again, most of my decisions were. 

“Morning to you too,” he greeted Jess.  She sat there with wide eyes, staring at him like he might stab her at any moment.  Which, granted, was a possibility given the rumors that surrounded him.  He stuffed the water bottle into his jacket.

Despite myself, I rolled my eyes again.  But not at Cal.  At Jess this time.  I took me aback that I was defending Cal like that, even if only in a small way.  But it was true.  He was an asshole, but he wasn’t that bad.

Oh my God, can you hear me?

Cal Gatlin?  Not that bad?

What was this boy doing to me?

“Jess, this is my, uh… my brother,” I said, by way of an awkward introduction. 

She nodded shortly.  I could practically hear her heart hammering in her chest.  Mine was the same.

“Stepbrother,” he murmured, leaning back in his chair.  His cool gaze landed on me and lingered for a moment too long.

“Yeah.  That.”

Cal sized up Jess as I picked through my salad, wondering why in the world I did this in the first place.  I had a million things I wanted to ask him.  And a few things to interrogate him with.  Namely how he could go from so hot to so cold.  From the downright nasty man who had asked me to say cock for him to the gentle one that had tended to my bruise. 

I sorted out my thoughts, preparing to start in on the Spanish Inquisition, but I didn’t get the chance.  Because Jess had built her courage up first, and her head peeked up to stare at Cal again.

“If you’re here to kill Nate,” she said, “he’s gone.”

“Really?  Damn.”  Cal cracked his knuckles.  “Guess I’ll have to stick around until he comes back.”

A few freshmen at the table next to us glanced over and whispered with wide eyes and gasps amongst themselves. 

Jess frowned.

“It’s not funny, you know.  Causing shit for Natalie.  She has it hard enough as it is.”  Her eyes were still wide and terrified, but her chin tipped up defiantly.

Wow.  Go Jess.  She cared about me, of course—she was my best friend.  But I didn’t think she’d go so far as to put her life on the line by sassing Callum Gatlin.  Cal didn’t seem to expect it either, and his impressed smile appeared, the one he saved for whenever I told him to fuck off.

 “I ain’t here to hurt anybody.  Least of all Nat.”

Nat.  My nickname rolled so easily off of his tongue. 

Jess noticed too and glanced at me, incredulous.

“Are you even still with him?” Cal asked, turning his head.  “He hasn’t talked to you since last week.”

I stabbed my salad, wondering how Cal would have known something like that.  Maybe he was keeping better tabs on me than I thought he was.  “I don’t know.  It’s not like we were ever really, properly dating.  We didn’t even go to prom together last year.” 

“You get why that is, don’t you?” he asked.  “It’s cause I called him out.  Now he’s scared shitless.”

“Drop it.”

“He never appreciated you anyway,” Cal growled.  “Pathetic that he’s too fucking stupid—and too busy fucking other chicks—to see what he’s got at home.”

“What?” 

The world froze around me. 

“I said he’s an idiot.  Not like that’s news.”

“No.  What did you say about … about other chicks?”

Cal crossed his arms and leaned back, his gaze even. 

“Don’t tell me you don’t know.  You have to have known.”

“That’s ridiculous.  I mean—yeah, we weren’t really, properly dating, I guess, but we still….”  I turned to Jess.  “Nate would never…?”

Jess’s expression made me want to vomit.

“Natalie,” she said.  She licked her lips, pausing to gather her thoughts.  “I thought you knew.  I mean, with Vanessa always around, and….” 

She bit her lip, looking into my eyes.  It was the same incredulous look that Cal was giving me.  The pitying look.

“That’s such bullshit,” I said weakly to Jess.  “Do you hear him?  Bullshit.”

Jess didn’t answer, picking at the crust of her sandwich nervously, her gaze fixed on the table.  My mouth went dry. 

It was bullshit, wasn’t it?  Nate had his problems, sure, but he had never fucked around on me.  I mean … surely he didn’t even have time for that between swim practice and studying and whatever else he did … right?

I looked back at Cal, expecting to see his mocking gaze back.  Instead he was just sad.

