“You’re exactly who I meant to call, Callie,” he says, a smile in his voice. “I know it’s been a few months.”

“It’s been eight months,” I reply. “And I don’t have time for this.”

“I’ll come to you,” he says. “I know you’re busy with the business. I don’t expect you to clear your schedule for a trip.”

“How kind of you,” I reply and roll my eyes. “But the answer is still no, Keith.”

“Callie—”

But before he can say anything else, I hang up.

“He has nerve,” I say as I join Adam behind the bar. “I don’t care enough about Keith to give him even five minutes of my time.”

“Good girl,” Adam says with a smile. “Where are you and Declan going for dinner tonight?”

“We aren’t.” I sigh. “He just cancelled.”

He cocks a brow. “How do you feel about that?”

“You know, I’m just getting impatient. I wish he’d just talk to me so I can tell him to get a grip and if he can’t handle me, he doesn’t deserve me.”

“I like it when you’re badass,” Adam says with a grin. “It’s hot.”

“Damn right it is,” I reply and wink, just as Kate O’Shaughnessy walks through the door. “Hi, Kate.”

“Hi! I know the signs says you’re not open yet, but the door was open.”

“No worries. What’s up?”

“Well, Eli’s out of town tonight for business, and we live just a few blocks over. I was thinking I could take you out for dinner tonight? We haven’t had a chance to really talk.”

“Actually, dinner just opened up for me tonight,” I reply with a nod. “I’d like that.”

“Great, I’ll come get you at about six. I have to get back to the office. Have a great day!”

She rushes out and I turn back to Adam. “Maybe out of all of this, I’ll have made some of those girl friends you’ve been wishing for,” I say to him.

“As long as some of them are hot and single, I’m good with that.”

“God, you’re disgusting.”

***

“So,” Kate says with a smile after the cute waiter at Café Amelie takes our drink orders and walks away. “What are your intentions with Declan?”

I choke on the water I just sipped, and when I can finally breathe again, I laugh. “Just gonna get right to it, are you?”

“Why not?” Kate says with a nod. “I like you, and Declan is one of my very best friends, so I want to know the scoop.”

“Well.” I sit back and look at Kate and decide what do I have to lose? Maybe she’ll have some new insight. “Things were going great. Declan is attentive, encouraging, sexy, fun… all the things I could ask for in someone.”

“He is all of those things,” Kate agrees. “But?”

“But.” I take a deep breath. “A few nights ago, we were making love, and I blurted out that I love him. He didn’t say it back. Since then, he’s been blowing me off. He’s distant and distracted, and I’m honestly just embarrassed. I think I screwed up.”

“You didn’t screw up by loving him,” Kate says, then smiles at the waiter as he sets our drinks down. “Thanks, Joe. We’re talking for now, but will you put in an order of the Brussels sprouts for us?”

“You got it.”

“He’s hot. You know him?” I ask, watching the hot Joe walk away.

“Just from here,” Kate says with a laugh. “Anyway, loving someone isn’t the wrong thing, Callie.”

“Maybe he wasn’t ready to hear it,” I reply. “I’m confused. He’s always been so tender and affectionate. Loving.” I shake my head and shrug. “I mean, I did say it in the moment, and I was half asleep too, but the more I think about it, the less I regret it. It’s how I feel, Kate.”

“Then it’s definitely not a bad thing that you said it,” she says emphatically and sips her lemon drop.

“Except, since then, he’s barely spoken to me. He walked me to my car Monday night, like always, but he didn’t even touch me. I usually go home with him, but he made sure tsay goodnight and he’d talk to me later.”

“Weird,” Kate says, frowning.

“Very weird. I think I freaked him out.”

“I don’t know.” Kate twirls her cocktail glass, still frowning in thought. “Declan is a sensitive guy. It’s not like him to avoid someone. If anything, he’s too insightful. Even if he didn’t feel the same way, it’s not like him to ignore it.”

“I’m so confused about it all. He’s not the guy I fell in love with, that’s for sure. But maybe this is the real him?”

“No. What you’re describing is not Declan. Trust me, I know him. There has to be something else going on with him.”

“If there is, he’s not talking about it.”

I lift my drink and glance to my right and the world falls out from under me. I can’t hear Kate’s voice. I can’t feel anything except my heart beating erratically in my chest, as I see Declan, sitting across the room with another woman.

His profile is to me, and he’s smiling at her, and to my utter horror, she reaches across the table and… and I stand up. I should go over there, but I just… can’t. I’m so exhausted by all of this, so over the drama of it, I just need out of here.