“You really don’t know?”

“Fuck off, Gatlin.”

“I’m not antagonizing you.  I told you, I’m sorry I was an asshole earlier.  But I’m telling the truth now.”

Jess’s head lifted, and she sucked her bottom lip as she watched us.  I could read her expression: Cal Gatlin told someone he was sorry?  That was the biggest bullshit of it all.

But it was true.  And if that was true, what else could be? 

Oh God.  I was going to be sick.

“I’ve got to go,” I said, stuffing my lunch back into my backpack.  Where was I going?  Why did I have to go?  I didn’t know.  I just knew I was feeling dizzy, and the sound of Callum’s words kept echoing in my head:
fucking other chicks, fucking other chicks, fucking other chicks.
 

My stomach twisted again. 

I had to get to a bathroom before I vomited.

“Natalie, wait—” Cal said, standing up with me.  His voice was soft.  It was warm and comforting instead of the hard orders that Nate would give.  He reached out a hand to me.

 I flinched.

His eyes went dark, and his jaw locked.  His anger wasn’t directed at me, but it didn’t matter. 

“I have to,” I choked, shaking my head and stumbling.  “I’m sorry.  I can’t.”

“Nat, can I come in?”

Cal’s voice was joined by three sharp raps on my bedroom door.  My eyes burned, and my cheeks were sticky with dried tears.  A teardrop splashed against the glowing screen of my phone as I glared at it, my ass planted on the floor in front of my bed, silently begging Nate to text back. 

I had been waiting for five hours with no response. 

A bundle of missed calls from Jess flashed across the screen, but I wasn’t ready to talk to her yet.  I loved her, but I needed to talk to someone else.  Someone who understood. 

I wet my lips and rasped, “Come in, Cal.”

Why did I let him in?  I don’t know. 

I just knew that I needed him there with me.

Cal pushed the door open quietly and crept in, his expression solemn.  He bit his thick lower lip as he examined me, and I saw that look his in his eyes again.  But it wasn’t pity, like it had been in Jess’s eyes.  It was empathy. 

Cal hurt for me.

“Should I go?” he asked. 

His flat voice hid the pain underneath.

“No.”  I shook my head.  I refused to cry.  And besides, the shock was numbing me to normal emotions. 

Cal closed the door behind him and hesitantly walked towards me, taking a seat beside me on the floor.  The warmth of his body wrapped around mine, melting the coldness that froze me.  In my shell-shocked haze, I couldn’t resist.  I leaned over and rested my head on his shoulder. 

He paused, confused.  But after a moment, he melted into me, taking me into his arms like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“I can’t believe it,” I said.  “I never thought….”

“I told you.  He’s a fucking idiot.”  Cal drew his arm around me tighter.  I closed my eyes, enjoying the sensation.  It was the first real warmth I had felt in a long time.  “Has he admitted it yet, or is he too much of a fucking coward?”

I glanced at my blank phone, and he did too.  “He might just have his phone on silent….”

Even I knew that was bullshit.  Cal groaned.

“I’m sorry.  If you’d let me, I’d kill him for you.”

I rolled my eyes despite myself and gulped a laugh, shocked by how something so lighthearted could happen when I was so out of it.

“Vanessa Miller, though?  And … and other girls?”  I looked down at the hands in my lap.  Callum’s hands laced their fingers in mine.  A strangely comforting movement.  “I can’t believe it.”

“Yeah, well.  He’s a dick.  I assumed you knew about it.”

I nodded to myself even though I still couldn’t process it.  I think I was nodding about something else—Callum being near me.  Cal was so warm, so strong, so safe.  I never wanted him to let go.  His fingers began combing through my hair and he muttered soft, comforting words into my ear.  His breath against my skin felt delicious. 

I wanted to taste it. 

I wanted to take Callum in and embrace him so hard that he became a part of me.  It was stupid.  But it was true.  Even Mom, with her home grown Oprah wisdom, had never known me like Callum knew me, at least at this moment. 

I remembered what he said the other day: